Punk Bloc: How Punk Rock Rose to Prominence as Resistance Tool in Soviet Russia
8:38 AM
This is a research paper conducted for my Russian Life and Culture class.
Throughout Western cultural history, music has
consistently been an instrument for social change. From the freewheeling Bob
Dylan waxing poetic with his harmonica to Public Enemy fighting the power of
institutionalized racism, popular music has permitted artists to express their
political views and frustrations over catchy hooks, riffs and beats. Some artists
like Buffalo Springfield and The Clash built their entire musical careers
writing now-legendary protest songs. Western protest music has been widely
distributed and easily accessible, oftentimes reaching millions of young,
impressionable minds who are eager to listen and learn.
American artists and music fans alike have taken full
advantage of our free speech, but other nations have not been so fortunate.
Throughout Russia’s soviet era, music consumption was heavily censored
similarly to the rest of the media. Rock and roll was not there to stay; in
fact, the genre was ostracized and criticized from its inception. Fearless
members of Russian youth countercultures embraced rock with open arms despite
potential legal and social consequences, eventually birthing a punk movement
and creating a community of resistance near the end of Soviet reign.
In this paper, I attempt to find out how punk rock
culture emerged from the ruins of severe censorship and became an agent of
social change during the twilight of the Soviet Union. As a musically-inclined
journalism major, I’m intrigued by punk’s flourishment in a nation where media
was strictly controlled. I came of age on the outskirts of Milwaukee’s punk
scene and have experienced firsthand how uncomfortable expressing your rage
against the government machine can be. I can only imagine how Soviet-era punks
rebelled against the system that was forced on them since birth, controlling
virtually every aspect of their lives.
After the Soviet Union’s formation in 1922, a central
censorship office was immediately established. Glavlit was responsible for enforcing censorship throughout the
U.S.S.R. to prevent political dissidence. According to Michael Fox, Glavlit became “an increasingly complex
system of pre-publication control and post publication evaluation, involving
myriad party and state agencies.” The censorship office was extremely
meticulous and maintained control of all printed materials and performing arts
endeavors. While Vladimir Lenin was still alive, the office was somewhat more
lenient with artists, allowing them creative freedom if political criticism was
not involved in their work (Fox).
In 1923, a branch of Glavlit called glavrepertkom
began its rise to power as one of the most powerful censorship branches in the
U.S.S.R. It was established to tighten censorship of the performing arts, film,
records and music. Glavrepertkom paid
especially close attention to cultural outlets that reached the masses, such as
public cinemas. In 1924, one out of every ten records were deemed unacceptable
by glavrepertkom. According to a
document published in 1926, 30% of sheet music was banned along with 7.2% of
records (Fox). These statistics would only increase as time passed and Soviet
power dynamics changed.
Lenin’s death in 1924 was a turning point for the
Soviet Union. 22 years after his passing, Soviet creatives found themselves following
the same censorship rules as the rest of the media. The Zhdanov Doctrine was
published after World War II in 1946. The document promoted even stricter
government control over art and intellectual activity and had a staunchly
anti-Western bias.
When music became mass-produced and widely
distributed, it was only natural the Soviet government would hold a tight grip
on what kind of music citizens could consume. The state-owned record label
Melodiya was founded in 1964. The label almost exclusively pressed records by
domestic musicians whose music was deemed acceptable by government officials (Bratersky).
During the 1960s, Beatlemania managed to make its way
past the Iron Curtain and into the U.S.S.R. Purchasing an authentic Beatles LP
on the black market could cost buyers nearly two weeks’ salary due to their
rarity and popularity. For many Russians, the music black market was far too
expensive to be a viable option (Aksenov).
It was inevitable that ambitious music fans would turn to producing illegal
recordings called bootlegs (Lewis).
