Journal articles on the topic 'Rock music – Soviet Union – History'

Цель статьи – выявление реформаторского потенциала рок-музыки, который проявился в ходе Перестройки. Гипотезой исследования стала мысль о том, что молодежная музыка была не столько двигателем процессов изменения советского общества, сколько отражала намерения власти и ход реальных реформ, служила для апробации реформаторского дискурса. Исследование проведено на основе анализа нарративных интервью с очевидцами событий, музыкантами и людьми, близкими к рок-культуре в конце 1980-х гг., публикаций в прессе описываемого периода, неопубликованных документов. Появление и развитие описанного в статье дискурса указывает на использование рок-музыки в качестве индикатора изменений и инструмента для забрасывания камней, то есть апробации радикальных идей и решений. The aim of this article is detection of reform potential of rock-music during Soviet Perestroika. Hypothesis of research is idea that youth music was not so much a support for changing of the Soviet society, but it was a mirror, which reflected intentions of power and process of real reforms. Rock-music was used for the testing of reform discourse. The forming and development of this discourse indicates the use of rock-music as an indicator of changings and instrument for check of discourse field or for testing radical ideas and decisions.

From the mid-1980s, rock music emerged as the leading musical culture in the major cities of the Soviet Union. In writings and research on this ‘Soundtrack of Perestroika’, attention has been primarily paid to the words rather than the sounds. Russian rock critics and academics, as well as those who participate in Russian rock culture, persistently emphasise the literary qualities of Russian rock music and most still prefer to approach rock as a form of musical poetry - ‘Rok poèziya’. This seems out of step with the growing emphasis on an interdisciplinary approach within popular music studies. The aim of this article is to investigate and discuss some of the core arguments that underpin notions of Russian rock music's literary qualities. This may help to uncover some specific national characteristics of rock in Russia, whilst at the same time questioning the need for, and value of, a literary approach to the study of Russian rock.

The article considers the phenomenon of music samizdat, which allowed Soviet music lovers to listen to Western music, which was banned in the USSR. Ways of disseminating the works of such artists as Petro Leshchenko or Alexander Vertinsky, or Western artists such as Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, Chuck Berry, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys. The study focuses on music, but rather, even on the technical side of the issue of samizdat. "Ribs", "Magnitizdat", "Rock Courier" have left a significant mark on the development of popular music of the post-Soviet period, our intelligence is focused on the history of this phenomenon.

Abstract The officially sanctioned popular music genre of Soviet estrada has traditionally been an industry where both male and female performers have been able to achieve high levels of success and public exposure. Meanwhile, within the genres of underground and unofficial popular music – rock, punk, and rap – the male-dominated gender disparity has been much more pronounced. This article investigates the reasons behind this dynamic within a Russo-Soviet context. In dialogue with Judith Butler’s notion of gender performativity as well as recent scholarship on gender in Western rock and punk movements, the present essay considers the evolution of performative strategies of female artists in Russo-Soviet popular culture. The discussion spans the Soviet, late-Soviet, and post-Soviet historical periods, focusing on the gendered performative dimensions in the musical careers of Alla Pugacheva, Yanka Diagileva, and the art-punk collective Pussy Riot, in an effort to account for the glaring dearth of female performers in traditionally “transgressive” popular genres. I present the argument that Russian and Soviet women performers working in rock, punk, and rap, or when forging new directions in estrada, have evolved to mitigate the genres’ prescriptive masculinity by relying on performing “otherness” as a conduit to mass appeal, celebrity status, and acclaim for artistic individuality.

The article examines how fashion assists in emphasizing heteronormativity in the musical film Hipsters (2008). The film is about the first countercultural phenomenon in the Soviet Union – Stiliagi. Predominantly men, these young people adapted different styles of dress, language, behaviour and dance that they felt was closely copying the styles of western cultures such as Teddy Boys. While the movement that started in the late 1940s and continued to the early 1960s included heterosocial behaviour, the film that presumably recreates the affective feeling of the culture distorts the history to spotlight heterosexuality and the search for individual freedom. It argues that given that historically and currently, the association between fashion and masculinity in the Russian culture is understood as effeminate, the film had to create clear heteronormative relationships between the male and female protagonists while emphasizing fashion and consumption. The article demonstrates how the film works within post-Soviet ideology by comparing the use of fashion in the film and the historical data about the actual Stiliagi movement of the 1950s. By negating the heterosocial and heterosexual relationship, the film created an artificial understanding of the Soviet culture. It follows the official ideological doctrine of creating nostalgia for the simpler yet somewhat stifled life in the Soviet Union without attracting the audience’s attention to the repressions of the post-Stalin Soviet Union.

The review considers the book “Progressive Rock: Heroes and Destinies. Part 2: From Soviet Art Rock to Russian Progressive Rock” by E.A. Savitskaya. It is substantiated that the work may be called a milestone on the way of the deeper understanding of the musical genre featured in the title of the book and that the work is of the utmost importance for both the history of Russian music and the theory of culture.

Abstract This article examines the compositional history and early reception of Soviet composer Andrey Volkonsky's two earliest and most important serial compositions, Musica Stricta and Suite of Mirrors (Syuita zerkal). These two works spurred on the formation of an unofficial music culture in the Soviet Union during the Thaw of the late 1950s and 1960s. Volkonsky (b. 1933) was the first and initially the most visible of a group of young Soviets known by officialdom as the “young composers” (“molodïïye kompozitorïï”). These “young composers”—among them Sofia Gubaidulina, Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, and Edison Denisov—came of age in the years following Stalin's death in 1953. Their compositions reflected their attempts to “catch up” with the Western avant-garde following decades of musical development that had been denied them under Stalin. The first “new” technique these composers adopted was serialism, and Volkonsky's early compositions illustrate the specifically Soviet approach to the method and demonstrate the meanings it held for Soviet officials and Soviet audiences. Volkonsky's early works also force a broadening of current interpretations of postwar European and American serialism. Much of the information in the article stems from personal interviews with Volkonsky and the other leading composers and performers of the Thaw, as well as archival research conducted in Russia.

