After the death of Leonid Brezhnev, the active persecution of rock musicians began in the USSR. They were forbidden to perform not only in large halls – even representatives of internal affairs bodies could descend into a small basement during a concert. Searches were carried out at their home, during which files were confiscated. It wasn’t always like this. Before the Olympics in 80, popular foreign artists came to the Soviet Union, and you could listen and watch the performances of “Time Machine” or “Aquarium” freely. At the request of The Eastern Herald, journalist, producer, director of the Kushnir Production music agency, Alexander Kushnir, told how literally in 1984 all musical life died in the country, without coordination with government agencies.
Alexander Kushnir is the author of books about prominent representatives of Russian rock, such as “Headliners”, “One Hundred Magnetic Albums of Russian Rock” and “Golden Underground”. Kushnir was engaged in public relations for the groups Mumiy Troll, Zemfira *, Dances Minus, Guests from the Future and many others.
second thaw
A few years before the Moscow Olympics (and a few years after), we continued the second thaw. So nobody was blamed, nobody was imprisoned and the concerts weren’t banned. Russian rock with an overloaded guitar sound was broadcast around the world through completely official channels through the Moscow World Service radio station. He existed long before all this, but only some time before the Olympics he began to play Russian rock. Not folk, not “Play the accordion”, but, say, “Time Machine”, “Sunday” or “Autograph”.
There was even a big festival in Tbilisi called “Spring Rhythms – 80”. Not to mention the fact that in 1981 the Leningrad Rock Club appeared, quite large musical events took place calmly and regularly in Tartu and Tallinn.
In other words, until Brezhnev’s death in November 1982, everything was more or less not bad. There is factual evidence of this – for example, the “Time Machine” had an amazingly recorded live album “The Little Prince” based on Saint-Exupéry’s work of the same name. From the audience’s reaction to the recordings, it’s clear how impressive the audience is. Or a concert of the group “Dynamik” in Kirov. Or the semi-concert album “Aquarium” “Electricity”. The rickety-legged Russian rock slowly straightened his shoulders.
Vocal-Instrumental Ensemble (VIA) “Time Machine” during the filming of the concert program of Anatoly Rukhadze / TASS
It is clear that the protest, of course, was. Twenty-year-old Tsoi sang in acoustics “The train takes me where I don’t want”, but this, it seems to me, was a calm manifestation of youth. At most, the rockers went to a mental hospital in order not to join the army, which in no way can be called pressure on rock.
At the same time, it was clear to everyone that, say, the groups “Urfin Juice”, “Aquarium” or the future “Sounds of Mu” no one would be allowed to enter the official site. Although no one is particularly chasing them – let them play for themselves in suburban culture houses, just don’t send their records to the BBC and media. However, the more cunning ones, like Kuryokhin, intuitively understanding the degree of freedom, even managed to release their music in the West on vinyl, smuggling the tapes out.
Yes, all these people understood that they had no chance of being published on Melodiya. But at the same time, society itself is no, no, and sometimes it comes out with something good and pretty. “On the Waves of My Memory” by Tukhmanov was released there, Arsenal’s debut album, McCartney’s Wings album “Band On the Run” without the first song, was released in limited editions.
In general, you understood that you can buy a ticket to the Palais des Sports and attend a cool concert of “Autograph” with a laser show, or an excellent German band Puhdys. Everything was relatively good.
Yes, it was possible to win a trip to the OBKhSS just by selling tickets for such concerts, but not at all for ideological reasons.
There are those that have become official, such as “Time Machine”. They performed as a group from the Rosconcert. Their lyrics were uploaded and their concerts were organized by state organizations.
But if all this was not there, then such activity was considered private commerce – that is, a punishable act. Imagine that a group arrives in an incomprehensible bus full of musical equipment. And this equipment is taken and sealed discreetly on claims of an exclusively economic nature.
But anyway, let’s say the cops come and cancel the concert. And the same Mike Naumenko takes all his audience, and they just go to the forest. Students are organized people. All these one hundred conditional people accompany him, and he plays and sings for them. And a lot of rock bands don’t recruit as many people as he did just with a guitar in the woods, no microphone. And above all, there is no economic corpus delicti. Draw, sing, play – do whatever you want.
Dear Leonid Ilyich
30 years ago I collected material for a book on Soviet band culture “100 Albums of Soviet Rock Bands”, and everything that will be discussed further is the result of research done for it.
It all started with the death of Brezhnev on November 10, 1982. Andropov, the KGB and cultural officials at first, of course, did not have time for rockers, but by the end of the year they resumed their spirits.