Vinyl was scarce and expensive during the Cold War
era, but young Russian music fans worked hard to get their groove on despite
financial road bumps. Roentgenizdat,
or “bone music”, were LPs produced using discarded x-ray films and a modified
record player. Harvested from hospitals, the films were flimsy and fragile, but
easily accessible and affordable (Nagy). A counterculture called stilyagi became infamous for pressing
the illegal records, many of which were by popular Western rock and jazz
artists (Stites).
“[The stilyagi] would cut the X-ray into a crude
circle with manicure scissors and use a cigarette to burn a hole," author
Anya von Bremzen told NPR. "You'd have Elvis on the lungs, Duke Ellington
on Aunt Masha's brain scan — forbidden Western music captured on the interiors
of Soviet citizens.” Bone music LPs were similar to modern flexi-discs in
thickness and length (Nelson). One bone record could hold only one side of an
LP, but buying two bone records was still significantly less expensive than
buying one vinyl record (Nagy).
Of course, even the craftiest bootleggers couldn’t
produce illegal LPs without having the original copies first. Beatles records
were often smuggled into the U.S.S.R. by sailors, actors and other Russians who
worked abroad. Even diplomats and party workers sometimes brought the records into
the country after traveling outside of the country. Smuggling music was risky
business, and getting caught could put wrongdoers in a lot of trouble
(Woodhead). If the KGB received word of piracy, offenders could be fired from
jobs or expelled from school (Stites).
Soviet citizens were exposed to Western rock music
mostly through British artists like the aforementioned Beatles and Rolling
Stones, though neither band was popular with the Soviet officials. The
government made nonstop efforts to prevent rock and roll from entering the
public consciousness, feeling that the themes of drugs, sex and free love may
steer young communists in less desirable directions (Woodhead). A now-infamous
list of “Not recommended” music was curated by Komsomol, the Communist Party’s youth group. American punk bands
like The Stooges, The Ramones and The B-52s were banned simply for being of the
“punk” genre. Many other rock bands were also blocked from Soviet ears. Black
Sabbath’s music was banned for “religious obscurantism” while post-punk band
Talking Heads were frowned upon for promoting a “myth of Soviet military
danger.” (Kaufman)
It was not until Mikhail Gorbachev came to power that
western music became accessible in the U.S.S.R. The mid-1980s was the first
time Western musicians were able to tour in Russia (Kaufman). According to
Virginia Tech Russian scholar A. Lengyel, the music “encouraged and nurtured
the new sense of freedom and individuality growing at the time.” (Lengyel)
Finally, cherished Western musicians like ABBA, Elton John and Boney M were
able to sell their records to fans behind the Iron Curtain. Only a very select
few Western musicians were given this privilege, though, as censorship laws
were still very much in place.
Ironically, Paul McCartney eventually released a legal
album for Soviet listeners under Gorbachev’s reign. Despite previous leaders’
disdain for the Fab Four, McCartney was the first Western artist to craft an
album exclusively for Soviet markets. Titled Choba B CCCP, the album’s title is a Russian translation of “Back
In The U.S.S.R”, nodding to a single released by The Beatles in 1968. However,
McCartney didn’t have absolute creative freedom when recording the album.
Censorship laws still prevented him from writing any risqué original material,
and the album’s entire track list was composed of 1950s covers. A cover of The
Beatles’ hit “I Saw Her Standing There” was left off of the release. The record
was McCartney’s way of showing appreciation for Russian fans who supported The
Beatles since the beginning of the career. When the album was released,
McCartney said, “In releasing this record exclusively in the Soviet Union, I
extend the hand of peace and friendship to the people of Russia.”
Punk rock has incessantly been frowned upon in Western
culture, and the polarizing genre still struggles to receive widespread
acceptance today. Punk is famed for being loud, aggressive and political – all traits
the Soviet government did not want citizens to possess. Punk’s artistic peak in
the U.K. was under Margaret Thatcher’s reign, and Ronald Reagan’s presidency
sparked punk’s glory years in America. The genre is known to thrive under
oppressive conditions, especially those put in place by the government. The Soviet
Union was the ideal breeding ground for punk bands; a nation full of
disaffected youths fed up with their leaders and futures (or lack thereof).
