Ekaterina Samutsevich is a Russian musician, engineer, and social and political activist who gained world fame thanks to her participation in the actions of the punk band Pussy Riot. In 2013, the Union of Solidarity and the organization Amnesty International Samutsevich was officially recognized as a “prisoner of conscience”.
Biography
Samutsevich Ekaterina Stanislavovna was born on August 9, 1982 in an ordinary Moscow family. When the girl was only nineteen years old, her mother died of a serious illness. Katya’s father, Stanislav Samutsevich, in various interviews recalled that his daughter endured the loss steadily and educated herself, constantly being alone with mental pain.
The process of socialization Samutsevich was extremely painful: a closed and serious girl did not interest peers, did not cause sympathy among adults, and Katya had to organize her leisure herself. It is known that Samutsevich highly appreciated Russian classical music, foreign cinema, and was also well versed in computer technology.
At that time, Katya Samutsevich, whose biography is still replenished with various painful deeds, led a relatively carefree life, devoting free time to playing music and learning to play the bass guitar, as well as composing original songs.
early years
Schooling was easy for Catherine. Teachers noted the girl’s incredible abilities in mathematics, physics, and exact sciences. During training at school, Catherine more than once won prizes at various competitions, conferences and olympiads. After graduating from school with a gold medal, the girl enters the Moscow Energy Institute on a budgetary basis, and two years later, having completed her diploma with honors, she gets a job as a software engineer at the Morinformsistema-Agat closed defense enterprise. Here Katya takes part in the creation of a large number of operational and information systems for various types of weapons.
Work
Two years later, Ekaterina Samutsevich quits of her own free will and enters the Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia, which allows her to acquire the skills of a graphic designer, layout designer, photographer and visual artist.
Having received a diploma, the girl decides to work as a freelancer, actively creating custom-made sites and promoting the author's software.
One of her most famous programming projects is the unique Subverse Web Browser program, which allows you to edit text in real time, seeking to increase its uniqueness.
Anti-government shares
In 2007, Ekaterina Samutsevich joined the ranks of the War art group, which aims to fight against the existing regime through art manifestos and performances.
In 2010, members of the group threw three thousand Madagascar cockroaches into the building of the Tagansky court, giving this action the sonorous name of “Cockroach court”.
A year later, the participants of the association held an action called "Lobzai garbage or training on kissing," consisting in the violent harassment of girls from the "War" against women police officers in the subway.
Also, Ekaterina Samutsevich, whose biography by that time included more than one illegal act, kept her propaganda blog, in which she published articles aimed at criticizing state power, as well as opposition propaganda.
However, not every publication was related to the activities of the art association "War". Catherine also published works on the protection of the environment and cultural monuments of Russia.
One of the high-profile incidents of that time was a rally in defense of the Khimki forest, as well as the creation of a movement to protect women and children from sexual violence.
Pussy riot
The creative association Pussy Riot arose in 2012. For a long time almost nothing was known about the project, except that all its participants were women. The name Pussy Riot translates as "Pussy Riot." By choosing this name, the participants wanted to emphasize the disagreement of women with the place assigned to them in the system of public values, as well as to protest against the arbitrariness of state power by propagating anarchy using the methods of grotesque. The girls themselves called the art punk group, disagreeing with the definition “art group” given to them.
At first, the project participants organized unsanctioned rallies, held small rallies in the city center. For example, one of the famous actions of that period was a mini-concert on the roof of a trolley bus, during which project participants performed anti-government songs.
However, the project gained worldwide fame after carrying out an action in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, during which the song "Virgin Mary, Drive Putin Away" was performed. This event generated a huge number of discussions in the political sphere of Russia, as well as attracted the attention of Western media and European courts.
Foreign representatives of law enforcement agencies considered it possible to interpret the motives of the action as a kind of manifesto and considered that Pussy Riot should not be prosecuted, however, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation qualified the actions of the art project as unlawful, provided for by the UKRF “Hooliganism” article, in connection with which all participants received real prison sentences, with the exception of Catherine. Which at the time of the rally was not in the church.
Political Views
Yekaterina Samutsevich’s political convictions on many issues diverge greatly from the official position of state power, but she is not a supporter of radical revolutionary methods, considering creative anarchy and art performance to be one of the convincing tools for influencing political state structures.
Katerina sees the opposition context in her convictions not in calls for a change of power, but in calls for a change in the behavior of state structures, in a change in the relationship between the elected government and voters.
Problems with law
On August 17, 2012, Ekaterina Samutsevich, whose photo became increasingly visible on the Web, was found guilty of participating in various kinds of anti-government actions and was sentenced to two years in prison. However, due to the fact that Ekaterina Samutsevich was not near the organizers at the time of the action, the real term was replaced by a conditional one.
The human rights organization Amnesty International recognized Samutsevich and other members of the Voyna and Pussy Riot associations as prisoners of conscience, the case against which was fabricated solely for political reasons.
The Pussy Riot case has become a textbook case in the history of legal proceedings, becoming an example of political persecution of a group of people who make up a creative association with a pronounced informal activity.
Personal life
Ekaterina Samutsevich prefers not to talk about her personal life. The girl began her political career too early, which did not leave her the opportunity to build her personal life, start a family or enter into a romantic relationship. During her youth, Samutsevich also could not find a life partner, since not one of the young people corresponded to her ideas about the ideal man.
However, Katya Samutsevich, whose personal life is far from being as good as it might seem, does not regret her choice, considering the public good to be a disproportionately higher goal than her own well-being.