The article is devoted to the history of the creation and music score of the ballet Twelve based on the poem by A. Blok by the outstanding Russian composer of the second half of the twentieth century Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko. The ballet was staged by the famous Soviet choreographer Leonid Jacobson back in 1964 and became, in fact, the first avant-garde ballet in the Soviet Union. Critics noted Tishchenko’s bright modern symphonic music and Jacobson’s free plastics, which “became a breath of clean air in the rarefied atmosphere of classical epigonism”.

Part of a larger research project about Soviet cultural consumption and identity formation, this article explores the connection between rock music and religiosity in the industrial city of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, in the late socialist period. The Committee of State Security [Komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti, KGB] closed Dnepropetrovsk to foreigners in 1959 when one of the Soviet Union’s biggest missile factories opened there. Because of its “closed” nature, Dnepropetrovsk became a unique Soviet social and cultural laboratory where various patterns of late socialism collided with new Western cultural influences. The closed city of Dnepropetrovsk can be seen as a microcosm of Soviet society as a whole. Drawing from a wide variety of sources, including archival documents, periodicals, personal diaries and interviews, this article demonstrates how popular fascination for Western rock music, such as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar, spurred interest in Christianity. Local Protestant and Orthodox church leaders skillfully promoted such interest, even as the Party bosses tried to quash it. This study stands as a reminder of the continued draw of Christianity in Orthodoxy’s heartland—even through alternative, modernizing media—despite the official promotion of atheism.

A war of history and memory over the Great Patriotic War (WWII) between the Soviet Union and Germany has been raging in Vladimir Putin’s Russia for almost two decades. Putin’s Kremlin deploys all of the mythmaking machinery at its disposal to correct narratives that demonize the Soviet Union and reflect badly on post-Soviet Russia. Victory Day, celebrated annually on 9 May with parades, concerts, films, theatre, art, and music, plays a crucial role in disseminating the Kremlin’s counter narratives.

AbstractWestern cultural influences swept the closed Ukrainian city of Dniepropetrovsk under Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko. Imports included rock music, western literature and films, consumer products such as jeans. Primary consumers were children of the elite, and later young working class students of technical institutes. These products entered Dniepropetrovsk from L'viv, and later from fraternal socialist countries and the west. They were brought illegally by black marketers and tourists. Consumers used the western products to assert new non-Soviet identities, which could include Ukrainian nationalism, religiosity, and westernized youth culture. Official reactions were contradictory, revealing tensions between Moscow and Ukrainian authorities, and within the Ukrainian cultural and security apparatus. Komsomol activists were instrumental in disseminating new trends in western music through officially sponsored discotheques. These activists would form the core of the entrepreneurial class that emerged during Gorbachev's market reforms. Zhuk offers an original picture of Soviet cultural practices by focusing on a closed Ukrainian city, rather than the more cosmopolitan Moscow or Leningrad, and by featuring cultural changes during the final three decades of Soviet power. He provides rich documentation through participant interviews, and periodicals and archival documents not previously consulted by researchers.

In 1980 Soviet Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov began a series of “postludes,” a genre representing, in his words, a “collecting of echoes, a form opening not to the end, as is more usual, but to the beginning.” This article examines Silvestrov’s Symphony no. 5 (1980–82), and the theory, practice, and reception of his evolving “post” style. The symphony represents a unique congruence of modernism and postmodernism, nostalgia and continuity, expressed at the end of the Soviet Union, the end of the twentieth century, and what many believed to be the end of history. Completed near the conclusion of the Brezhnev period of stagnation, the symphony was intended to assuage the public’s acute dissatisfaction with life in the USSR. Yet when it was first heard in the mid-1980s, it offered a comforting familiarity amid the bewildering acceleration of perestroika. Examining Silvestrov’s “post” style requires considering the sociocultural impact of his sense of ending by treating his eschatology as a useful fiction that illuminates the conflicting sensations of stasis and acceleration during the last decades of the USSR. This article draws on interviews with Silvestrov and his close associates, as well as the Silvestrov Collection at the Paul Sacher Stiftung.

Thus, the development of Ukrainian music underwent a gradual evolution until the Russian aggression began in 2022. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian-language music was not in favor, but after 2014 and especially after February 24, 2022, it became mainstream. Among Chusach varieties of musical art in Ukraine, the most common are pop, rock, rap, jazz, etc. The new opportunities that the Network has opened up for performers also have many hidden dangers. This is primarily about piracy, which significantly reduces the profits from selling your own. At the same time, thanks to multimedia and high-speed Internet, the exchange of musical novelties became more efficient. In particular, for a long time, Ukrainian music was characterized by the same trends as in the West: song plots, rhythms, popular styles of music, etc. It should be noted that the demand for Ukrainian music increased after Russia's military aggression. The Russian product was banned. So, if similar trends unfold in the same way, Ukraine will continue to see the emergence of new talented collectives. It should be noted that pop and rock are promising directions of music development but rap also looks extremely promising.

