photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Nadya Tolokonnikova, founder of the protest art movement Pussy Riot and a former Russian political prisoner, spoke at the University of Kansas campus on April 4, 2023. Professor Ani Kokobobo, left, moderated a discussion about Russia, Ukraine, democracy and other topics.

Nadya Tolokonnikova, who spent nearly two years in a Russian prison for a 40-second song criticizing Vladimir Putin, had two messages for a University of Kansas crowd on Thursday evening.

The founder of the Russian feminist, protest, art and music group Pussy Riot had a simple enough message for U.S. politicians and anyone else in a position of power to help Ukraine in its fight against the Russian military.

“It needs every bit of help it can get,” she said.

Tolokonnikova — who was brought to KU by the university’s Slavic, German and Eurasian studies department, among others — became an international name in 2012 when the members of Pussy Riot were jailed in a Russian prison after performing provocative “guerrilla gigs” that spoke out against Putin and his government. After a short performance in a Moscow cathedral featuring a song that, among other things, asked the Virgin Mary to become a feminist and get rid of Putin, the group was sentenced to two years in a Russian prison.

Today, having served that sentence, she is still a member of Russia’s most wanted list as a fierce critic of Putin and the Russian war in Ukraine. While she has connections around the world — she helped raise $7 million for the Ukraine war effort early in the conflict and counted the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as a friend — her source on the state of the Ukraine war is less conventional.

“My ex-husband, the father of my daughter, helps Ukraine by actually fighting in Ukraine,” she said.

He traveled there as a documentary filmmaker on the front lines, but at some point decided to stay after seeing that Ukraine “doesn’t have enough people, enough money, enough guns.”

Tolokonnikova said she’s convinced the battle against Putin is ultimately winnable. Ukraine and its allies have a great advantage in the long run, she said.

“He knows in the long term his position, his worldview is doomed,” Tolokonnikova said of Putin. “The world is moving to a different place. But we need to stop him. We can’t simply wait and hope that he dies.”

Tolokonnikova — who said she was heartbroken by comments from high-profile figures, including the Pope and Elon Musk, suggesting that Ukraine may need to negotiate an end to the war — wants Americans to remember what Ukraine is asking for. And also what it is not.

“They are not asking for more troops,” she said. “They are asking for more ammunition.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Russian activist and Vladimir Putin critic Nadya Tolokonnikova spoke to a University of Kansas crowd on April 4, 2023.

Tolokonnikova’s second message was decidedly more geared to university students. When KU professor and moderator Ani Kokobobo asked Tolokonnikova about her greatest fear for democracy — outside of Putin — she said it was a lack of enthusiasm from young American voters for the upcoming presidential election.

“I think it is a danger because it allows a person who is openly undemocratic and openly pro-Putin to win,” Tolokonnikova said. “I think it will be bad for America and the whole world.”

She also said it was critical that everyone understands how fleeting democracy can be in America or any country.

“I think it is important to remember that democracy is one of the most fragile forms of human organization that has ever existed,” Tolokonnikova said. “Democracy is just tiny sparkles in the ocean of tyranny.”

Tolokonnikova said it is too easy to assume that the world will never go backward.

“There is nothing magical about human civilization that inevitably leads you to progress,” she said.

Other points that Tolokonnikova touched on during her roughly one-hour conversation inside the Swarthout Recital Hall on the Lawrence campus included:

• During her nearly two-year prison term, she said she often worked 16-hour days sewing uniforms for the police and the military. She said a great irony in Russia is that if you speak out against the military, you end up making its uniforms.

• She spoke of religion — she loves reading the New Testament — and also spoke of feminism, sometimes in the same breath. “The Virgin Mary gave birth to God, but I don’t think she gets enough credit for that,” she said.

• She recalled that 2011 was a year that greatly changed her life when Putin announced that he was going to become president for the third time, and “this is not the way you run for president.” She said it “did rub me the wrong way.” She left her classes at a university because she felt at a “visceral level that this year was going to be decisive for my country.” Pussy Riot was then formed, the protests came, and ultimately the prison sentence.

Despite the hardships, she told the crowd that she does not regret becoming an activist, and in fact, encourages everyone to take the leap.

“The more people who become an activist, the less burden that falls on my shoulders, so I really encourage everyone to become one,” she said.