Pavel Kushnir

Pavel Mikhailovich Kushnir (, 19 September 1984 – 27 July 2024) was a Russian pianist, writer, and political activist, who became the first political prisoner in modern Russia to die during a hunger strike. Born into a musical family in Tambov, Kushnir displayed exceptional talent as a pianist from an early age, performing at 17 the complete cycle of 24 Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich. After graduating from the Moscow Conservatory in 2007, he worked as a pianist and accompanist in various Russian cities, eventually becoming a soloist with the in 2023.

Kushnir engaged in civil activism, participating in protests against the annexation of Crimea and the war in Ukraine, and had a small YouTube channel where he criticized the Russian government. He was arrested in 2024 for his videos and accused of making public calls for terrorist activity. Kushnir died on 27 July 2024, in a detention center in Birobidzhan during a dry hunger strike. His death sparked interest in his performances and books.

Biography Early years Pavel Kushnir was born in Tambov on 19 September 1984,

True art can take place in a dorm room. At five in the morning, in the presence of two homeless guys and a room full of drunk bodies, you can brilliantly play Debussy's prelude on a keyboard doused in alcohol and set on fire, and see tears streaming from the eyes of the homeless. — Kushnir about his first year in Moscow Conservatory

Kushnir wanted to continue his studies in the conservatory, but refused to play a piece from a Schumann Phantasy during the entrance exam, because "it would ruin his interpretation of the performance". He moved to Yekaterinburg and enrolled to the aspiranture of the Urals Mussorgsky State Conservatoire. According to a friend, he was on a "different level", and had conflicts with some people on the faculty. After two years of studies, he was falsely accused of theft, and left the Conservatoire.

Career as a pianist

Kushnir worked as an accompanist at . After graduating from the conservatory, he moved to Yekaterinburg for two years, then worked for seven years in Kursk and three years in Kurgan. For the radio station, Kushnir recorded a cycle "Mazurkas on Wednesdays", for which he performed and analyzed 51 out of 58 Chopin's Mazurkas.

Pavel Kushnir was involved in civil activism. In 2010, together with a friend he "protested against the heat, walking around the city in winter clothes in 40-degree heat". For a poetic event, he wrote poems in the constructed language Naʼvi from the movie Avatar. He participated in the protests at Bolotnaya Square in 2011–2013, pickets against the war in Donbass and the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and distributed anti-war leaflets in Kursk and Birobidzhan, after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine began. In 2022 and 2023, he held anti-war hunger strikes, firstly one for twenty days, and then for a hundred.

Arrest and death Kushnir had a YouTube channel, named "Foreign agent Mulder", with only five subscribers and four videos. The channel was named after the FBI agent Fox Mulder, from Kushnir's favourite TV series, The X-Files, and Russian foreign agent law.

His friends think that he was beaten in jail, but his mother insisted on a cremation without further investigation. Pavel and his mother and brother had opposing views regarding the war and Russian politics. A few years prior he and his brother had a fight; he then had no contact with the family for two years. There were eleven people at the ceremony in Birobidzhan; his body was then sent to a crematorium in Khabarovsk. His mother and brother did not attend the farewell. He thought that he had more freedom outside of the capital, and hoped that there he could avoid playing at state pro-war concerts. After his death, his friends started writing about his overlooked genius.

In 2022, he finished his second book, Noel, French-American actress Jean Seberg became Kushnir's "role model" and a hero of the book.

Kushnir wrote the Diary in September–December 2022; it consists of three parts:

The book was edited by writer and publisher , and includes Kushnir's letters, transcripts from Kushnir's YouTube channel, and a long preface by Volchek.

Kushnir wrote several other books, also unpublished: a novel Kosyag and Begemod (Косяг и Бегемод) and a story Dust (Пыль). A book of Kishnir's commentaries on Chopin's Mazurkas is being prepared for publication.

In 2024, a scholarship named after Kushnir was created in London by producer Roman Liberov and entrepreneur Eduard Panteleev. The scholarship is intended for young musicians from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine who had to move abroad because of the war. A series of concerts in memory of Kushnir was played in European cities. The first concert in Israel was played in Tel Aviv on 25 December 2024, by pianists Oxana Yablonskaya, , and Adam Hen-Adamov. They performed Chopin's Mazurkas, with Kushnir's commentaries read before the performance, and Nirvana's songs.

In 2025, "Rachmaninoff. Preludes", played by Kushnir in 2010, was remastered and released. It is Kushnir's only released music.