Nadya Tolokonnikova ( rus, Надя Толоконникова, p=, full name Nadezhda Andreevna Tolokonnikova, rus, Надежда Андреевна Толоконникова, p=nɐˈdʲeʐdə təlɐˈkonʲːɪkəvə; born November 7, 1989) is a Russian musician, conceptual artist, and political activist. She is a founding member of the feminist group Pussy Riot, and has a history of political activism with the street art group Voina. On August 17, 2012, she was arrested for " hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after a performance in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour ( rus, Храм Христа́ Спаси́теля, r=Khram Khristá Spasítelya, p=xram xrʲɪˈsta spɐˈsʲitʲɪlʲə) is a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Moscow, Russia, on the northern bank of the Moskv ...

and was ultimately sentenced to two years' imprisonment. On December 23, 2013, she was released early with another Pussy Riot member

Maria Alyokhina Maria Vladimirovna "Masha" Alyokhina ( rus, Мария Владимировна "Маша" Алёхина, p=ɐˈlʲɵxʲɪnə; born June 6, 1988) is a Russian political activist. She is a member of the anti-Putinist punk rock group Pussy Rio ...

under a newly passed

amnesty Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...

bill dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the

Russian constitution The Constitution of the Russian Federation () was adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993. Russia's constitution came into force on 25 December 1993, at the moment of its official publication, and abolished the Soviet system of go ...

. While jailed, Tolokonnikova was recognized as a

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although nu ...

by the Russian

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

group Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...

named her a prisoner of conscience due to "the severity of the response of the Russian authorities". On 30 December 2021, Russia's

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Justi ...

added Tolokonnikova to its list of "foreign agents".

Early life and education

Tolokonnikova was born on November 7, 1989 in the industrial city of

Norilsk Norilsk ( rus, Нори́льск, p=nɐˈrʲilʲsk, ''Norílʹsk'') is a closed city in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located south of the western Taymyr Peninsula, around 90 km east of the Yenisey River and 1,500 km north of Krasnoyarsk. Norilsk ...

, Russia, to parents Andrey Stepanovich Tolokonnikov and Yekaterina Voronina. Her parents

divorced Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving th ...

when she was five years old. In her late school years, she was active in amateur modern literature and art projects, organized by the '' Novoye Literaturnoye Obozreniye''. In 2007, at age 17, Tolokonnikova moved to

and enrolled in the

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

department of the

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

Career

Tolokonnikova and Verzilov joined the Voina art collective in 2007 and participated in several of their provocative art performances. In February 2008, they were involved in the "

Fuck for the heir Puppy Bear! Fuck for the Heir Puppy Bear! ( rus, Ебись за наследника Медвежонка, r=Yebis' za naslednika Medvezhonka) was a political-artistic performance staged by Russian performance group Voina at the Timiryazev State Biological M ...

" performance in which couples were filmed engaging in sexual acts in the Timiryazev State Biology Museum in Moscow. The performance was said to be intended as a kind of

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming o ...

of then President

Dmitry Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...

's call for increased reproduction. She was in the late stages of

pregnancy Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops ( gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occurs by sexual intercourse, but ...

at the time. On March 3, 2008, she was detained by police at a dissenters march in Moscow. Tolokonnikova was among the Voina members who disrupted a trial for the director of the Andrei Sakharov Center in 2009. But later, according to the "

Rossiyskaya Gazeta ' (russian: Российская газета, lit. Russian Gazette) is a Russian newspaper published by the Government of Russia. The daily newspaper serves as the official government gazette of the Government of the Russian Federation, publishi ...

", together with Pyotr Verzilov were expelled from Voina "for provocation and surrender of activists of the group to the police". She also took part in a series of actions ''Operation Kiss Garbage'', (russian: "Лобзай мусора", roughly translated as "Kiss a pig") from January through March 2011. This project comprised female members' kissing policewomen in Moscow metro stations and on the streets.

Arrest and indictment

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (Pussy Riot) at the Moscow Tagansky District Court (crop)

Following the "Punk Prayer" incident on February 21, 2012, a criminal case was opened on February 26 against the band members who had participated. On March 3, Tolokonnikova and two other alleged members of Pussy Riot were arrested by the Russian authorities and accused of hooliganism. All women at first denied being members of the group and started a

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

in protest against being held in jail away from their young children. They were held without bail and were formally charged on June 4 with the indictment running to 2,800 pages. There was speculation that Canadian authorities might attempt to intervene because Tolokonnikova is a Canadian permanent resident; however this did not occur.

Court case and imprisonment

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (2012-02-04; Denis Bochkarev)

Tolokonnikova was serving the remainder of her two-year sentence in the ''IK-14'' women's

penal colony A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer to ...

near the settlement of Partsa (russian: Парца, Явасское городское поселение),

Republic A republic () is a " state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th ...

Mordovia The Republic of Mordovia (russian: Респу́блика Мордо́вия, r=Respublika Mordoviya, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə mɐrˈdovʲɪjə; mdf, Мордовия Республиксь, ''Mordovija Respublikś''; myv, Мордовия Рес ...