Venäläisen ohjaajan Kirill Serebrennikovin elokuva Kesä (Leto, Venäjä 2018) on tositapahtumiin perustuva, mutta silti voimakkaan fiktiivinen kuvaus Neuvostoliiton underground-rockin noususta valtavirtaan 1980-luvun alkupuolella, päähenkilöinä kaksi neuvostorockin tosielämän suurnimeä Majk Naumenko (1955–1991) ja Viktor Tsoi (1962–1990). Elokuvassa kuullaan luonnollisesti paljon musiikkia: venäläisiä ja länsimaisia 1980-luvun alun rock-hittejä sekä alkuperäisinä että uusina tulkintoina, mutta myös elokuvaa varten sävellettyä originaalimusiikkia. Kesä voitti parhaan soundtrackin palkinnon Cannesissa 2018, mutta sai Venäjällä ristiriitaisen vastaanoton.Artikkelissa keskitytään tarkastelemaan Kesän musiikinkäyttöä formalistisen lähiluvun ja rakenneanalyysin keinoin. Tarkastelun keskiössä on erityisesti elokuvamusiikin narratologia ja Claudia Gorbmanin (1987), Rick Altmanin (1987) ja Guido Heldtin (2013) määritelmät diegeettisyydestä, ei-diegeettisyydestä, supradiegeettisyydestä sekä ekstrafiktiivisyydestä. Tutkimuskysymyksenä on se, miten Kesä-elokuva käyttää neuvostoajan rockia elokuvamusiikkina ja miten tämä musiikinkäyttö ankkuroituu neuvostoelokuvien rock-musiikkikonventioihin.Kesän musiikkistrategiassa muodostuu selkeä vastakkainasettelu kotimaisen ja ulkomaisen, elävän ja nauhoitetun, sekä alkuperäisen ja uudelleentulkitun musiikin välille. Eri musiikkityylien ja kerronnan tasojen välille muodostuu elokuvassa tietynlainen säännönmukaisuus ja tehtävänjako. Se miltä kerronnan tasolta musiikin katsotaan milloinkin tulevan vaikuttaa vahvasti siihen, miten realistisena minkäkin kohtauksen voi lukea, ja tämä puolestaan sitoo elokuvan eri genreperinteisiin: realistisempi, diegeettinen musiikkiesitys ankkuroi elokuvan elämäkertaelokuvien genreen, kun taas täysin epärealistiset, supradiegeettiset musiikkiesitykset viittaavat enemmän musikaaliperinteeseen. Music and Levels of Narration in Kirill Serebrennikov’s film LetoRussian director Kirill Serebrennikov’s Leto is a film about the rise of the underground rock scene into the mainstream in early 1980s Soviet Union. The film is based on a true story and the lives of two rock legends Majk Naumenko (1955–1991) and Viktor Tsoi (1962–1990), even though it also contains plenty of highly fictitious elements. The music track features Russian and Western rock songs of the era both as original performances as well as cover versions, additionally there are also excerpts of original score. Leto won the best soundtrack award in Cannes in 2018, but it received mixed reviews in Russia.This article analyses the use of music in Leto through formalist close reading and structural analysis. The analysis relies heavily on film music narratology and in particular on Claudia Gorbman’s (1987), Rick Altman’s (1987), and Guido Heldt’s (2013) definitions of diegeticity, non-diegeticity, supradiegeticity, and extrafictivity. The research question concerns how is Soviet era rock used as film music in Leto, and how does this use relate to the rock music conventions in Soviet cinema.In the musical strategy of Leto, there arises a juxtaposition between domestic and foreign music, as well as live and recorded, and original and re-interpreted music. Furthermore, there is a structure and logic in the way the different types of music relate to the levels of narration throughout the film. The narrative level that the music is anchored to has an effect on the interpretation of individual scenes and events as realistic or unrealistic. This also anchors the film in different film genres or traditions: a more realistic, diegetic music performance is connected with traditional biopic dramas, whereas the unrealistic, supradiegetic musical performances are more closely connected with the tradition of Hollywood musicals.

Статья посвящена малоисследованному вопросу развития музыковедческих научных исследований по национальной проблематике. Особое внимание уделяется истории диссертационных работ, созданных в союзных и автономных республиках СССР. Сделана попытка выявить тенденции изменений в проблематике научного творчества на разных этапах советской истории. The article is devoted to the little-studied issue of the development of musicological research on national issues. Special attention is paid to the history of thesises created in the Union and Autonomous republics of the USSR. There is maid an attempt to identify trends in changes in the problems of scientific creativity at different stages of Soviet history

This paper addresses the modernisation of musical traditions in Soviet and Post-Soviet states, by assessing the development of particular conservatoires as proxies for the dominant discursive and political paradigms of the era. While a prominent historical purpose for the establishment of these musical institutions was for the successful introduction of the Western style of education to the Soviet Union, the situation has seen a marked change since the fall of the USSR. Much of this transition is closely tied to concepts of social and legal sovereignty, with many conservatories struggling with the political and economic transformation in the post-Soviet era, due to cultural, religious and social policy. Three particular conservatoires are used to illustrate this hypothesis: the Moscow State Conservatoire (founded in 1866), Kazan Conservatoire (founded in 1945) and State conservatoire of Uzbekistan (founded in 1936).

The Dissolution of the Soviet Union has inspired a growing awareness of the dynamic cultures of Central Asia accompanied by an expanding catalogue of resources for use in teaching and research. Among these resources are an abundance of excellent recordings of Central Asian music available on compact disc. This review serves as an introductory guide to recordings of Central Asian music that will enrich personal collections, serve as excellent teaching materials, and enhance possibilities for research. The CDs recommended here are anthologies that have been chosen for the artistic quality of the recorded performances, broad and representative coverage of relevant musical genres, and above all for the reliable commentary that accompanies these productions.

Caught between political allegiance to the Soviet Union and a shared history with West Germany, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) occupied an awkward position in Cold War Europe. While other countries in the Eastern Bloc already existed as nation-states before coming under Soviet control, the GDR was the product of Germany's arbitrary division. There was no specifically East German culture in 1945—only a German culture. When it came to matters of national identity, officials in the GDR's ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) could not posit a unique quality of “East Germanness,” but could only highlight East Germany's difference from its western neighbor. This difference did not stem from the language and culture of the past, but the politics and ideology of the present: East Germany was socialist Germany.

