Jumping Ship

This summer Russia’s biggest rock music festival, Nashestvie,* faced cancellations by a number of artists who were protesting the festival’s increasing cooperation with the Russian military.

Nashestvie, which had a 2017 attendance of about 200,000, has for several years hosted a show of tanks and other military equipment, and the Russian military has also had a booth where prospective contract soldiers could enlist.

Meanwhile, the Russian rock scene has historically been lukewarm toward both the government and the military. Some established musicians, including Boris Grebenshchikov and Andrei Makarevich, began to steer clear of the festival after it struck up a partnership with the Defense Ministry. This year however, a total of six groups opted out after initially agreeing to participate, while the country’s most famous hip hop artist, Noize MC, performed anti-military songs from the stage.

Люди с автоматами нас спасут,
От людей с автоматами, если что.
Плохих людей с автоматами всех убьют,
Из них оружие сделает решето.

А, если вдруг плохие, все-таки, победят,
Значит, просто плохими были не те.
Это нам хорошие доходчиво объяснят,
Перед тем, как забрать суверенитет.

People with guns will rescue us
In case of attack by people with guns.
They will kill all bad people with guns,
Turning them into a pulp.

And in case the bad ones win,
It will turn out they weren’t bad at all.
The good ones will explain this to us
Before they seize sovereignty.

– Fragment of a song recorded by Noize MC and Monetochka. Noize MC performed the song at Nashestvie while Monetochka cancelled her appearance.

Of the six performers who cancelled, the singer Monetochka (real name Yelizaveta Gyrdymova) is perhaps the best known. The 20-year-old became famous after simple songs she recorded in her room and shared on the VK social network went viral.

“The main condition for our participation was an absence of militaristic propaganda on festival territory – a festival without tanks, recruiting booths and other Defense Ministry presence… Cancellation of our participation is the only possible step for Elizium. Pacifism and anti-militarism are not empty words for us.”

– Nizhny Novgorod punk rock group Elizium

Festival organizers and some other musicians however criticized the demarche as self-promotion.

“If there is a Defense Ministry, it will work. It has to do something. If it is in its interests to work with festival musicians, and if it is in the interests of the festival to communicate, then what does it matter? Come and sing. None of them can coherently explain what they are protesting.”

– Singer Yury Loza

“Many people found out about these bands thanks to their cancellations. This hype is a huge promotion for young musicians. To wrap up the topic of this imaginary anti-militarism, I will ask a final question about the military fashion that our punks and young rockers love so much: how do you explain that? When will you take off your camouflage underpants, sirs?”

– Yevgenia Kiselyova, head of Multimedia Holding, which oversees the Nashestvie festival

The public cancellations also inspired a tongue-in-cheek wave of proclamations from random Twitter users, ridiculing the bands for being unaware of the festival’s ongoing relationship with the Russian military.