Comradely Greetings: The Prison Letters of Nadya and Slavoj

by Slavoj Žižek, Nadezhda Tololonnikova

”We are the rebels asking for the storm, and believing that truth is only to be found in an endless search ... Two years of prison for Pussy Riot is our tribute to a destiny that gave us sharp ears, allowing us to sound the note A when everyone else is used to hearing G flat.”

In an extraordinary exchange of letters, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, imprisoned for taking part in Pussy Riot’s anti-Putin performance, and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek discuss artistic subversion, political activism, and the future of democracy via the ideas of Hegel, Deleuze, Nietzsche, and even Laurie Anderson. 

Two radicals, one in a Russian forced labor camp, the other writing to her from far outside its walls, show passionately – across linguistic and generational divides – that “there is still a common cause worth fighting for.” Touching, erudite, and worldly, their correspondence unfolds with poetic urgency.

In association with  Philosophie Magazine .

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Politics, Activism, Essays, Russia, Feminism

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2014

About the author

Slavoj Žižek is a Slovene sociologist, philosopher, and cultural critic.

He was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia (then part of SFR Yugoslavia). He received a Doctor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Ljubljana and studied psychoanalysis at the University of Paris VIII with Jacques-Alain Miller and François Regnault. In 1990 he was a candidate with the party Liberal Democracy of Slovenia for Presidency of the Republic of Slovenia (an auxiliary institution, abolished in 1992).

Since 2005, Žižek has been a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Žižek is well known for his use of the works of 20th century French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan in a new reading of popular culture. He writes on many topics including the Iraq War, fundamentalism, capitalism, tolerance, political correctness, globalization, subjectivity, human rights, Lenin, myth, cyberspace, postmodernism, multiculturalism, post-marxism, David Lynch, and Alfred Hitchcock.

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País he jokingly described himself as an "orthodox Lacanian Stalinist". In an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! he described himself as a "Marxist" and a "Communist."

Reviews

[Jonfaith · Rating 5 out of 5]

. . . a critical social theorist who is not able to enjoy advertisements should not be taken seriously. -- Žižek

Sometimes, inexplicably, a book finds you pitch perfect. Sometimes it simply floors you with sparse genius. Comradely Greetings was such an experience. Returning to work after holiday, each day brought more rain, more concerns, turbulent slumber: more or less, a return to the normal. Insert here a YouTube clip of Morpheus welcoming us to the Desert of the Real. This heightened exchange conjured thinking but it also shed necessary light on those who commit, to whom the political and human are not just theory or simply a posture. Ms. Tolokonnikova depicts her treatment and the conditions of her fellow prisoners in her forced labor sentence. Such is simply harrowing.

Nadya and Žižek discuss the ongoing revolution of capital and production, the Russian history of dissent and the idea of the Holy Fool, the guises by which protest is rendered empty and what possible form future protests can acquire. Mandela is eulogized. Ultimately Putin relased the Pussy Riot members to keep a straight face during the Olympics, then the Ukraine and Edward Snowden fogged up the mirror. As I type this, I cling to some optimism

[Amin · Rating 3 out of 5]

"فارسی در ادامه"

At the first glance, it looked very encouraging to read the dialogues between a famous philosopher and an intellectual prisoner. However, such a feeling didn't last for a long time! Zizek's letters look like misuses of the situation to propagate his own ideological reflections on capitalism and most of his elaborations are not quite relevant to the context! Nadia's letters are more relevant although sometimes it seems they are both showing off! The situations becomes better in the last letters, although I had the feeling Zizek was talking to 'the others' and not necessarily to Nadya, and directing attention towards the context by referring sporadically to Nadya's points. However, it was quite impressive to what extent an activist can be knowledgeable and Zizek couldn't easily refute her arguments. Apart from these points, there are some ideas and arguments for further thoughts and reflection.

