Today is day five of the 10-day sentence Kirill Medvedev, along with Moscow-based urban activists Anastasia Borisyuk and Fyodor Neronov received for “resistance to the lawful demands of police officers.” A week ago, together with a number of concerned citizens, they were inspecting the construction of a premium-class apart-hotel on the historical Sretenka Street, where they were beaten up by the site’s security guards and then detained by the police. The construction of the hotel, accompanied by the destruction of the city’s dwindling historical heritage goes on, despite the protests of local residents. One would of course wish to be surprised or disappointed, but when faced with the choice of facilitating oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s investment or standing with ordinary Muscovites, it is only logical that the Moscow authorities and the Putin regime would support the former.
Who is Kirill Medvedev? In the words of his collaborator and comrade Roman Osminkin, “Different people know Kirill for different things. For some, he is an innovator of Russian poetry, who managed to become almost a modern classic. For others, he is a political and civic activist trying to combine urban, ecological, and rights activism with left-wing politics and union struggles. For still others, Kirill is a translator and publicist who speaks out on topical issues of culture and politics. [Our LeftEast readers, we can add, know him as a regular author.] There are those who know him as the musician from the Arkadiy Kots band. For us, Kirill is a person who not only represents these different roles, but also connects them with his word and deed, his life.”
LeftEast joins all those expressing their solidarity with Kirill Medvedev, Nastya Borisyuk, and Fyodor Neronov right now. Our voice won’t speed up their release, but may it become part of that song, about which Kirill wrote about in the “The Walls,” the musical anthem of contemporary Russian protests.
The Walls
Grandpa once told me,
As light appeared in the distance,
We were standing by the door,
Watching carts crawling by.
Do you see these walls?
We all live behind them,
And if we don’t tear them down,
We’ll rot here alive.’
# CHORUS
Let us all pull and they will fall.
These walls should never have been here!
So let them crumble, crumble, crumble.
Forever rotting as they are.
And if you give them a push,
And if I give them a push,
The walls will surely crumble, crumble, crumble,
And we can all breathe freely!
***
It’s been many years since then,
My hands are all wrinkled,
And the strength is on the wane
While the walls are still there.
I know they’re rotten.
But sometimes they seem so eternal
And when I despair, I ask you to sing:
# CHORUS
Let us all pull and they will fall.
These walls should never have been here!
Let them crumble, crumble, crumble,
Forever rotting as they are.
And if you give them a push,
And if I give them a push,
The walls will surely crumble, crumble, crumble,
And we can all breathe freely!
***
Grandpa is no more.
An evil wind took him away,
But I am standing by the door, like him,
Under the same rumble of wheels.
And when someone walks by
I stretch my throat to sing
The old song Grandpa taught me:
# CHORUS
Let us all pull and they will fall.
These walls should never have been here!
So let them crumble, crumble, crumble!
Forever rotting as they are.
And if you give them a push,
And if I give them a push,
The walls will surely crumble, crumble, crumble,
And we can all breathe freely!
English translation of Kirill’s lyrics, which he adapted from Lluis Llach’s “L’Estaca” (1968) and Jacek Kaczmarski’s “Mury” (1978).