Nadya Tolokonnikova

Nadezhda Andreyevna "Nadya" Tolokonnikova (Надежда Андреевна "Надя" Толоконникова; born November 7, 1989) is a Russian musician, conceptual artist, and political activist.

She is a founding member of the feminist group Pussy Riot, and has a history of political activism with the street art group Voina.

Tolokonnikova was born on November 7, 1989, in the industrial city of Norilsk, Russia, to parents Andrey Stepanovich Tolokonnikov and Yekaterina Voronina.

Her parents divorced when she was five years old.

In her late school years, she was active in amateur modern literature and art projects, organized by the Novoye Literaturnoye Obozreniye.

In 2007, at age 17, Tolokonnikova moved to Moscow, and enrolled in the philosophy department of the Moscow State University.

Tolokonnikova and Pyotr Verzilov joined the Voina art collective in 2007 and participated in several of their provocative art performances.

In February 2008, they were involved in the "Fuck for the heir Puppy Bear!" performance in which couples were filmed engaging in sexual acts in the Timiryazev State Biology Museum in Moscow.

The performance was said to be intended as a kind of satire of then President Dmitry Medvedev's call for increased reproduction.

She was in the late stages of pregnancy at the time.

On March 3, 2008, she was detained by police at a dissenters march in Moscow.

Tolokonnikova was among the Voina members who disrupted a trial for the director of the Andrei Sakharov Center in 2009.

But later, according to the "Rossiyskaya Gazeta", together with Pyotr Verzilov were expelled from Voina "for provocation and surrender of activists of the group to the police".

She also took part in a series of actions Operation Kiss Garbage, ("Лобзай мусора", roughly translated as "Kiss a pig") from January through March 2011.

This project comprised female members' kissing policewomen in Moscow metro stations and on the streets.

On August 17, 2012, she was arrested for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after a performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow and was ultimately sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

Following the "Punk Prayer" incident on February 21, 2012, a criminal case was opened on February 26 against the band members who had participated.

On March 3, Tolokonnikova and Pussy Riot co-member Maria Alyokhina were identified by the Russian authorities.

They were arrested on March 4 after being accused of hooliganism.

They first denied being members of the group and started a hunger strike in protest against being held in jail away from their young children.

They were held without bail and were formally charged on June 4 with the indictment running to 2,800 pages.

Although this did not ultimately occur, there was speculation that Canadian authorities might attempt to intervene because Tolokonnikova is a Canadian permanent resident.

The trial of the Pussy Riot members started on July 30, 2012, and ended in August 2012 with a verdict.

On August 17, 2012, Tolokonnikova, together with co-members Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentenced to two year imprisonment.

Tolokonnikova was serving the remainder of her two-year sentence in the IK-14 women's penal colony near the settlement of Partsa (Парца, Явасское городское поселение), Republic of Mordovia.

On December 23, 2013, she was released early alongside fellow Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina under a newly passed amnesty bill dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Russian constitution.

While jailed, Tolokonnikova was recognized as a political prisoner by the Russian human rights group Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners.

Amnesty International named her a prisoner of conscience due to "the severity of the response of the Russian authorities".

On December 30, 2021, Russia's Ministry of Justice added Tolokonnikova to its list of "foreign agents".

On September 23, 2013, she went on hunger strike over prison conditions, as well as alleged threats against her life made by prison staff.

In late September 2013, Tolokonnikova was hospitalised after going without food for a week.

She was treated in the prison's medical ward; authorities did not release more specific details.

On October 21, 2013, she was transferred to another prison; her whereabouts remained unknown for several weeks.

Their correspondence was arranged by the French philosopher Michel Eltchaninoff, and their 11 letters were compiled into a short book, Comradely Greetings: The Prison Letters of Nadya and Slavoj, published by Verso Books in 2014.

Her letter on the conditions of the women in the penal colony asserts that the women have no rights, that the prisoners must work 16–17 hours and sleep 3–4 hours a day, and that they have a day off every 8th week.

Further, she claims that if they complain, they are punished, and that if they complain over the treatment of other prisoners, they are punished even harder.

Claiming that collective punishment is frequent, she also stated that the prisoners may be beaten with a particular focus on hitting the kidneys.

Another punishment would consist of keeping a prisoner outdoors in the cold without sufficient clothing.

Most of what she reports is affirmed by other sources.

While imprisoned, she exchanged letters with filmmaker, philosopher, and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek discussing democracy and her activism.