نامه نگاری بین یک فیلسوف آزاد و بحث برانگیز و یک فعال سیاسی در زندانهای پوتین می تواند بسیار جالب باشد. اما به مرور رویکرد ژیژک به ارائه جهان بینی خودش و خارج شدن از بحث کمی از جذابیت متن کم می کند. انگار که به سبک ایدئولوگ ها به جای پرداختن به موضوع بحث، همواره در حال جواب دادن به "دیگری" غایب است. جدا از این مسئله، سطح دانش نظری و سیاسی نادیا اثرگذار است و ژیژک هم نمیتواند از آن چشم پوشی کند. شاید وجود چنین فعالان سیاسی با دامنه وسیعی از معلومات، بزرگترین کمک باشد هم برای بالابردن ارزش فعالیت های سیاسی و هم افشا کردن ماهیت رژیم های سرکوبگر

[Mona · Rating 3 out of 5]

كانت بالنسبة لي رسائل ناديا افضل .. رغم تحفظي على الحركة التي تتبانها في التمرد هي واصدقائها ، اشكر السيدة المترجمة انا فعلا ممتنة لك استمتعت بثقافتك الواسعة ومعلوماتك وتوضيحاتك في الهوامش .. حضرتك من القلة الموجودة المعدودة على الاصابع فللأسف اغلب المترجمين يسببون لي أزمات عصبية وقلبية في كل مرة اقرأ فيها كتابا مترجما

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A revelation. I enjoy Zizek, often, and have found his work useful in peeling back some of the more insidious layers of illusion that surround us. But the real revelation here is Nadya Tolokonnikova, one of the previously imprisoned members of Pussy Riot. I'd meant, for some time, to do more and better reading on Pussy Riot. My initial impression of their protest in the church (the one for which Nadya and two of her fellow members were imprisoned) was positive. It seemed a garish but ultimately very Christian (and emphatically *not* blasphemous) protest against the disgusting capitulation of the Russian church hierarchy to Putin, for that church allying itself with him and working to ideologically support him. (It is worth savoring the deep irony there, too, of Dostoevsky's old parable of the Grand Inquisitor with its critique of the Catholic Church for its love of power to the point where the Grand Inquisitor insists that Christ himself erred in refusing the Devil's tempting offer of worldly power. Here now we see the Orthodox Church that Dostoevsky so loved repeating the same move. But I digress.)

Here, in passionate and clear words, Tolokonnikova explains Pussy Riot's stance, what it sees as the stakes, and demonstrated in the process a wonderful understanding of how complex and all-encompassing the problems are. If you're worried that this is a mismatch in terms of revolutionary and philosophical firepower, you've nothing to fear. Tolokonnikova goes toe to toe with Slavoj on a few issues, and comes out looking fabulous. It's nice to see this side of Zizek, too, the side that has someone to talk back to him (unlike in the endless torrent of words and texts that he usually generates) and that must make concessions here and there, and clarify his meaning in places where he has perhaps allowed his usual flow to get away from him.

All of this in just over 100 pages. If you've been meaning to investigate Zizek, or Pussy Riot, or the complexities that are rising all over the world (Egypt, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Snowden, Manning, CIA torture) this is a great way to hit the ground running.

Highly recommended.

[AC · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding little book. Žižek is his usual annoying, but often brilliant self..., Nadya Tolonnikova is just brillant. A fine debate about the nature of "late" capitalism as rhizome or hierarchy. It also clarifies, finally, where Žižek's political heart *really* lies. Far more with Serge and Souvarine than with Stalin. An excellent primer. Two big thumbs up.

[Stewart Home · Rating 1 out of 5]

One can understand that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, as a victim of a vicious repression (a member of the Pussy Riot 'punk' collective jailed for performing an anti-Putin song), needed all the support she could get - up to and including that of celebrity intellectuals like Slavoj Zizek. The later, of course, needs to support worthy (in this case) and not so worthy (in other cases) causes in order to shore up his ridiculous public persona. Among other things Tolokonnikova usefully describes the prison conditions she suffered after being persecuted by the Putin regime. Unfortunately she contributes fewer words to this mercifully short publication than Zizek.

