After a hearing in the so-called Network trial in Petersburg this past Thursday, supporters of Russian political prisoners Viktor Filinkov and Yuli Boyarshinov chanted the lyrics of the song “This Will Pass,” by Russian rock group Pornofilmy, as the young men were led out of the courthouse and put in a paddy wagon for transport back to the remand prison where they have been jailed for the last two years. Since the song mentions the Network Case defendants and their torture at the hands of the FSB, and contains a brief but telling catalogue of the current Russian regime’s crimes, I made this hyperlink-annotated translation of the lyrics for you.

Pornofilmy: This Will Pass

Аll of it will pass, like thunderstorms in May

Someone’s tears, a V sign on the mouth

Like a United Russia MP’s mandate

Like an interrogation, like a cop’s sneer

Like the corridors at Lefortovo Prison

Like Beslan, like the poison gas at Nord-Ost

Like the federal pack of soulless majors

Sevastopol, Donetsk and Luhansk

This will definitely pass . . .

This will definitely pass!

A wet plastic bag on its head

Electric shock marks on its hands

My Russia is behind bars

But trust me

It will pass!

What black times we live in

But in the distance I seem to see

The forgotten light of living hope, so trust me

This will definitely pass

Like the swastika of the Russian world

Like the fires in Siberia’s forests

Prison sentences for honest guys from Penza and Petersburg

Paddy wagons packed with children

Or the lying scum on the telly

Article 228 and shakedowns at five in the morning

Like riot crops bravely maiming women

Like December, January and February

This will definitely pass…

“Putin is an enemy of the people.” March 1, 2020, Petersburg. Photo by and courtesy of VA

This will definitely pass!

A wet plastic bag on its head

Electric shock marks on its hands

My Russia is behind bars

But trust me

It will pass!

What black times we live in

But in the distance I seem to see

The forgotten light of living hope, so trust me

This will definitely pass

All of it will pass, everything passes sometime

In a year, in a day, in an instant

Yesterday’s dictator will lie alone in the morgue

Now just a dead old man

And the doors at Lefortovo will be cut from their hinges

And Russia will rise from its slumber

Like the battered and blown-up Malaysian airplane

Spring will burst into your icy hut

This will definitely pass!

A wet plastic bag on its head

Electric shock marks on its hands

My Russia is behind bars

But trust me

It will pass!

What black times we live in

But in the distance I seem to see

The forgotten light of living hope, so trust me

This will definitely pass

Translated by the Russian Reader