. On September 23, 2013, she went on

over prison conditions and alleged threats against her life made by prison staff. Her letter on the conditions of the women in the penal colony asserts that the women have no rights, that the prisoners must work 16–17 hours and sleep 3–4 hours a day, and that they have a day off every 8th week. Further, she claims that if they complain, they are punished, and that if they complain over the treatment of other prisoners, they are punished even harder. Claiming that collective punishment is frequent, she also stated that the prisoners may be beaten with a particular focus on hitting the kidneys. Another punishment would consist of keeping a prisoner outdoors in the cold without sufficient clothing. Most of what she reports is affirmed by other sources. While imprisoned, she exchanged letters with filmmaker, philosopher, and cultural critic

Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New ...

discussing democracy and her activism. Their correspondence was arranged by the French philosopher Michel Eltchaninoff, and their 11 letters were compiled into a short book, ''Comradely Greetings: The Prison Letters of Nadya and Slavoj'', published by

Verso Books Verso Books (formerly New Left Books) is a left-wing publishing house based in London and New York City, founded in 1970 by the staff of '' New Left Review''. Renaming, new brand and logo Verso Books was originally known as New Left Books. The ...

in 2014. In late September 2013, Tolokonnikova was hospitalised after going without food for a week. She was treated in the prison's medical ward; authorities did not release more specific details. On October 21, 2013, she was transferred to another prison; her whereabouts remained unknown for several weeks. On November 5, 2013, it was reported that Tolokonnikova had been transferred to IK-50, a prison located near Nizhny Ingash, approximately 300 kilometres from

Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk ( ; rus, Красноя́рск, a=Ru-Красноярск2.ogg, p=krəsnɐˈjarsk) (in semantic translation - Red Ravine City) is the largest city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Y ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...

. On November 15, she was again able to communicate with her husband through a video call from the prison hospital.

Release

On the afternoon of December 23, 2013, Tolokonnikova was released from a prison hospital in

, where she was being treated for an unspecified illness. According to Yelena Pimonenko, senior prosecutor assistant of the

Krasnoyarsk Krai Krasnoyarsk Krai ( rus, Красноя́рский край, r=Krasnoyarskiy kray, p=krəsnɐˈjarskʲɪj ˈkraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), with its administrative center in the city of Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in Si ...

, Tolokonnikova was released because the article "hooliganism" of the Russian Criminal Code falls under the newly introduced

bill. Putin's amnesty was seen by the freed prisoners and numerous critics as a propaganda stunt as Russia prepared to host the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympi ...

in February. Tolokonnikova said, "Releasing people just a few months before their term expires is a cosmetic measure ... that includes the case of Khodorkovsky, who didn't have much time left on his prison term. This is ridiculous. While Putin refuses to release those people who really needed it. It is a disgusting and cynical act" and urged countries to boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics. She and Alyokhina said they would form a human rights movement for prison reforms. On March 6, 2014, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were assaulted and injured at a fast food outlet by local youths in

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...

. After release, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina founded a penal and judicial-themed media outlet MediaZona.

Sochi detention

In February 2014, Tolokonnikova and

were detained in

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents i ...

by the Adler Police in connection with an alleged hotel theft. They were released without charge. On February 19, footage surfaced showing Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina being attacked with nagaikas by

Cossacks The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

, who were helping patrol Sochi during the Winter Olympics.

2022 Meeting with US State Department

Nadya Tolokonnikova meets with Ned Price and Antony Blinken of the US State Department

Tolokonnikova met with Secretary of State

Antony Blinken Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American government official and diplomat serving as the 71st United States secretary of state since January 26, 2021. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 a ...

to discuss freedom of press worldwide, and in particular the future of independent media in Russia, such as Mediazona. Maria Zakharova, Spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, reacted to this meeting on her official Telegram channel.

Works

In 2016, she wrote the

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

book ''How to Start a Revolution'', published by

Penguin Publishing Group Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initially ...

. Between 2018 and 2019, Tolokonnikova wrote music for and toured with the musical production ''Riot Days'', based on the book of the same name by

. In 2018, her book ''Read & Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to Activism'' was published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

. It includes a reading list curated by Tolokonnikova of 123 books, articles, and tracts on protest theory. In 2022, Tolokonnikova founded Unicorn DAO, a collector's decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) dedicated to collecting and incubating

non-fungible token A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided, that is recorded in a blockchain, and that is used to certify authenticity and ownership. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the b ...

s created by female,

non-binary Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

, and

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

+ artists in

Web3 Web3 (also known as Web 3.0) is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web which incorporates concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics. Some technologists and journalists have contrasted it ...

. The organization's goal is "rebalancing the scales for women-identifying and non-binary artists in a space that is already reflective of problematic gender norms". Unicorn DAO was launched following her work on Ukraine DAO, which raised $7M in

crypto Crypto commonly refers to: * Cryptocurrency, a type of digital currency secured by cryptography and decentralization * Cryptography, the practice and study of hiding information Crypto or Krypto may also refer to: Cryptography * Cryptanalysi ...

for Ukraine at the start of the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since February 2014. Following Ukraine's Rev ...