Though punk came of age in ever-cosmopolitan London, the
genre gained traction in the desolate lands of Siberia. Siberia’s remoteness
and distance from Moscow and St. Petersburg made it an ideal place to launch a
vibrant, vocal punk scene (Kozlov). The lack of financial and cultural
resources given to young people made “do it yourself” ethics a necessity, not a
choice. Recording music and playing shows required copious amounts of effort
and innovation. Siberian punks congregated in cafeterias, libraries, and
“Houses of Culture” to engage in discussion and play music (VICE). Many
instruments were homemade using household materials like bathtubs and phones.
Microphones inside telephone receivers were fashioned into guitar pick-ups, and
many public phone booths became vandalized or broken. Guitar strings were
appropriated from pianos (Ryback).
Soviet punks were far from the caricatured Sex
Pistols-esque punk that we envision today. Censorship meant young people were
oftentimes behind on cultural trends, especially fashion. Safety pins, leather
jackets and combat boots weren’t accessible to aspiring rockers, and many took
the matter into their own hands. “We looked at old magazine photos, gave
ourselves mohawks and painted our faces so we looked like KISS,” said Alexander
Chirkin, the front man of Russian punk band Putti (Vice). Though both misguided
efforts as far as traditional punk aesthetics go, painted faces and mohawks
were certainly appalling to elders and government officials. Some punks went as
far as painting Nazi symbols on their clothes as an ultimate form of rebellion.
Soviet punk culture was especially fueled by
anti-Soviet resistance. Active participants throughout Russian punk communities
were adamant about ending communism and eradicating the radicalism of Soviet
reign. Speaking out against the government, especially through rock music, was
not appreciated by officials. Bands lived under constant government watch and
scrutiny, even having to clear their lyrics with censorship offices before
performing songs live. The “Allowed for Performance” stamp was still no
protection from police beatings or arrest. Many Soviet punks were expelled from
college, forced into the army or unable to get jobs (Kozlov).
Known widely as the godfather of Russian punk, Igor
“Yegor” Letov became a seminal punk figure throughout Russia. Hailing from
Siberia, he fronted one of Russia’s most renowned punk bands Grazhdanskaia Oborona (Civil Defense),
known as GrOb, which translates to “coffin”
in Russian. As GrOb gained underground popularity in the mid ‘80s, the band was
accused by Soviet authorities of being part of an underground terrorist group.
Letov was forced into a psych ward for three months before finally being
released. He was vocally anti-communist and became a prominent member of the
National Bolshevik Party (Yoffe).
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian punks
became an army without an enemy. Many bands dissolved during the mid and late
1990s, feeling as though they had nothing to fight about anymore (Yoffe). As
the new millennium approached and Vladimir Putin came to power, punk’s
popularity began to rise. Pussy Riot gained notoriety worldwide in 2012 after a
performance in Moscow. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina
Samutsevich were imprisoned after being found guilty of “hooliganism” after
performing a song critical of President Putin in front of a church. The song’s
lyrics roughly translate to “Mother Mary, please drive Putin away”. They were
charged for offending churchgoers with their obscene language, revealing
clothing and showing disrespect towards the Orthodox Church (Smith-Spark).
It’s clear that punk music was impactful for Soviet
youth. The most passionate punks made every effort to play their music knowing
the government was keeping a close eye on their every move. I really admire
their bravery and dedication. The most unfortunate part of writing this paper
was the lack of actual music resources. I found a few MP3s online, but for the
most part, Soviet punk music was not preserved. Because the genre lived in
secrecy, it was rarely recorded and distributed. It’s not at all like Western
punk music, where even a casual music listener could name a few bands. I’d like
to further research how people organized shows. where they purchased their
instruments, and if punk scenes in different Russian cities communicated.
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Works Cited
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