Among other things, Zizek uncritically quotes the verbiage of that worthless hack Christopher Hitchens, from whom he lifts the following: “…there were no dissidents in the Nazi Party, risking their lives on the proposition that the Fuehrer had betrayed the true essence of National Socialism.” Contra Zizek and Hitchens, neither Nazism nor the broader fascist movement were or are now monolithic and without dissidents. It’s as if Zizek and Hitchens have never heard of, to give just one well-known example, the events of June 30 to July 2 1934 in Nazi Germany, called by some “The Night of the Long Knives” and by the Nazis the ‘Röhm-Putsch’. The arrests and murder of the so-called ‘left-wing’ of the early Nazi Party. This entailed the elimination of some of those who saw themselves as truer advocates of National Socialism than Hitler; with Gregor Strasser perhaps being a more important figure in this regard than Ernst Röhm (who was also executed as a part of this Nazi purge). Of course, it wasn’t just ardent Nazis (like the SA leader Röhm –although Hitler’s view was ‘scratch a brownshirt and underneath you find a red’) and former high-ranking Nazi officials like Strasser (who despite transforming the Nazi Party into a rigidly centralist organisation had nevertheless opposed Hitler on both leadership and political issues, stressing both anti-Semitism and ‘socialism’ as key elements of National Socialism) who were liquidated (more mainstream political figures were attacked too), but this instance of fascist blood-letting is indicative of the fact that there have always been ‘dissidents’ and differences of opinion on the far-Right.

It is difficult to know whether Hitchens and Zizek (who backs Hitchens’ absurd claims) are simply ignorant idiots or are playing a more subtle and sinister game. By falsely portraying Nazism as monolithic these two creeps may end up making their liberal readers feel helpless when confronted by fascism. Likewise when Zizek either talks about or quotes Hitchens on ‘left-oppositionists’ his focus is always anti-Stalinism and not communist anti-Leninism/communist anti-bolshevism. It’s as if Zizek has never read “Open Letter To Comrade Lenin: A Reply To ‘Left Wing’ Communism, An Infantile Disorder” by Herman Gorter; or “Lenin As Philospher” by Anton Pannekoek; or “Anti-Bolshevik Communism” by Paul Mattick. Likewise, one ends up suspecting that Zizek doesn’t even know that Amadeo Bordiga was the last man to insult Stalin to his face and live to tell the tale; and that after studying the agricultural question within the Russian revolution, Bordiga reached the inevitable conclusion that the bolsheviks had been engaged in a capitalist rather than a communist revolution (in short they oversaw the transition from the formal to the real domination of capital).

Of course, it comes as no surprise to learn that the author of “The Sublime Object of Ideology” (where it is argued that ideology is like the sublime, beyond understanding) can’t even grasp the full spectrum of capitalist ideology ranging from bolshevism via liberalism to fascism. Zizek and his fellow celebrity intellectuals like Alain de Botton are an utter joke. Zizek probably wouldn’t be able to recognise a genuine communist if he was confronted with a critique of his mindless scribbling by one!

[الفيصل السالم · Rating 3 out of 5]

رسائل بين ناديا تولوكونيكوفا المُعتقلة في سجون روسيا ( بوتين ) وسلافوي جيجك ، على أثر أداء لفرقة بسي رايوت من داخل كاتدرائية المسيح المُنقد في عام ٢٠١١ .

رسائل مليئة من اضراب الطعام إلى النقاشات السياسية والفلسفية والفكرية والتحفيزية العالمية والإقليمية (الأوروبية ) .

ترجمة رغد قاسم كانت ممتازة وسلسة .

[Malcolm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Late in the morning of 21 February 2012 a group of brightly dressed young women appeared in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, and fairly quickly launched in a performative prayer calling on the Virgin to save Russia from Putin (“Virgin Mary, Mother of God, Banish Putin”).

There were so many levels on which this was intensely provocative, not least that the church hierarchy of this Cathedral is closely associated with Putin’s politics and mythopoeic nationalism, a nationalism that is close to an imperial revivalism asserting Russia’s ‘rightful place’ as a major global power. There was also a cultural provocation in this parody of the Church’s theological and liturgical orthodoxy (“Don’t upset His Saintship/ Stick to making babies”) verging on reaction (“Patriarch Gundyaev believes in Putin/ Better belive in God, you vermin”). Not surprisingly, this group of cultural activists become the subject of a major police hunt for the alleged blasphemy. The significance outside Russia was that this event introduced Pussy Riot, a situationist and widespread activist collective, to a world beyond those of us who watch this kind of cultural activism, left politics or Russian oppositionism.

Shortly afterward, three members of the collective were arrested. It was clear from the outset that a guilty verdict was assured, as, what was to all intents and purposes, the show trial of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich ran its course leading to convictions for ‘vandalism’ and ‘incitement to religious hatred’, even though blasphemy was not at the time mentioned in the Russian criminal code….. By the end of the year Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina had been sent off to penal colonies – the proverbial Siberian re-education centre (Samutsevich’s conviction resulted in a suspended sentence).

Pussy Riot, throughout its activist interventions, has shown itself to be politically savvy and intellectually and philosophically sharp. During the trial they’ve made comments about and allusions to Žižek, and Žižek wrote a short sharp condemnation of the sentencing. That comment is the opening piece in this exchange of views, letters and ideas between Žižek, the philosophical darling of many on the Left, and Tolokonnikova, an early 20s philosophy graduate and cultural activist. What is so great about these letters – exchanged for the most part while Tolokonnikova was imprisoned – is that she comes out as the sharper, more engaged and potent critic, not just of Putin or Russia, but of Left criticism and activism.

Although, as Žižek argues in respect of Pussy Riot, the collective shows us that “ideas matter”, Tolokonnikova challenges the post-structuralist Left view of intellectualism. In the fabulous letter ‘written from a Special Economic Zone’ she writes:

“Modern capitalism has a deep interest in seeing that you and I believe that system runs completely on principles of free creativity, limitless growth, and diversity, and that the flip side – millions of people enslaved by all-powerful and (take it from me) fantastically stable standards of production – remains invisible. We have an interest in exposing this deception, which is why I insist on unmasking the static, centralized, hierarchic basis of what advertising will later sanctify as a product of unbridled creativity alone.

“That’s why I take exception to your distrust of thinking that is posited within the frameworks of binary oppositions, and even insist on the use of such binaries as a heuristic – one that is situational and, when it must be, even burlesque.”

It’s a delightful out-Marxing of Žižek…..

The other aspect of the collection I really appreciate is Žižek’s shift in tone, from a slightly patronising opening foray where he tries to, well, mansplain the politics of the Punk Prayer: his insistence on their persistence is met with the reply that ‘we’ are “rebels who court storms” – and that they do. Since their release Tolokonnikova, and Alyokhina with Samutsevich and others from the collective have been active in organising groups to support women prisoners, to confront Putin’s bleaching of Russia at the Sochi Olympics and elsewhere.

The letters are short, sharp, likely to be heavily censored and full of insight, conceptualising a struggle we seldom see in the English-speaking world and in Tolokonnikova give us an exciting critical voice, unafraid to take on big names in current politics, but always in an open and comradely manner – despite their, in places, sharp differences these two writers actively engage in comradely greetings and have provided us with an exploration of ideas, of struggle and the politics of culture and cultures of politics that merit regular revisiting.

[حمامة · Rating 5 out of 5]

تتحدث ناديا عن طريقة العيش الصعبة في سجن الأعمال الشاقة وعن الأفكار المؤمنة بها التي أدت الى دخولها السجن عن الفرقة الفنية الاستفزازية التي شكلتها وعن طريقة دمج الفن بالاحتجاج والتخريب لن نستطيع حتى وإن عارضنا أفكارها من الإعجاب بامرأة مثلها فريدة من نوعها تواجه المستحيل ولا تخشى العواقب بل تعتبر العواقب طريقها إلى الحرية وهذا ما كانت تقوله بأن وجودها داخل السجن قد جعلها أكثر حرية من من هم خارج السجن لأنه لم يعد هناك ما تخشاه ، يدور حوار رائع بين ناديا المعجبة بأفكار سلافوي جيجك ويبادلها الاعجاب بشجاعتها وإقدامها يدلي كلاً منهما بأراءه التي تختلف أحياناً و تتوافق في معظم الأحيان  يتوقف فجأة سلافوي عن إعطاء الحلول كما يفعل الرجال عادةً ويبدي تعاطفة الشديد مع ماتقاسيه ناديا في وضعها الراهن وتحاول شرحه ، حسناً لا أستطيع فهم سلافوي بشكل كامل فهو أحيانا يدعم أفعال الشغب والتخريب ولكنه لا يفضلها ويرى أن الخراب لا ينبغي أن يواجه بتخريب مثله ثم  في مكان آخر يتكلم عن رفض مظاهر الرأسمالية ولا ننسى أختلاف أشكال المقاومة حسب التنوع الثقافي وفي الآن ذاته ينبغي أن نحرص على التماهي مع الرأسمالية العالمية أيضًا ؛ تكلم عن الديمقراطية الزائفة في مجتمعاتنا التي أدت بالفعل إلى شعبوية وبشرنا بمستقبل إستبدادي "مشرق" تكلم أيضاً عن مفهوم الحرية أو وهم الحرية وعن مواضيع في غاية الأهمية.

