Article analyzes the music video "V Pitere — Pit!" by the group "Leningrad" leader Sergey Shnurov.
Describes the carnival, humorous, and provocative/obscene creative work as a far-reaching experiment.
Positions the songs and clips as a diagnosis of society, an anthropological description of Russia here-and-now, and a social manifesto.
Video length is 7 minutes 13 seconds; song length is 3.5 minutes.
Half of the video is free of background music and vocals.
Key Characters and Social Groups
Main character is a thin, fair-haired "nerd" in glasses with a neat haircut, modeled after Edward Snowden.
Characters represent five different social strata: a bank clerk, a convenience store saleswoman, a museum art historian, a Caucasian taxi driver, and a traffic police officer.
All characters "break the template" of everyday life and act according to the slogan "Fuck your system!".
The five social groups symbolize unity of the nation, including representatives of authority.
Alcohol and Transgression
Main elixir is vodka; champagne and martini appear briefly as markers of hussar chic.
Intoxication progresses from joyful euphoria to sleepy stupor and even vomiting.
Alcoholic transgression culminates late at night on the roof of a St. Petersburg mansion.
Visual References and Symbolism
Finale shows the main character with torches in raised hands, shot from a low angle against a huge sky.
Torch scene is a direct parody of Nicolas Cage's pose from the Hollywood blockbuster "The Rock" (1996).
Associative field includes Eugene Delacroix's canvas "Liberty Leading the People" (1830).
Compositional similarity to Delacroix's painting is reinforced by the clerk's comrades positioned at his feet.
Delacroix's painting shows five social strata around Liberty: a worker, a bourgeois, a teenager, a military man, and a Polytechnic school student representing the intelligentsia.
Torch scene can be read as a reference to the fiery Maidan near the Hermitage, as sarcasm about authorities' phobias, and as a pastiche of activist Pyotr Pavlensky's action of setting fire to the FSB door.
Details and Props
Character types are constructed thoughtfully, including office and school extras appearing for a few seconds.
Secondary details and elements of entourage are authentic and not accidental.
Key Words
"Leningrad" group
Sergey Shnurov
Music videos
St. Petersburg
Vodka
Revolt
Freedom
Pastiche
Images and allusions
Social anthropology
Laughter
Absurdity
UDC
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