Veronika Akopyan
Letter from Maria Alehina to her friends, 12.03.2012
01.05.25
About Maria Alehina
Maria Alyokhina (born June 6, 1988, Moscow) is a public figure, artist-activist, poetess, and human rights defender. She is a member of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot, co-founder (together with Nadezhda Tolokonnikova) of the online media outlet Mediazona and the prisoners' rights organization Zona Prava, and a former member of the art group Voina. In August 2012, she was sentenced to two years in prison in a penal colony of the general regime on charges of hooliganism for performing the punk prayer "Mother of God, chase Putin away!" in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. She served her sentence in the women's penal colony in Berezniki in Perm Krai and in penal colony-2 in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.
Sources
Letter: https://ovd.info/stories/2012/03/23/pismo-marii-alehinoy
Translation to English by activists of Feminist Antiwar Resistance (cell Berlin). Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAR) is a group of Russian feminists founded in February 2022 to protest against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
About Letters from the Silenced
Letters from the Silenced, a project by Veronika Akopyan, sheds light on activists and political prisoners from the USSR and modern Russia who have faced state repression for their civil and anti-war stances. Inspired by The Return of Names, an annual remembrance organized by the human rights group "Memorial," this project preserves stories of defiance and hope.
Through monthly comics for KIOSK, Akopyan shares powerful biographies and letters, honoring the ongoing struggle for justice and fostering solidarity against oppression.
About Veronika Akopyan
Veronika Akopyan is an illustrator and graphic designer based in Ghent, Belgium. She holds a specialist degree in Graphic Art and Illustration from the Moscow Stroganov Art and Design Academy and a master’s in Graphic Design from KASK School of Arts in Ghent (2023).
Her work, blending storytelling with visual artistry, has been exhibited internationally, from London to Tokyo, and has earned numerous awards. These include the “Image of the Book” awards (2021, 2022), the Grand Prix for Fazil Iskander illustrations (2021), and multiple honors from the American Art Awards. With a passion for storytelling and a fondness for visual expression, she crafts narratives that engage the mind and spark the imagination.