نحن في حالة يأس عميقة لكن مايجعلنا نشعر بالأمل هو أن العالم برمته يتجه إلى كارثة حتمية قد تجعل الواقع يتغير بوجود مثل هؤلاء الأشخاص.
لأول مرة أشعر بتواصل حقيقي مع مترجم كانت رغد قاسم الطرف الثالث في الكتاب و وفرت علينا الكثير من البحث عن المصطلحات والأحداث

[Alsayed_story]

فبراير 2012 اجتزن خمس شابات حاجز الأمن دون عائق وسرعان ما توجهن للمنصة المخصصة لقراءة النصوص المقدسة أمام المذبح، نزعت الشابات الخمس المعاطف، كاشفات فساتين قصيرة وجوارب زاهية. ذعرت عاملة الصيانة واتصلت بالأمن، يهجم أحد رجال الأمن على امرأة شابة تحمل غيتارا، حاول موظفو الكنيسة اعتراض النساء الأربع، لكنهن كن بدأن بالفعل بغناء صلاة بانك، التي تقول في مطلعها: ( مريم العذراء، يا أم الرب، أبعدي بوتين ) تستنكر الأغنية الأيديولوجية الرجعية( لا تزعجن قداسته يا سيدات، التزمن بممارسة الحب وإنجاب الأطفال ) ثم يختمن بانحناءة ورسم علامة صليب بدرامية وختام الدعوة ( انضمي إلى احتجاجنا يا مريم المقدسة ).

رسائل متداولة بين الحقوقية الروسية ناديا تولوكونيكوفا والمفكر والفيلسوف السياسي سلافوي جيجك المعروف بشراسته في نقد نظام الرأسمالي ورؤيته الواسعة في هيمنة هذا النظام في الإتحاد الأوربي، تمسك المفكران بالواقع دون اللجوء للعاطفة، وقدما تحليلاً مرعبًا حول كيفية عمل العالم.
كعادته جيجك في الاسترسال في توضيح مآسي الرأسمالية ويبدأ بعبارته ( ماذا تساوي سرقة بنك إزاء جريمة تأسيسه ).

تُعجب ناديا بحجج سلافوي وتحاول أن تجاريه وتبهره بمنطقها وتحليلها ورؤيتها السياسية.

ترجمة راقية جدا وموسوعية، قدمت لنا رغد قاسم بوابة معرفية من خلال الهوامش نظرًا لأهميتها للقارئ العربي كي تكون قراءته شاملة للكتاب.

كتاب أشجع على قراءته.

[Athena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this out of interest in the ideas of Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, and I'd recommend it to others who are curious about the same. Zizek, for those who are familiar with his persona and recent ideas about global capitalism, does his usual thing. His letters are predictably super mansplain-ey. In one he situates Tolokonnikova as the one of the two of them whose ideas come from the actual experience of imprisonment, while he has the privilege of theorizing -- as though Tolokonnikova's words and ideas, especially pertaining to her conditions of imprisonment, weren't also a mode of theorization, and as though her understanding of those conditions weren't already mediated and not some direct truth... Gayatri Spivak says all this better in the first couple of pages of "Can the Subaltern Speak," where she calls out Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze for doing something very similar. Anyway, Zizek actually backtracks and apologizes to Tolokonnikova, though only for being a male chauvinist, not a Western intellectual chauvinist. Also, if you're interested in Pussy Riot's feminism, there's almost nothing specifically about that in this book.