Examining the history of jazz in the Soviet Union between 1948 and 1953, this essay sheds light on the role of popular music in the cultural competition of the early Cold War. While the Soviet authorities pursued a tolerant policy toward jazz during World War II because of its wartime alliance with the United States, the outbreak of the Cold War in the late 1940s led to a decisive turn against this music. The Communist Party condemned jazz as the music of the “foreign bourgeoisie,” instead calling for patriotic Soviet music. Building on previous studies of the complex fate of western music in the USSR during the postwar decades, this article highlights a previously unexamined youth counterculture of jazz enthusiasts, exploring the impact of anti-jazz initiatives on grassroots cultural institutions, on the everyday cultural practices of young people, and on the Cold War’s cultural front in the USSR. It relies on sources from central and regional archives, official publications, and memoirs, alongside oral interviews with jazz musicians and cultural officials.

Abstract In this article, I show that contrary to enduring Cold War binaries between Western experimentalism and Soviet socialist realism, the Soviet government strategically deployed electronic music to bolster its image as a modern, forward-looking nation during the early Cold War. Drawing on previously unseen archival sources, oral history interviews, and organological methods, I argue that the Soviet government cultivated a specific politics of timbre through the creation of state-sponsored electronic musical instruments and ensembles. I begin by examining a 1955 order from the Ministry of Culture, by which engineers and inventors were tasked with building electronic instruments that sounded “modern.” I then follow the development of the Ekvodin, a multivoice synthesizer with a keyboard for easy performance, which the Ministry of Culture heralded as the future of Soviet music. Using the Ekvodin as a case study reveals both the sonic and the ideological values at play in the design of electronic musical instruments. I also explore two “misfires” in Soviet electronic music: the invention of the Il’ston synthesizer and Alfred Schnittke’s Poem about Space. Finally, I analyze the reception of the Ekvodin and the All-Union Radio and Television’s Ensemble of Electromusical Instruments to highlight the ideological debates over how best to “sound modern” in global networks of musical creation. In doing so, the article invites a broad reconsideration of musical aesthetics and politics in the Cold War.

"The paper focuses on the 2010s in the history of Ukrainian music criticism. The materials on contemporary art music were chosen to support the authors’ reflections and conclusions. Selection of the time, period and material for the research are conditioned both with the specific social situation of Ukraine and with the recent developments in its music scene. The paper characterizes the main media, most popular critical genres, and methods of critical coverage. It is highlighted that the problems of Ukrainian music criticism during the 2010s were linked to the post-Soviet past and, in general, to the colonial status of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire and later in the Soviet Union. Such problems include the absence of independent journals for music criticism, dominance of information genres over reviews, general stable positive evaluation of musical scene activity etc. A few examples illustrate the gradual changing of situation during the 2010s. The authors offer to consider that new period of Ukraine music criticism history began in 2020 when The Claquers, a critical media about art music in Ukraine and abroad aiming to solve the mentioned problems, was established. Keywords: Ukrainian music criticism, contemporary art music, policy of colonialism, review, announcement. "

AbstractBandura art is a unique phenomenon of Ukrainian culture, inextricably linked with the history of the Ukrainian people. The study is dedicated to one of the most tragic periods in the history of bandura art, that of the 1920s–1940s, during which the Bolsheviks were creating, expanding and strengthening the Soviet Union. Art in a multinational state at this time was supposed to be national by form and socialist by content in accordance with the concept of Bolshevik cultural policy; it also had to serve Soviet propaganda. Bandura art has always been national by its content, and professional by its form, so conflict was inevitable. The Bolsheviks embodied their cultural policy through administrative and power methods: they created numerous bandurist ensembles and imposed a repertoire that glorified the Communist Party and the Soviet system. As a result, the development of bandura art stagnated significantly, although it did not die completely. At the same time, in the post-war years this policy provoked the emigration of many professional bandurists to the USA and Canada, thus promoting the active spread of bandura art in the Ukrainian Diaspora.

Between 1962 and 1963 the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev launched several campaigns against abstractionists and formalists in Moscow, thus marking the end of the so-called Thaw throughout the Soviet Union. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia also started a campaign against national abstractionists and formalists. On the 22nd and 28th of March 1963 the works of the new poets Vizma Belševica, Monta Kroma, Ojārs Vācietis as well as writer Ēvalds Vilks came under the criticism cross-fire at the Intelligentsia Meeting of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. After the criticism from the Communist Party the above mentioned authors also had to be discussed at the Board meetings of the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union and the local organization meetings of the Party. The article examines the attitude of the Board of Soviet Writers’ Union towards the campaign initiated by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia in March 1963 by looking at the documents of the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union and the Union’s local organization of the Communist Party that are available at the State Archives of Latvia. Crucial and artistic aspects of the works of the above-mentioned authors have not been included in the analysis. Examining the debates that evolved in the Writers’ Union within the ideological campaign, it is possible to state that the Board, which was loyal to the Communist Party, kept its official stance in line with the Party principles, hereafter paying special attention to the ideologically artistic achievements of particular authors. Generally, the position of the Board of the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union in respect to the criticized authors can be evaluated as passive, because no repressions were carried out against the new authors and no creative activities were completely suspended by the Board. The campaign of 1963 strongly demonstrates the differences between the generations and the views of the writers. It also reveals the older generation’s struggle for keeping their position and prestige in the field of literature while the younger generation took an increasing opposition.

The article analyzes photographs of the world of underground music in the 1970s and 1980s. The author analyzes the images of musicians and notes their influence on the image of the heroes of Russian rock in modern cinema. Photography is considered as one of the main tools for the formation of the myth of Russian rock. Its actualization in the modern visual space in the form of exhibition projects and album editions is interpreted by taking into account the ideas of memorial culture. As a result of the research, the author reveals the adoption of the counterculture in the “big” history of the USSR and its inclusion in the nostalgic discourse about the Soviet past.