Personal life

Tolokonnikova was previously married to Pyotr Verzilov. They have a daughter, born in 2008.

Awards and honors

*2012 -

Time (magazine) ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published Weekly newspaper, weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New ...

Women of the Year *2012 -

Sakharov Prize The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, commonly known as the Sakharov Prize, is an honorary award for individuals or groups who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought. Named after Russian scientis ...

, Nominated *2012 -

LennonOno Grant for Peace The LennonOno Grant for Peace is an award presented by artist and peace activist Yoko Ono. The grant, a sum of $50,000, has been awarded biennially to people and organisations chosen by Ono herself since 2002, in honour of Ono's late husband John Le ...

, Pussy Riot *2012 - Martin Luther "Fearless Word" Prize, Nominated *2012 -

1LIVE 1LIVE is a radio station operated by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk public broadcasting corporation in Germany. It specialises in popular music aimed at the 14–39 age demographic, the average age of its listeners is 34. History On 1 April 1995 ...

Krone, German Music Prize honoring courage *2014 - Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought (2014) *2014 - Prudential Eye Awards, Singapore. Digital/Video Category, Nominated. *2015 - Arts and Humanity Award, WhiteBox (art center)/Richard Massey Foundation. *2019 - Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree by

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

- for "powerful voice in the fight against tyranny". *2020 - A collaborative serigraph edition with poster artist

Zoltron Zoltron is an American rock music poster designer, street artist, and creative director. His posters are included in the collections of Victoria Albert Museum, London, de Young fine arts museum, San Francisco, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art ...

is in the permanent collection of LACMA and The Victoria Albert Museum. *2019 - Best Art of the 21st Century - The ''Punk Prayer'' political art piece from 2012 was ranked in the top 5 of the Best Art of the 21st Century by

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

. *2022 - ''Outstanding Award'' by OutRight Action International for her effort raising $7M in donation for Ukraine with the NFT Project Ukraine DAO. Given remotely at the Celebration of Courage Gala.

In popular culture

A documentary following the Pussy Riot court case, '' Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer'', debuted at the 2013

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

. In 2015, Tolokonnikova and her Pussy Riot bandmate

appeared as themselves in Chapter 29 of '' House of Cards'', a popular American

television drama In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

series that airs on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

. In the show, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina heavily criticized a fictionalized version of

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

for corruption, while dining in the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

. An interview between Jessica Williams,

Phoebe Robinson Phoebe Robinson (born September 28, 1984) is an American comedian, New York Times best-selling writer, and actress based in New York City. Early life and education Robinson grew up in Bedford Heights and Solon, Ohio. She attended high school a ...

, and Tolokonnikova was featured in a November 2016 episode of the podcast

2 Dope Queens ''2 Dope Queens'' is a podcast hosted by Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson that aired between April 4, 2016, and November 14, 2018. For the first seven days following the podcast's launch, it was number one on the iTunes podcast charts. It ...

. In 2016, Tolokonnikova appeared on a remix of the track "Jacked Up" by

Weezer Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Scott Shriner (bass guitar, keyboards, backing ...

on the deluxe edition of their eponymous album. In 2021, Tolokonnikova appeared on the track "Stop Making Stupid People Famous" by

Our Lady Peace Our Lady Peace (sometimes shortened to OLP) is a Canadian rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario in 1992. Led by lead vocalist Raine Maida since its formation, the band currently also features Duncan Coutts on bass, Steve Mazur on guitars, and ...

. It was released as a single on YouTube. She also sang some lyrics.

Books

* Tolokonnikova, Nadya &

. ''Comradely Greetings: The Prison Letters of Nadya and Slavoj''. Verso, 2014. 112 pp. (paperback), . * Tolokonnikova, Nadya &

. ''How to Start a Revolution''.

Penguin Press Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initiall ...

, 2016. 112 pp. (hardcover), . * Tolokonnikova, Nadya. ''Read and Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide To Activism''.

HarperOne HarperOne is a publishing imprint of HarperCollins, specializing in books that aim to "transform, inspire, change lives, and influence cultural discussions." Under the original name of Harper San Francisco, the imprint was founded in 1977 by 13 em ...

, 2018. 256 pp. (hardcover), . Also published as 'Rules for Rulebreakers: A Pussy Riot Guide to Protest'.

References

External links

*
"Pussy Riot's Nadya on Russophobia and Prison Under Putin"
- interview at the ''Useful Idiots'' podcast, ''Rolling Stone'' (2019) @ 50 mins * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tolokonnikova, Nadezhda 1989 births Living people Moscow State University alumni People from Norilsk Russian performance artists Pussy Riot members Russian prisoners and detainees Russian dissidents Russian expatriates in Canada Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Russia LGBT rights activists from Russia Feminist musicians Russian punk rock musicians Russian anarchists Russian feminists Political artists Pansexual women LGBT artists from Russia LGBT musicians from Russia Political prisoners according to Memorial People listed in Russia as media foreign agents Russian activists against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine