FAMOUS RUSSIAN SINGER A JEHOVAH'S WITNESS FLEES RUSSIA

[bruceq]

He called me from New York and said: "I'm probably staying here." The news is shocking. The last thing you could expect from a person who sang (and sings): "I was born and grew up on Lenin Street". It's hard to imagine music more Russian than the one that Zero played, and Chistyakov continues to play. A brilliant album "No fools" and a few very strong singles have just come out, he has traveled around the country with concerts, he is at the peak of his form, he is finally all right after twenty years of depression and setbacks. So from what to run (and this is the escape)?

Photo from the archive of Fedor Chistyakov

... The fact that Chistyakov is a member of Jehovah's Witnesses, an organization that has just been recognized as extremist, knew everything, but did not attach importance. It was believed that the rock star has such a fad. Prince was also a Witness. And Madonna is a Kabbalist. And Tom Cruise is a Scientologist ... However, Fedor, although he never spoke about his religion at concerts and very rarely in an interview, takes her seriously. This is not a fad, this is something for which he is ready to fight.

"Witnesses" appeared in his life in the 90's, during the most difficult period. He just served an assassination attempt, went through a psychiatric hospital and was in a terrible state, on the verge of suicide. Now he does not drink, does not smoke and does not sing his old songs, where drugs are mentioned. But at the same time he did not lose the rock-n-roll drive, at the concerts he ignites in a way that few people can now. You can treat the Witnesses differently, but they rescued him, Fedor Chistyakov.

Pressure on the "Witnesses" went for a long time. In 2004, the Moscow court dismissed the Moscow community. In 2011, several criminal cases were opened. And in 2009, the NTV channel showed the film: "Watch out: Jehovah's Witnesses". In addition to the attack on the Witnesses, there was a run-in and personally on Chistyakov. Televischiki represented him in the image of a zombified and seduced sectarian, which is not true by one percent. This can be confirmed by anyone who has been to Fedor's concerts and listened to his recent recordings. The zombies do not sing like that.

The conclusion from the program was clear: look, the murderer and the addict preach the Bible! They, probably, are all like that.

The act is sneaky, whatever one may say, but Chistyakov then restrained himself. He is generally patient, his life has been broken and continues to break, like few people, one must have a strong character in order to survive and not go insane in his circumstances. As the campaign around the Witnesses unfolded, he became gloomy, nervous, but he waited. There were weak chances that it would cost. Now there are no such chances. Since July, his co-religionists and he is outside the law.

"You can regard this interview as my official statement on leaving the country," Fyodor said. "I just had no choice."

- I was not going to emigrate. There are people who for years try to get a green card or somehow get to America. And I never had any thoughts of such, nor of the possibilities. I firmly settled in place, I am already fifty, where to go? Besides, right now everything is developing very well, as a musician I am on the rise: a good band, an established tour system, one after the other albums are out. And so we flew with a tour in the US. And on the eve of the trial, the result of which was the ban of the Witnesses. For me it was a shock. The likelihood that I will not return from the American tour started to increase strongly. And on July 17, when they rejected the appeal, I made the final decision.

- What does this prohibition mean to you personally?

- First and foremost: I can not openly profess my religion. This in itself is a trauma, even if you are not being put, but there are already plantings. In Orel, for example, they took and imprisoned a citizen of Denmark. Russians are not enough for them, they decided to wet it so that the ears rang. There are options for punishment: prison, forced labor, fine. If a person is fined 100,000, and he has a salary of 20, what should he do? After that, by the way, they can plant.

"Such a situation makes any creative activity meaningless. What's the point, if tomorrow can come for you? "

 

And musical activity is connected with long-term investments. I invest my personal funds in the project, my colleagues and investors are investing. I take on very serious obligations. Concerts are planned for six months, and I have no right to even get sick, I have to play live or dead. But how to work if you can be picked up at any moment? Then you have to change your profession, but I do not want to, I still have many plans.

Last year, my spies were visited by searches of special services. Laptops, computers, hard disks were taken to find evidence of extremism. I was very worried about my home studio. It is absolutely inconceivable that my achievements are carried to an unknown place. So my move is not connected with the fact that I allegedly do not like Russia and sold to the Americans. This is a forced measure aimed at preventing me from disappearing as a creative unit. There was no other way out.

"And so you left." What will happen to the band "Fedor Chistyakov Band"? Is the project closed?

- In no case. Only the place of my physical stay has changed, nothing changes anymore. At least, I hope so. Now we are reshaping the schedules of tours taking into account the fact that I'm flying to them from America. In the near future the bandback of the group "Zero" - November 18, Moscow, "Izvestia Hall." If there is no force majeure, everything will be done. And then the recording of the new album, the material is written, you have to work with it. In addition, an American project is planned, with which I will be speaking, a contract has already been signed.

- Do you plan on singing in English?

"I'm afraid I will not succeed." Russian language, Russian thinking, Russian mentality with the move does not disappear anywhere. This is not the clothes that he took off, put on another and everything is okay. I remain the same as I was, I am still worried about things that are happening in Russia. And of course, I'm focused on the Russian public. But there is still an emigrant audience, it is not very large, but it is. I live in the area of New York, where on the street constantly hear Russian speech. And it's not even Brighton.

- The song from your new single "Time to Live" begins with the words: "There is nothing to do, nothing to do, nothing to do, only to run ..." Just about running away. Coincidence or did you plan?

- Coincidence, I was surprised to him. This is an old song "Zero", it did not have time to finish it in 1992, I do not remember what I meant at the time. Probably, flight from a difficult life situation, but not emigration exactly. We recorded it now together with Nichols, with whom "Zero" started sometime, it is possible with good conscience to consider this record as the new work of "Zero".

https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2017/07/31/73296-pochemu-fedor-chistyakov-pokinul-rossiyu

[The Librarian]

Thank you. Interesting.

I have added a link to this page on my:

 

[bruceq]

FROM RADIO FREE EUROPE:

Prominent Russian Punk-Rocker Defects To U.S. Over Jehovah's Witnesses Ban

July 31, 2017 13:04 GMT

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Russian musician Fyodor Chistyakov (file photo)

Prominent Russian punk-rocker Fyodor Chistyakov says he has decided not to return from the United States, citing Russia's new ban on the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

A member of the religous denomination since the mid-1990s, Chistyakov told Novaya Gazeta in a telephone interview from New York published on July 31 that he "has no other choice" than to stay in the United States.

"I cannot openly follow my religion [in Russia] now. And that is a trauma itself even when I am not in jail, although incarcerations are taking place already," he was quoted as saying.

Chistyakov, who is known as Dyadya Fyodor (Uncle Fyodor) and has led the groups Nol (Zero) and the Fyodor Chistyakov Band, has been on tour in the United States for several months.

The Russian Supreme Court ruled in April that the Jehovah's Witnesses were an extremist organization and prohibited them from operating in Russia. The court upheld the ruling on appeal in July.

Freedom of religion is formally guaranteed in Russia but legislation sets out Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism as the country's four traditional religions, and smaller denominations frequently face discrimination.

In recent years, there have been a growing number of reports of worshippers at Jehovah's Witnesses congregations being targeted for harassment.

A 2009 documentary called Beware: Jehovah’s Witnesses branded Chistyakov "a brainwashed sectarian."

Nol was popular in the Soviet Union, and then in its former republics, in the late 1980s and the 1990s.

With reporting by Novaya Gazeta

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-punk-chistyakov-defects-u-s-jehovah-witnesses/28650645.html

[The Librarian]

Russian JW Punk Rock.....  Now I have heard it all. 

[TrueTomHarley]

 

18 hours ago, The Librarian said:

Russian JW Punk Rock.....  Now I have heard it all.

Perhaps it is but a manifestation of the verse: to the Jews I became a Jew, to the Gentiles I became a Gentile, to the Punk Rockers, I became a Punk Rocker.