[Jeannot · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that it's not the book I was looking for. I would have love to read a book only written by Nadya, with her ideas, her reflexions, and what she went through.

[Cali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t waste your time worrying about giving in to theoretical fabrications while I supposedly suffer “empirical deprivations.” There’s value to me in these inviolable limits, in my being tested this way. I’m fascinated to see how I’ll cope with all this, how I’ll channel it into something productive for my comrades and myself.

Against all postmodern cynics, you demonstrate that ethical-political engagement is needed more than ever. So please ignore enemies and false friends who pity you as punk provocateurs who deserve mere clemency.

I loved every second of this.

[Vicky Valle · Rating 4 out of 5]

These series of letters touch different topics on the philosophy of politics. It is like a conversation with no concise aim and this makes it hard to grasp all of the ideas.

I found very interesting the proposal of both authors of capitalism as a system which constant is change. Hence, a revolution that aims to alter the capitalist system is not as salient and renders the revolution sometimes useless.

[Caroline Pralin · Rating 3 out of 5]

While reading this, I could hear Dr. Lecter's voice in the back of my head, reading his most famous letter to Clarice Starling: "Dear Clarice, I have followed with enthusiasm the course of your disgrace and public shaming. My own never bothered me, except for the inconvience of being incarcerated, but you may lack perspective."
In this story though, it's a bit less clear who's the feisty meat and who's the weirdo behind bars. Maybe not that unclear.

[Ahmed Saed · Rating 4 out of 5]

هام لفهم الحركات المعارضة ضد حكم الديكتاتور بوتين و ما تفعلة الحركات خاصة النسائية منهم ضدة من سنوات و تحديدا منتصف الالفينات و معاناتهم في السجون انما الكتاب ليس ادب سجون بالمعني المتعارف عليه بل اعمق و هو عبارة عن رؤية جيجك للسياسة العالمية و الاقتصاد و الثورات و الحركات الاحتجاجية و ردود بطلة الكتاب عليه في سجنها و هي عضوة كانت في حركة مناؤة لبوتين
يتسحق القراءة

[Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice to see that Žižek can write both clearly and concisely when he wants to...

[Levinoesjka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too much Zizek, too little Nadya!

[Pán Srn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Můj První Žížek™
Ale jo, chci víc.

[taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

nadya rules but folks, if i wanted to be incoherently mansplained to about capitalism i'd call up my ex boyfriend!!

[Jamrock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ten years since members of the Pussy Riot collective staged a guerrilla performance of their anti-Putin song Punk Prayer: Mother of God Drive Putin Away inside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. This was a protest against the Orthodox church support for Putin as much as it was against Putin himself. Good luck trying to find video footage of this event because Russia has ruthlessly pursued a policy of taking down any of the videos shared. Pussy Riot was formed to protest and highlight the increasing Stalinization of global Capitalism as well as against oppressive internal suppression of dissent. For highlights of the protest and their wider work I would refer people to their film Act & Punishment

Ten years since two members of the collective Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda (Nadya) Tolokonnikova were convicted of a crime that didn't even exist on Russian statue books and jailed. Nadya was sent to a former gulag, Camp PC-14 in Mordovia. The conditions she (and her fellow inmates) experienced in that camp is almost beyond comprehension.

Ten years since Slavoj Žižek was made aware of Nadya's plight and interest in his essay on (revolutionary) Violence. This eventually led to an idea for the two to exchange letters while Nadya was incarcerated. These letters were then collated for the creation of this publication in 2014. The fact it has taken my until 2022 to discover this book (and really engage with Zizek) is a source of current embarrassment but the more we learn, the more we realise how much we don't know.

What is most fascinating about this book is the dynamic as Zizek initially addresses Nadya with sympathy for her plight and what might be construed as some mansplaining of theory applicable to her plight relative to global capitalism. It quickly becomes apparent that Nadya is extremely well versed in theory and constructing her own world view which repeatedly puts Zizek on the backfoot as he increasingly realises he needs to engage with Nadya as a peer academic, not a star-struck prisoner receiving pen letters from a mentor.