No, no official documents or resolutions were released, and everything happened gradually. Let’s say that the same “Aquarium” was not forbidden to play, but in the Palace of Culture. Rusakov, they couldn’t talk anymore. They were insured by Gradsky, thanks to whom they gave concerts in the remote suburbs of Moscow, which was then the city of Dolgoprudny.
Every Leningrad Rock Club band – this is a well-known fact that can be verified from open sources – had KGB curators. However, they did not drink much blood from the musicians. Sometimes Leningrad KGB officers could come to the concert of the same Mike Naumenko and just warn at the entrance, they say, we know you are performing in Moscow on Saturday, they saw posters – you should not go , you will be screwed .
Then Mike took his wife Natasha and reportedly went to friends in Moscow. On the day off, they rushed to Zelenograd, where the DK group was rehearsing, and for an hour Mike taught zoo material with her. After that, he played in front of students who were filling some basement of a fighters’ stronghold to capacity, an excellent concert. And everyone thought it was the “Zoo”.
So, the curators of Liteiny were glad that the Zoopark group did not officially perform in Moscow, and Mike just came to his friends. The fact that at that time he was playing with musicians from DK did not bother anyone – neither Leningrad nor Moscow organs. At the same time, everyone understood that a KGB officer was in power, and that there was no reason to surrender. But all of that was nothing compared to what started in 1984.
Concert after soundcheck
1983 was a kind of “political stocktaking” of what happened next, about which neither the “hairy” nor the ordinary representatives of the internal affairs bodies themselves had any idea, but what they were were preparing unconsciously.
And so, as I write in 100 magnetic albums, February 1984 arrives. Andropov is dead, Chernenko is in power. He reads a report on topical issues of the party’s mass ideological and political work. After that, at a closed meeting at the Ministry of Culture, the following formulation was heard: “At present, there are about 30,000 professional and non-professional ensembles in the Soviet Union. Our duty is to reduce this number to zero.
So 1984 is serious enough. Then, for example, after the “Periphery” album, Shevchuk was summoned to the KGB and said: another such record – and that’s it, bars. The original of this album was destroyed by sound engineer Igor Vereshchaka during a search.
In the book “Rock Music in the USSR”, which was released in 1989, there is such a phrase: “for a year and a half not a single rock concert was held in Moscow.” Of course, let it be on the conscience of the author, but I would subscribe to it.
Recently I talked about this topic with Artemy Troitsky *, and he quite calmly told me that then it was extremely difficult. Not only was he chased everywhere, but he even practically sat without work. A circular was brought to his friends in the magazine of peers, the meaning of which was that it should not be published at all. In the same place, with much love, all his pseudonyms have been listed.
Last burp
If the general secretary speaks on the front page of all the newspapers with the resolution to intensify the ideological work, this work must be intensified to the maximum. I am not an expert, but it is clear that already in Andropov’s time the Ministry of Culture changed its outfit and began to understand that it was necessary to start playing by different rules. From November 1982 to February 1984, the entire composition of the senior staff of this department and the Komsomol district committees changed.
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, December 1, 1982 Eduard Pesov / TASS
This time perfectly characterizes the case, which I describe in “100 magnetic albums”, in the chapter “The hunt for wolves”. There is an ordinary meeting of the Ministry of Culture. He is followed by the director of the Melodiya company, who places on the reel table with the recordings of the group Firebird. He says no one needs our folk “buttercup flowers” and can’t be compared to it. The meeting is attended by Pyotr Demichev, Minister of Culture of the USSR, who immediately orders to understand what it is about.
A month later, the Firebird group ceased to exist.
By the way, one should not think that everything ended in 1985. In 1986, already in Gorbachev’s time, the TV group sang the songs “Your Dad is a Fascist” and “Three-Four Reptiles” at the festival and lost the opportunity to perform for six months for unfulfilled compositions. At the same time, rock clubs began to appear not only in St. Petersburg, and in Moscow – in the same Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk. Nevertheless, “Sounds of Mu” and “Auktyon” were banned from performing at the first Novosibirsk festival.
But these, of course, are the latest belchings of this policy, which, by the way, I myself found. And after the Central Television in January 1987 showed the “Musical Ringtone” with the group Aquarium touring the whole country, the persecution of rock musicians in the country was over.
- Recognized as a foreign agent in Russia
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the opinion of the editors
Read the Latest Ukraine War News on The Eastern Herald.