Between the two World Wars, in Belgrade and Serbia, seven musical journals were published: ?Musical Gazette? (1922), ?Music? (1928-1929), ?Herald of the Musical Society Stankovic? (1928-1934, 1938-1941; renamed to ?Musical Herald? in january 1931), ?Sound? (1932-1936), ?Journal of The South Slav Choral Union? (1935-1936, 1938), ?Slavic Music? (1939-1941) and ?Music Review? (1940). The influence of marxism can be observed in ?Musical Herald? (in the series from 1938), ?Sound? and ?Slavic Music?. A Marxist influence is obvious through indications of determinism. Namely, some writers (Dragutin Colic) observed elements of musical art and its history as (indirect) consequences of sociopolitical and economic processes. Still, journals published articles of domestic and foreign authors who interpreted the relation between music, society and economy in a much more moderate and subtle manner (D.Cvetko, A.Schering). Editors and associates of these journals also had proscriptive ambitions - they recommended and even determined regulations for composers about what kind of music to write according to social goals and needs. According to tendencies in Marxism, there was a follow up of musical work in the Soviet Union. Editors tried not to be one-sided. There were writings about the USSR by left orientated associates as much as emigrants from that country, and articles of Soviet authors were translated. Also, there were critical tones about musical development in the first country of socialism. Serbian musical periodicals recognized the enormous threat from fascism. Also, there were articles about influence of Nazi ideology and dictatorship on musical prospects in Germany. Since Germany annexed Sudetenland in 1938, ?Musical Herald? expressed support to musicians and people of that friendly country by devoting the October and November 1938 issue to Czechoslovak music, along with an appropriate introduction by the editor, Stana Djuric-Klajn.

The Spanish Civil War played a unique role in the Soviet Union’s geo-political strategies in the second half of the 1930s. The conflict marked the first occasion that Moscow had participated in a foreign war beyond its traditional spheres of influence. But Soviet involvement in the Spanish war went far beyond the sale of armor and aviation to the beleaguered Spanish Republic. While Moscow organized and supported the creation of the International Brigades, on the cultural front, the Soviets sought to roll out a broad program of propaganda, employing film, poster art and music to link the destinies of the Slavic and Hispanic peoples. If scholars have succeeded in recent years to rewrite the history of many components of Soviet participation in the Spanish Civil War, diplomatic relations between the Republic and Moscow remain an unexplored theme. This is the first instalment of a two-part article, unpublished official documents, as well as memoirs, newsreels, private letters and the press, to offer the first narrative history of the Republican embassy in Moscow. The diplomatic rapprochement between the USSR and Spain in 1933 is explored as a prelude to the exchange of ambassadors following the outbreak of the Civil War in summer 1936. The appointment of the young Spanish doctor Marcelino Pascua to a newly recreated Moscow embassy is examined in detail, up to autumn 1937. This article allows the reader hitherto unavailable access to the daily trials, disappointments and occasional breakthroughs experienced by the Spanish Republican ambassador in Stalin’s Soviet Union.

A moon rock, resting on a pedestal in the American Pavilion at the 1970 Osaka World Exposition, became the latest trophy for the United States in its fierce space race with the Soviet Union. The exhibit was part of a broader approach to U.S. diplomacy in this period, where science and technology, or in this case a scientific specimen, were deployed to spread Western democratic values, win over international public opinion, and counter anti-American sentiment. But the moon rock’s physical resemblance to earth rocks prompted a broader discussion among Japanese audiences at the Expo about the aims of U.S. scientific and technological progress, and the practicality and applicability of American cultural norms to Japanese visions of modernity. By considering what happens when a scientific specimen travels outside of the laboratory context, outside the world of scientists, and into the world of foreign relations, this article investigates the complicated dynamics of science, material culture, and power during this critical juncture in the United States’ engagement with Japan.

The article deals with identifying Russian rock culture as elitist or mass culture. The author characterizes the concepts of elitist and mass culture, explaining the difference between them, and examines the characteristics of Russian rock culture on the basis of this analysis. The author concludes that Russian rock culture is a kind of reconciliation of elite and mass culture: in the second half of the XX century the complexity of the Soviet political system and ideology determined the destiny and cultural attributes of Russian rock, making it a complex, multifaceted and eclectic phenomenon. Forced to survive, rock bands had to incorporate elements of popular music into their works and use mass media to attract the public. Having joined the ranks of commercial performances, rock 'n' roll gained more popularity, and gradually there appeared some signs of the rock culture decline. In the end, however, rock culture did not transform into mass culture, and Russian rock musicians and rock poets continued to play their music in search of a new cultural niche for themselves to express their critical attitude to reality, their denial and opposition to the processes of industrialization and urbanization, returning to the history and culture of the nation, paying attention to philosophical and religious issues and to the depth and completeness of poetic content, reconstructing Russian cultural memory, reflecting on the environmental situation in the modern world. Rock culture is still a culture of resistance, but as society continues to change, the form and content of resistance is also constantly changing, and it is because of this that rock culture has acquired a kind of humanistic foundation that is much deeper than that of popular culture, so ignoring the difference between rock culture and popular culture destroys the innate spirit and the essence of rock culture itself.

