Barenboim and Rattle issue tribute to pianist who died in Putin’s prison
NewsTwo dozen of the world’s leaing musicians have published a letter of admiration for the pianist Pavel Kushnir, who was arrested for posting an anti-Putin video and was allowed to die of hunger in jail.
They attached a video of Kushnir performing Rachmaninov, a favoured Putin composer.
Here’s the letter:
Hello! My name is Pavel Kushnir. I am a pianist by profession (I am not afraid of this word), and I work as a soloist of the Kursk Philharmonic Society.”
This is how one of the letters of the thirty-nine-year-old pianist, writer and activist Pavel Kushnir begins, who recently died in a Birobidzhan prison after a dry hunger strike. He was imprisoned there awaiting trial for criticizing the Russian government’s war. His crime was running a YouTube channel with five subscribers in which he spoke out against the war. The story of Don Quixote repeats itself – with a catastrophic ending that, unfortunately, is more typical of life than of literature.
We are musicians too. Even though it is difficult to write, to think, to exist, when we are faced with such all-encompassing evil, we must take a stand. Nothing will bring Pavel Kushnir back. We write here to remember him, and we write because of the countless unknown political prisoners in Russia and all over the world. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of Pavel’s life is that we are only now realizing what a remarkable artist, writer and thinker he was. We simply did not know him. This must remind us that the perverse “selection process” of law enforcement leads to the most wonderful and fearless people being thrown into prison, often the best people of a sick nation. They have even less chance of benefiting from a prisoner exchange than the people we know from the media – but we must not forget them.
In today’s hellish kaleidoscope of fake news, false morals and false values, we have become almost deaf. When we suddenly hear a distant, beautiful sound that, despite its modesty, drowns out the omnipresent hellish roar and clang, we bow to those heroes and visionaries who, in their desperate loneliness, sacrifice themselves for humanity and pay the ultimate price.
Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Elena Bashkirova, Boris Berman, Andrey Boreyko, Yefim Bronfman, Isabelle Faust, Julia Fischer, Sol Gabetta, Kirill Gerstein, Vladimir Jurowski, Igor Levit, Alexei Lubimov, Mischa Maisky, Alexander Melnikov, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Emmanuel Pahud, Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir András Schiff, Katia Skanavi, Andreas Staier
UPDATE: The letter was composed by a friend of Pavel’s, the pianist Olga Shkrygunova, and circulated by the pianist Alexander Melnikov.
That’s a pretty distinguished list of signatures. Good for them.
You can be well assured that the ruthless and bloody tyrant V Putin has not the slighest concern about this.
Jan Palach sacrificed his life in 1968 in Prague. He is today a national symbol.
Lets hope that Pavel Kushnir will be remembered for a long time and will be an inspiration for a generation that hopefully can grow up fearless and in peace.
RIP beautiful soul
While I sympathize with a cause it’s a shame the term “sick nation” would never be used if same was to happen to a prisoner in, say, Israel, if it didn’t happen already. As a matter of fact, we would probably not even be aware of it. And even if we were, at least half of those signing would not even dare to point fingers. And if Pavel happened to just be Russian that half would not bother signing either.
And don’t bother about coming with your Zionist pretentious replies, I really care not for your opinions.
Reminds me of the tragic case of Claudio Arrau’s student Karlrobert Kreiten, who was murdered by the Nazis.
What he was doing would have gotten him in trouble in almost any country, especially during wartime. At the very least he would be on the watchlist of special services. Besides, according to the article quoting friend that was visiting him, they did try to save his life with IV treatment. What killed him was 2 months of hunger strike followed by a week of dry hunger strike, let’s be real, he killed himself. What he needed first and foremost was mental help. A very tragic loss nevertheless.
I don’t think it would in most of the west today. (Whether it would a couple decades from now, I’m not so confident.)
And precisely how did Russia end up in a wartime situation?
The latter is not the point.
If one goes against the establishment there are consequences, and you don’t have to look far, that includes so called “civilized” countries and you don’t just hunger strike your way out of it. For the state to interpret something as a seditious conspiracy not a lot is needed (in his case calls for revolution) and being a talented musician for sure wouldn’t play any role. It’s also worth noting he didn’t wait for an actual court date and we can only guess what would’ve happened then.
Not Actually Tough Opining on how precisely Russia ended up in a wartime situation. Seek interviews, lectures and articles by the likes of Jeffrey Sachs, John Mearsheimer and many others. And if you don’t think it can happen in the West today, keep yourself informed of the FBI’s harassment of the former marine and UN inspector Scott Ritter. Free speech is becoming more circumscribed in America and we are technically not at war with Russia other than via proxies.
“Seek interviews, lectures and articles by the likes of Jeffrey Sachs, John Mearsheimer and many others. ”
Just say “and other kremlin paid nutcases.”
“former marine and UN inspector Scott Ritter.”
You mean the current pedophile/sex offender Scott Ritter? The one that was in jail? Are child molesters your go-to source, Ivan?
From Anna Akhmatova’s “Requiem” written in the times of Stalin’s Great Purge:
“That you would stand, parcel in hand,
Beneath the Crosses (3), three hundredth in
line,
Burning the new year’s ice
With your hot tears.
Back and forth the prison poplar sways
With not a sound – how many innocent
Blameless lives are being taken away. . .”
Pavel Kushnir – yet another blameless, innocent great Russian life taken away…
“Unimpressed”, your unmasking of yet another Jewish conspiracy leaves me, well, unimpressed. At least half the signatories were born in the USSR or another nondemocratic country. They know repression and heroic dissent. I imagine Pavel Kushnir’s place of death means nothing to you, either. As for the Zionist connection, it’s all in your head.
Firstly I would like to offer my humble condolences to the family and friends of Pavel Kushnir. I stand firmly with him in being firmly opposed to the use of war and state violence of any kind and by any party.
Unfortunately, in the real world anyone who is sane will be able to justify any any action they take. No one will deliberately carry out an action which they see as being evil. Even worse, the vast majority of humanity are easily convinced by persuasive rhetoric. For this reason, many who abhor the consequences of violence find themselves in the position of Mr Kushnir, but few have the courage to act on their convictions.
Two quotations come to mind:
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori…. Is often used in isolation but Horace meant it as antiphrasis or irony. In context it means exactly the opposite.
Both say they fight for freedom; god or nation they would save. When reflected on more closely one sees that slave is fighting slave….. Young people are unfortunately easily influenced by rhetoric and truly believe that serving as canon fodder is for the cause espoused by those in authority when this is far from their true motivation.
I am saddened by the fact that some who have commented above have taken a position against other correspondents including those signatories to the letter which started this conversation. This seemingly based on their own submission to rhetoric of some kind with which they have aligned themselves for whatever reason. Instead, perhaps, they should put aside their own biases and abstract the actions of this courageous individual from his national context. I feel sure he would have taken the same action if he had found himself in a similar position anywhere else in the world.
RIP Pavel Kushnir