Leading up to the Soviet Union’s political and social climate in the 1970s there were many historical events that lead to the separation of the Soviet Union from the rest of the world, especially the United States. After World War Ⅱ the Soviet Union feared another takeover as they incurred with Germany, so they sought to protect their communist ideals at all costs. They also heavily rejected any Western influence. Politically they were also trying to show their dominance. This combination of factors made them a political pariah, even with other communist nations like China. Paralleling the Soviet Union’s political alienation, the Soviet population also felt this divide from the rest of the world. In the readings for today, Yurchak mentions this elusive “Imaginary West”. This concept is all about how the Soviet population almost fetishized what the West is because they don’t have physical access to them. The Soviet’s find the West’s celebration of the class system and capitalism unappealing but praised them for their internationalism. Mainly though we see that the Soviet Union black and white thoughts on Western culture restrict its own countries’ cultural growth and diversity. Through the critics that emerge during this time from people like Khruschev and Zhdanov, it easy to assume that while Communist leaders tried to assert what cosmopolitanism was, they didn’t truly have a clear sense of what “bad” music or art was. This vague definition of what music should and should not be was seen before in the Soviet Union when discussing social realism. It’s difficult for lasting music to emerge from regimes like this where even the artist is confused about what kinds of music they are allowed to make. I found it interesting that academic Western input was considered okay, but more criticism came of art, film, and music. I think this criticism comes from what we know about music as a political tool, and that’s backed up by the Soviet’s criticism of Rock and Roll as a capitalist tool in the fight of capitalism versus communism. I personally think that Rock and Roll was a perfect outlet for the people of the Soviet Union who had gone through these politically challenging times and felt oppressed. Ultimately I believe that the spread of Rock and Roll and its subculture contributed to the dissolve of the Soviet Union.
1) How do you feel the Soviet Union’s political climate affected the citizens socially?
2)What issues do you find with the Soviet Union’s lack of cosmopolitanism, and how did this impact artistic production?
3) Can you relate the idea of cosmopolitanism to social realism? If so how?
4)Why do you think the Soviet Union was more critical of artistic Western works and less so of academic ones?
5) What motivations do you think the Communist party had for trying to learn more about Rock and Roll?
6) What appeal do you think Rock and Roll had to the youth in the Soviet Union?
7) How did modernized technology impact rock music and its subculture?
8) What was the role of the Komsomol, and what impact if any did they have on the Soviet youth’s thoughts on Rock and Roll?
9) Do you think the lyrics “Dolls are so tough controlled by him, and we believe naively
that a doll can speak.” have a deeper political meaning? What is it?
10) What contributions do you think Rock and Roll music had to the fall of the Soviet Union? What implications does this genre of music have?
Yurchak, Alexei. 2006. Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More : The Last Soviet Generation. In-Formation Series. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=612563&site=eds-live.
The attempt of the Soviet Union to decipher between cosmopolitanism and internationalism can be related to social realism. How the state interpreted music could be very paradoxical with some things being supported by the state because they encourage exposure to internationalism, yet other things were deemed bad by the state because they encouraged support for bourgeois art. In the case of jazz, the state thought it encouraged a connection to internationalism right after the end of WWII, but later the state thought jazz was inappropriate for Soviet citizens to listen to, despite jazz’s huge following by the youth.
I think I agree with Kate’s assertion that the paradox between encouraging exposure and hatred/distrust of a musical genre by the government seems very Soviet. Moving that a little forward, I think question six is particularly interesting in this idea. I love that this teenagers and twenty somethings were calling their pirated records “song of protest,” that is about the most rock’n’roll thing to do. I think it shows how they worked within the system that have to get the materials they wanted. It is very clever (and slightly absurd) to think that this young adults felt it would be better for them to still listen to this Western music, but make sure that they keep themselves very much in the soviet policing mindset. (It is always interesting seeing people police themselves.) Ultimately, what I think drove these young people to love rock is that it very much embodies a movement of protest in the sense that they are picking up this stuff from Western radio channels because that is the only way to “travel.” The travel bug bits with wanderlust, and when you cannot physically move around you find the next best thing.