The article describes the process of work on researching Soviet musicology of the time period from the 1920s to the 1940s. The study was carried out under the RFBR project “The Phenomenon of Soviet Musicology and Its Influence on the Formation of Russian Musical Culture.” The history of Soviet musicology is studied on the basis of archival documents that make it possible to reconstruct little-known historical events, and also to characterize the peculiarities of musicology in the context of each decade. The first post-revolutionary decade passed under the sign of the search for its own academic scholarly institutions, which were alternately made available and then closed down, in accordance with the state policy. However, it was during this period that the fundamental foundations of 20th century Russian musicological thought were laid. Of special interest is the work on creating a complex of tutorial literature. Starting from 1936 (since the time of the creation of the All-Union Committee for the Affairs of Art), work on creating textbooks has become one of the main forms of scholarly activity of the musicological departments of the Moscow and Leningrad Conservatories, later the Gnesins’ State Musical Pedagogical Institute and the Institute of Art History of the USSR Academy of Sciences (presently, the State Institute of Art Studies), both established in 1944. Discussions of issues of paramount importance – such as the historical periodization of Russian music history, the content and methodology of training courses, – frequently took place for many days in a row, with the results of the discussion reflected in the central newspapers and magazines. The transcripts of these sessions, in certain cases, exceed 1,500 pages. An important direction of this research was also the study of the main directions in the development of musicology. Along with the creation of textbooks, monographs and other academic works, dissertation work began in the 1930s–1940s. This contributed to a great extent to the integration of musicology into the general scholarly humanitarian field. In the same period, numerous discussions of new Soviet compositions began – primarily, operas and symphonies.

The article examines the relationship between music and poetry in the ballet The Twelve by the outstanding Russian symphonist of the second half of the XX century Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko (1939–2010). The performance by the famous choreographer L. Yakobson, staged at the Kirov Theater in Leningrad in 1964, became one of the first avant-garde ballets in the Soviet Union. The study focuses on the different approaches of the composer and choreographer to the stage performance of A. Blok's poetry, which led to serious creative disagreements and even conflicts during the preparation of the premiere. Tishchenko in his reading relied on Blok's verse, its rhythm, size and complex, sometimes unexpected semantics. The speech beginning in The Twelve is quite tangible, the composer often follows Blok's lines literally. They now and then emerge in the flow of music, controlling it not only in the figurative-semantic and plot plans, but also in the rhythmic-intonation. The article concludes that Tishchenko's work has led to an impressive artistic result: the ballet score is written in a fresh, original and modern language. Tishchenko's music became the basis of the first avant-garde Soviet ballet performance and, in this context, firmly entered the history of Russian art

The article provides evidence of eyewitnesses and performers about the history of performance in China of PI Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin", the first acquaintance with which the Chinese audience took place back in the 20s of the last century. It is noted that the premiere of "Eugene Onegin" in Chinese was held in an abridged version at the Central Music Conservatory of Tianjin on May 26, 1956 by the efforts of teachers and students under the leadership of Huang Lifay. Professors and vocal teachers from the Soviet Union - PM Medvedev and NK Kuklina-Vrana - contributed to the first production. The historical significance of the first production of Eugene Onegin is that it was performed in Chinese. It was difficult to translate the literary text of the opera due to the need to correlate the Chinese verbal text with musically complex opera parts and at the same time preserve the charm of Pushkin's poetry. The production of the opera in Chinese made it more accessible to music lovers. It is noted that the opera "Eugene Onegin" without any cuts saw the light of the footlights of the Beijing Tian Qiao Theater in August 1962.

На основе документов, хранящихся в архивах Дармштадта, в статье прослеживается история взаимодействия Международных летних курсов новой музыки с советскими музыкантами и музыкальными учреждениями. Хотя изменение политической ситуации в период холодной войны оказывало существенное влияние на интенсивность контактов, они никогда не прерывались. Также на характер связей влияли деловые качества и интересы руководителей курсов. В связи с этим в статье предлагается периодизация истории советской и постсоветской музыки в крупнейшем центре западного авангарда. Идея установления контактов между Дармштадтским международным музыкальным институтом и Советской Россией возникла в конце 1940-х годов, когда Вольфганг Штайнеке обратился к Хансу Майеру с просьбой рассказать о музыке СССР на Летних курсах. В 1950-е годы руководство института активно контактировало с Союзом советских композиторов, возник план пригласить Святослава Рихтера к преподаванию в Дармштадте. В 1960-х годах новый руководитель учреждения Эрнст Томас вел переписку с директором Музея музыкальной культуры имени М. И. Глинки Екатериной Алексеевой. Тогда же журналист Пол Моор помог связаться с Эдисоном Денисовым в Москве и организовать исполнение его музыки на Западе. В 1980-х годах с приходом Фридриха Хоммеля в Дармштадте возрос интерес к новой музыке различных стран мира; в частности, заметным событием стали лекции Детлефа Гойовы о русском авангарде 1920-х годов. В 1990-е годы Екатерина Блажкова внесла существенный вклад в укрепление связей между Дармштадтом и музыкальным Санкт-Петербургом; не менее значимым было участие в курсах 1992 года Александра Кнайфеля, Татьяны Мелентьевой и Александра Радвиловича. В XXI веке в Дармштадте работали такие известные композиторы, как Владимир Тарнопольский, Ольга Раева, Сергей Невский и другие. On the basis of documents kept in the Darmstadt archives, the article traces the history of the interaction of the International Summer Courses for New Music with Soviet musicians and musical institutions. Although the change in the political situation during the Cold War had a significant impact on the intensity of contacts, they were never interrupted. Also, the nature of contacts was influenced by the business qualities and interests of course chiefs; in this regard, the article proposes a periodization of the history of Soviet and post-Soviet music in the most significant center of the Western musical avant-garde. Exchanges between I nternationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt and Russia took root in the late 1940s when Wolfgang Steinecke dialogued with Hans Mayer to introduce USSR music in the Darmstadter Ferienkurse. In the 1950s, the Union of Soviet Composers was also active in contacts with the IMD, when Steinecke planned to invite Sviatoslav Richter to teach in Darmstadt. In the 1960s, journalist Paul Moor facilitated the connection with Edison Denisov in Moscow during the leadership of Ernst Thomas, who also exchanged letters with the director of the Glinka Museum. In the 1980s, Friedrich Hommel's inauguration brought an internationalist atmosphere to Darmstadt coexisting with the participation of musicologist Detlef Gojowy who gave lectures on Russian avant-garde music in the 1920s. In the 1990s, Ekaterina Blazhkova implemented a fruitful link between Darmstadt and St. Petersburg, which converged with the participation of Alexander Knaifel, Tatiana Melentieva and Alexander Radvilovitsch in the Ferienkurse 1992. In the 21 century, several Russian composers were in Darmstadt, among them Vladimir Tarnopolski, Olga Rayeva and Sergej Newski.

