I DON'T BELIEVE IN ANARCHY

They called themselves Grazhdanskaya Oborona, or Civil Defense in English, or GrOb in the abbreviated version. They came from Omsk in Siberia. A garage punk band, at home in the underground, producing an infernal noise. They were a thorn in the side of the authorities and represented the restless spirit that blew through the country between the time of perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Union. A spirit looking for a path between the apocalypse and hope for the future. A spirit that was literally personified in the charismatic lead singer and GrOb mastermind Jegor Letow (1964–2008). I don’t believe in Anarchy is a collaboration of Anna Tsyrlina, born in Russia and now working in Basel, and Natalia Tschumakowa, Letow’s widow and bass player of GrOb. A punky, raw montage of archival material of varying quality and of current interviews with former companions that recapitulate the development of the band between 1984 and 1990. The decision to refrain from offering any cultural background analyses proves to be a suitable instrument for demonstrating the urgency of their musical existence.