Pussy Riot, punk band / A. Stenin / RIA Novosti

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich – members of the punk group Pussy Riot – became world famous in the past year. None of the most worthy representatives of modern Russian culture was as popular as the three girls who jumped for 20 seconds in funny caps-masks on the pulpit of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on February 21. Whether you admire or are outraged by Pussy Riot, for the world they are the main Russian artists.

There is little artistic in the action "Mother of God, drive Putin away!" - only audacity and protest. And this is enough for Pussy Riot to be included in international and domestic lists of the most influential people in art.

But the girls themselves are the authors of only the plot of a grandiose public state performance with a crowded prayer service, single pickets and sessions of the Khamovnichesky Court. Heads of state, world mass media, the elite of world show business, headed by Madonna herself, played their roles in it. The performance was followed by church-going Orthodox Christians, who were offended in their best feelings, and the liberal public, who made idols out of the Pussy Riot girls. The girls from Pussy Riot became real heroines for the youth and activists of modern art, because protest is the main value for them.

The show ended when Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina and Samutsevich were sentenced to real prison terms. As everyone knows, Samutsevich was later released, and the others had their terms reduced to, as President Vladimir Putin put it, "two years."

Pussy Riot's multi-act performance showed that the government is cruel and vindictive and the court is always on its side, that petty hooliganism can be regarded as an expression of religious hatred by prior conspiracy (Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). That mercy is not characteristic of either the church authorities or the majority of their flock. And in society there are not only those dissatisfied with the union of church and state, but also militant atheists. The performance turned out to be sad, but powerful. It enriched the dictionary of the year with the militant archaism "blasphemers" and the meaningless phrase "punk prayer".

Cultural Hero of the Year