This is a worthy and moving dialogue that covers much ground politically and philosophically. Nadya's internal critique of Putin's Russia and her acknowledgement that her own (and Zizek's) critique of Capitalism is is hindered through an overly Westernised perspective.

I was curious to know what Nadya was up to now and there is a recent interview with her from March '22 in The Guardian.

[nxc · Rating 5 out of 5]

must read!! thought provoking discussions which center around current events and happenings (imo more productive in a sense than more theory based writings)

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was hard for me to understand. I don’t know a lot about Nietzche or Heigel. An entire book about the Mordovian prison camp is what we really need

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slavoj Žižek, a Slovenian philosopher of the New Left, and Nadezhda (Nadya) Tolokonnikova, a member of the radical Russian protest group Pussy Riot, wrote these letters to each other when Nadya was imprisoned in a Russian work camp after her protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin in an Orthodox cathedral in 2012.

Even though Slavoj and Nadya had never met, the writers' familiarity and the letters' raw emotions are striking. They write about work conditions and women's rights and totalitarianism and oppressive Russia and the hypocrisy of the Western world. Nadya details the illegal work conditions and punishment she endures in the camp, and Slavoj waxes political, identifying problems and offering solutions. But Slavoj continuously must apologize retroactively for explaining concepts to the obviously well-read and educated Nadya. Even leftist philosophers can mansplain.

As I sat down to write something about this slender book, I immediately thought of something my mother said to me. My parents and I were talking about women's rights, and I was getting heated and fevered when my mom said (and I paraphrase), "Why do you even care about this? You're not a woman." This came from a woman who fought her way up corporate ladders for 25 years, breaking glass floor after glass floor, and I was devastated. Maybe I was mansplaining too, and that's a scary thought, one that Slavoj and Nadya grapple with too.

They write with anger and sadness, but always with fervent hope for the future. Putin's totalitarianism shapes Nadya's every word, and the writing drips with context, enough to somehow escape the prison censors. She quotes and argues, and so does Slavoj, and they recognize that even the ability to argue is a political freedom not afforded to many in Russia, China, and other authoritarian regimes. And yes, Western governments are hypocritical, buying Russian gas while at the same time denouncing Russia's crackdown on dissidents like Nadya. The same thing happened during the ongoing Ukrainian crisis – public threats and private dealing.

Is free speech worth imprisonment? To Nadya and Slavoj, it's a clear yes. Ideally, I agree, but I don't know if I could go to a Russian work camp. But I admire Slavoj and Nadya's (especially Nadya's) steadfast determination, unflinching principles, and ability to adapt to tough conditions and new ideas. The world needs more published, raw discourse. If not, we'll truly be stuck in the quagmire of modern life, and we'll solve nothing. To Nadya and Slavoj, that's not acceptable, and I agree.

[Patrick F · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very interesting, fun, and beautiful read. This exchange of letters, mostly from when Nadya was in - what she also irreverently calls a Special Economic Zone - a prison hospital in Russia for "vandalism" and "incitement of religious hatred." The truth: Nadya and her fellow members of Pussy Riot protested against the oligarchy and authoritarianism of Putin and Russia and got imprisoned for doing so.

This exchange of letters illuminates Nadya's character, intellect, ideas, and worldview. At the same time, we see a slightly different side of Slavoj then some of us are used to. Both exchange profound ideas with seemingly simple ease, and with clear deliberation. Both of these people deeply care about the future of Eurasia and the rest of the world. Their insights and metaphors and philosophical tidbits are lovely to read and are quite profound. Mostly, the correspondence is just beautiful. Some of the highlights:

Nadya, 2 Feb 2013: "To put it in terms of the opposition Nietzsche set up, we're the children of Dionysus, floating by in a barrel, accepting nobody's authority. We're on the side of those who don't want final answers or transcendent truths. Our mission, rather, is the asking of questions."

Slavoj, 10 Jun 2013: "I think that Pussy Riot's performances cannot be reduced to being just subversive provocations. Beneath the dynamics of your acts, there is the inner stability of a firm ethico-political attitude. Pussy Riot does not propose merely a Dionysian destabilization of the existing static order - in a deeper sense, it is today's society that is caught in a ceazy capitalist dynamic with no inner sense or measure, and it is Pussy Riot's very existence communicates to thousands the fact that opportunist cynicism is not the only option, that we are not totally disoriented, that there still is a common cause worth fighting for."

