Volodya Kotlyarov & PornoFilms – It Will Pass (Это пройдёт)

The summer of 2019 in Russia (like 2020) was very turbulent. Journalist Ivan Golunov was arrested and (after much uproar) released again, opposition candidates were denied entry into the Moscow City Duma elections (on September 8), and protests broke out. Volodya Kotlyarov, lead singer of PornoFilms (Порнофильмы), picked up his guitar and sang.

I/We Ivan Golunov

For more background and to provide Volodya with more context: Golunov was supported with (and on) the joint front page of three newspapers. Я/Мы Иван Голунов, by Vedomosti, Kommersant, and RBK.

See Russian journalist freed after fierce protests (Trouw, 10-06-2019) and Russian newspapers jointly support arrested colleague (Villamedia, 11-06-2019). In Russian: «Ведомости», «Коммерсант» и РБК впервые в истории выйдут с одинаковой первой полосой… (Meduza, 09-06-2019) and “Ведомости”, “Коммерсант” и РБК вышли с обложками “Мы Иван Голунов” (BBC Russian, 13-06-2019).

This didn’t bring back peace. See Moscow Police Arrest More Than 1,300 at Election Protest (The New York Times, 27-07-2019), Moscow protests: Students fighting for democracy in Russia (BBC News, 30-08-2019), and Russian protesters demand end to political crackdown (The Guardian, 29-09-2019). All summarized in 2019 Moscow protests on Wikipedia.

Prison

A protest song seemed inevitable, and you can certainly see it that way. Моя Россия сидит в тюрьме: my Russia is in prison. But это пройдёт, it will pass, sounds more like resignation (though with confidence) than a call to action or the harbinger of revolutions. Being in prison can last a long time, and it’s not easy to get out of it.

Какой же черный нам выпал век, in what a dark age we have ended up. But это пройдёт, it will pass, верь же мне, believe me, это точно пройдет, it will surely pass.

Lyrics; version with police and protests (Elijah, 2019).

PornoFilms

Of course, there is also a version by Kotlyarov’s band. Это пройдёт became the title of their new album (2020). See Wikipedia, listen on Spotify. Earlier (13-06-2019), PornoFilms played at the marathon #FreedomForGolunov on TV Rain.

Versions

There’s little to see in the YouTube video, but versions with social unrest can be found at NMTEG and Anton Dolgov (2020). There’s a lyric version (see below) and a clip for karaoke. Covers by Radio Tapok and Natallia Hrechnaya; especially check out the solo work of Килька Килькович. Play it yourself: piano or guitar.

Once discovered, the choice had to fall on the version by XYTRY MANS (2020).

Lyric version by Lyrics Channel (2020); also included in the R1 lyrics playlist, with the same album track Уроки любви.

More about PornoFilms here (2020). More about Volodya/Vladimir Kotlyarov (Володя/Владимир Котляров, 1987) on 24 СМИ, at Rockcult, on Russian Wikipedia, and even at Veggiepeople (RU). He also does some spoken word without the band and without the guitar, like in Техносфера (Стихи) and the three-minute Три.

Watch «Порнофильмы» - songs about today’s Russia (вДудь, 2019, 75 min), “Концертник”: Владимир Котляров, PornoFilms (Pavel Prokhorenkov, 2019, 54 min), or Володя Котляров [Pornofilmy] – пьянство, русский рок, FACE (Talking Heads, 2018, 51 min).

See/read «Victory is real»: lead singer of PornoFilms supports protesters in Shiyes (29 RU, 2019).

Most of the music here is also in an R1 playlist on YouTube (from recent to old).

last edited 16-01-2021