The article reconstructs the process of origin and development of the festival movement in the Urals in the 1930s – 1970s in the music and concert sphere. The history of some of the largest festivals is viewed in the context of the formation of the Soviet festive culture and the goals of the Soviet cultural policy. The authors highlight the main holidays, for which the philharmonic society prepared musical programs - the anniversaries of the October Revolution of 1917 and the formation of the USSR, the birthday of V.I. Lenin. Since the late 1930s, the scope of musical programs has steadily increased. More and more organizations were involved in the creative process - philharmonic societies, theaters, libraries, clubs, art centers, departments of public education. The concert space has expanded from the «palaces of culture» and concert halls of the city to the central squares of the city, open spaces outside the cities and villages. In the 60s, favorable conditions for the development of the music industry were formed. Philharmonic music programs turn into mass celebrations, and then into regional festivals of professional, folk and amateur art. These events covered all audiences - schoolchildren, young people, factory workers and agricultural workers, the intelligentsia. Festivals acquired names, received vivid coverage in periodicals. Sometimes preparations for such celebrations took 1–2 years, and the festivals themselves could “travel” by train or car to regional cities and large villages during the whole jubilee year. By the 70s, the Ural music festivals reached the All-Union level, and also acquired international cultural ties. Special attention is paid to the forms of education, the repertoire of groups, geography and the organization of festivals. These festivals are considered by the authors as an instrument of popularizing and educating the “right” values among the people; they were supposed to activate mass practical activities. Ideas that sounded in musical-verbal and visual form from the stadiums, the stage of theaters during the festivals for a long time will be significant and memorable for a whole generation of people in our country. Therefore, a music festival can be considered not just a form of bringing people to the world musical heritage and educating people, but also an effective way to preserve the cultural memory of a people. The article uses archival materials, including those not previously introduced into scientific circulation, which help to understand the significance of these festivals for the regional culture of the Soviet period.

The traditional culture existing in the city experienced considerable changes in the course of the last century. Rather than comprising continuous, gradual development, this change involved several radical cultural shifts, taking place in the 20th century (e. g. in the beginning of the century, in the 1960s, and 1990s). The article compares the urban, social and cultural changes in order to determine periods when the traditional culture experienced the most crucial transformations and when various new phenomena appeared. A clear shift in the urban culture took place in the 1960s in Lithuania, when a political “warming” of sorts could be felt and the pressure of the communist ideology was somewhat lighter. The economic growth was followed by the formation of the consumer society (although a rather different one from that emerging in the liberal countries), taking place in Vilnius, Kaunas, and other cities. The 1960s and the subsequent decades were characterized by a considerable variety of the urban culture in Lithuania, especially in its capital city. In the musical sphere, the state-supported academic music, the professionally performed folk music, and the show music were particularly thriving; but performances of jazz, rock and authentic folklore also gained momentum.The Lithuanian Folklore Theater, which started its activity in 1968 in Vilnius, can be presented as a typical example of the altered tradition. Director of this theater Povilas Mataitis and his wife, scenographer Dalia Mataitienė managed to achieve a subtle harmony between the folk tradition and their individual artistic expression, uniting in their performances elements of folklore and the modern art, and using small artistic forms, so typical to the folk art, to create complicate ambivalent compositions. Nevertheless, the stylistic shifts of the 1960s were best reflected in the rock music. The swinging two-part rhythm and open expressions of the individual feelings embodied a radical stylistic change at that time (although such means of expression are completely common and trivial today). Starting from the 1960s these innovations affected not only the urban composers, but also the folksong creators at the countryside.The significant cultural shift took place also after the Lithuanian independence was regained in 1990. The Soviet past was rejected, the Western notion of culture was willingly adopted, and the patterns of cultural life and financing were increasingly altered. The formerly state-supported cultural institutions and performers had to adapt to the free-market. At first, the cultural shift of the 1990s resembled an avalanche: the former unified whole – the coherent image of the national culture created during the Soviet times was shattered. Composers and authors plagued by various difficulties found respite, though, in the new kinds of the available information, the opened possibilities of getting to know the global culture, which had been hitherto almost impossible to gain access to. The epoch of postmodernity, characterized by free associations between various historical and cultural signs, was favorable to the continuation of traditions; therefore various transformations of folklore quickly appeared, musical styles from different periods and nations were abundant, and all sorts of their hybrids were created. A new thing establishing itself on the Vilnius pavement was hip hop – the Afro-American music and life style, born in the suburbs of New York. It was increasingly adopted and furthered by the Vilnius inhabitants, born in the concrete districts of the city, whose youth coincided with the years of the post-Soviet economic “shock-therapy”.The traditional music found its place in the city as well, growing as a moss on a stone. It is now performed both in the great ceremonious halls and in the small, stuffy premises, or simply outside during spring and summer. The city of the 21st century is characterized by such cultural phenomena as urban folklore, bard songs, live music, street music, post-folklore, indigenous culture, Baltic music, pagan art, improvisational music, underground music, etc. Urban tradition is a multifaceted and a multileveled one, its continuation constantly involves connecting different musical styles and respective communities.In the urban environment, the preservation of the folk music is no longer the concern of exclusively the representatives of the folklore movement; authors of different kinds are also involved, including the jazz and rock musicians, visual artists, IT specialists, and actors. Nowadays, the third generation is gradually involved into the urban folklore movement, as its pioneers, having already become grandparents, bring their grandchildren into the same halls and yards of the Old Town, where they used to perform in their youth. At the same time, new cultural wave created by the contemporary young people rises from the underground clubs, multimedia or electronic music labs, and artistic workshops. The young keep always creating something new, but this should not be regarded as a threat to the preservation of the urban folk tradition.