The exchange ends with Slavoj quoting a Russian folk song. Nadya's last letter is a very poignant critique regarding Ukraine, Russia, propaganda and the zeitgeist of the times.

This is a quick read - a total of 106 pages in a 4 by 6 inch book - but leaves a lasting impression.

[Bob Reutenauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a little book that serves as an enticing introduction to the Russia of the imprisoned Pussy Riot performance provocateurs. Nadya T. is serving two years in a forced labor camp for the crime of "blasphemy" (Tsarist era law to protect religious orthodoxy brought back by Putin). Halfway through her time she manages to strike up a correspondence with the Slovenian philosophical provocateur Slavoj Zizek. They are very warm exchanges on political struggle, artistic expression and freedoms.. and very solid agreement that post 1989 Russia and much of the former Soviet satellite east are now suffering the worst of "both worlds." Stalinism continues-- her experience in the Siberian Gulag 2012 is no different than that level of existence and misery that millions lived through as a result of their crimes (thoughts/words/music/painting) against the state AND a state capitalism to boot! She is out now and hopefully the two will collaborate again, with their increased global celebrity status they will be listened to.

[Guláš Koperník · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vězení má pomáhat společenské nápravě. Není tomu tak u nás a už vůbec ne v putinovském Rusku. V prostředí, které člověka ponižuje a nedává mu naději na nový běžný život venku, potřebuje člověk podporu. Takovou podporu poskytuje Tolokonikovové Žižek, když jí připomíná, že v boji je potřeba vytrvat. Je fascinující, jak erudovaně může vězněný člověk mého věku odpovídat. Stojí za to si tuto knížku přečíst obzvlášť pokud člověku přijdou protesty Pussy Riot nesympatické. Nadevšechno je zajímavá forma té knihy - kdo ještě dnes píše dopisy? A přitom tenhle způsob komunikace byl pro velké osobnosti minulosti zásadní pro formulování jejich myšlenek. Kromě toho může dopis držet lidi nad vodou, obzvlášť nespravedlivě odsouzené vězně svědomí. Jedním z takových lidí je i Abu Mumia Jamal, i když nevede korespondenci s Žižekem, věřím tomu, že bojuje stejný boj (http://www.freemumia.com/who-is-mumia...)

[Ellie Danisch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now this book complies the extraordinary letters between Nadya Tolokonnikova and philosopher/superstar Slavoj Zizek. This novel was written during the time Nadya spent in a Russian prison camp for her anti-Putin demonstrations in 2012. Even though Nadya was combatting both horrendous labor camp conditions and heavy censorship from prison authorities, Nadya and Slavoj manage to colorfully discuss everything from Hegal to advertising's role in modern capitalism. This book is a quick read, only a 100 pages, yet very inspiring and alluring. Makes you think, and many times can lead into great discussion. More importantly, besides the fascinating philosophy discussed, these letters highlight how brilliant "punk philosopher" Nadya is and how mindful Slavoj can be.

[Katri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Filosofin ja mielipidevangin kirjeenvaihto. Järkyttävä kuvaus Venäjästä, mutta toisaalta keskustelu antaa toivoa, että joillain on vielä tolkkua ja uskallusta.

Myös meillä päivän sanana oleva asiantuntijavalta saa osuvaa kritiikkiä:

”You are right to question the idea that ’Only the experts can solve our problems.’ Maybe there are certain kinds of problems they can solve, but what they cannot do is to identify and formulate the true problems. Experts are by definition the servants of those in power: they don’t really THINK, they just apply their knowledge to problems defined by the powerful.”

Read this book if you can!

[Tami R Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most enjoyable part about this short collection of correspondence between Slavoj Zizek and Nadya Tolokonnikova is her ability to not only keep up with but to expand upon Zizek's ideas and commentary. Not only this but Nadya comes through as a highly intelligent political philosopher and thinker in her own right. Her contributions are all the more extraordinary considering the oppression she faces in one of Russia's harshest prisons in the midst of the correspondence. It's certainly an eye-opening look at what is possible in Putin's Russia against all odds.