“National Cultural Elements” and Advertising the International Tourism in the Soviet Tourist Agencies During the Brezhnev Era, 1964–1984Using the archival documents and personal interviews as historical sources, this essay analyzes the ideological problems of advertising international tourism in the main travel agencies of the Soviet Union during the Brezhnev era, 1964–1984. These agencies, Inturist, a Tourist Department of the Soviet Trade Unions and a Communist Youth League’s organization Sputnik, encountered problems with advertising from the very beginning of their history. In the 1960s and 70s they created special departments responsible for propaganda and advertising or advertising and mass media in Inturist. On the one hand, these tourist agencies had to provide interesting information to attract more Soviet and foreign tourists and more financial sources. On the other hand, the most attractive elements in advertising Soviet tourism were various national elements of different Soviet nationalities, including their costumes, music and handicrafts. As a result, such efforts exposed the limits of Soviet cultural homogenization project during the stage of developed socialism. In practice, this led to serious problems for the representatives of the Soviet tourist agencies in foreign countries. The most dangerous problem was nationalism.The essay explores how the problems of national identity were tied to advertising Soviet Union travel to foreign tourists as a new strategy of the Soviet tourist agencies during late socialism before perestroika. Despite strict KGB and ideological regulations, new “national” forms of advertising such as folk music survived after 1984 and contributed to expansion of tourism, which brought increased profits and influence to the leaders of the local tourist agencies. „Elementy kultury narodowej” a reklama turystyki zagranicznej w radzieckich biurach podróży w epoce Breżniewa, 1964–1984W oparciu o dokumenty archiwalne i wywiady osobiste jako materiały do badań historycznych autor artykułu analizuje zagadnienia ideologii reklamowania turystyki zagranicznej przez czołowe radzieckie biura podróży za czasów Leonida Breżniewa, tj. w latach 1964–1984. Owe biura podróży, Inturist, Wydział Turystyki Związków Zawodowych ZSSR oraz organizacja Ligi Młodzieży Komunistycznej „Sputnik” od samego początku swej działalności napotykały trudności w reklamowaniu swoich usług. W latach sześćdziesiątych i siedemdziesiątych XX wieku powstały specjalne wydziały odpowiedzialne za propagandę i reklamę bądź, jak w Inturiście, za reklamę i środki masowego przekazu. Z jednej strony biura podróży zobligowane były do podawania interesujących informacji, aby zwrócić uwagę większej liczby turystów krajowych i zagranicznych, jak też zwiększyć wpływy finansowe z turystyki. Z drugiej strony te najatrakcyjniejsze elementy w materiałach reklamujących podróże do ZSRR to były rozmaite elementy kultury poszczególnych narodowości zamieszkujących ZSRR, takie jak strój, muzyka i rzemiosło ludowe. W rezultacie podejmowane w zakresie reklamy wysiłki obnażały granice kulturowej homogenizacji dokonującej się na sposób sowiecki na etapie rozwiniętego socjalizmu. Stąd też w swej codziennej praktyce przedstawiciele radzieckich biur podróży za granicą borykali się z poważnymi trudnościami. Najbardziej niebezpieczny stał się problem nacjonalizmu.Autor artykułu docieka, w jaki sposób kwestia tożsamości narodowej została powiązana z reklamowaniem podróży do ZSRR jako nowa strategia radzieckich biur podróży w schyłkowym okresie socjalizmu, przed pierestrojką. Pomimo ścisłych wymogów ideologicznych i działań podejmowanych przez KGB, nowe formy reklamy o treściach „narodowych”, takie jak muzyka ludowa, przetrwały w okresie po roku 1984, przyczyniając się do rozwoju turystyki i przynosząc szefom lokalnych biur podróży coraz większe dochody i wpływy.

Crimea is now an autonomous parliamentary republic which is governed by the Constitution of Crimea in accordance with the laws of Ukraine. But, Crimea has been home to different nations during the history, as a result of the cultural wealth and thisfactor has been moved to today patterns. Crimean Tatars is one of the important parts of this wealth. The Crimean Tatars were forcibly expelled to Central Asia by Joseph Stalin's government after II. World War. After the fall of the Soviet Union, some Crimean Ta began to return to the region. Now, Crimean Tatars, an ethnic minority in Crimea and make up about 13% of the population. So, Crimean Tatars’ music must be evaluated in two periods. Before exile and after exile. There are many networks in the music of Crimea, and these networks can continue their existence even in small villages. On the other hand, the effects of popular culture increasing on Crimean Tatars music. The aim of this paper is to explain the musical differences in the process of change Crimean Tatars from generation to generation; define the effects of the people, places and mass media that cause them, observe them in daily practice and analyze these type of issues.

In this article Alexander Golovlev offers a comparative examination of the theatre policies of Fascist Italy and Stalinist Soviet Union. He argues that, although the two regimes shared parallel time frames and gravitated around similar institutional solutions, Italian Fascism was fundamentally different in its reluctance to destroy the privately based theatre structure in favour of a state theatre and to impose a unified style, while Stalin carried out an ambitious and violent campaign to instil Socialist Realism through continuous disciplining, repression, and institutional supervision. In pursuing a nearly identical goal of achieving full obedience, the regimes used different means, and obtained similarly mixed results. While the Italian experience ended with the defeat of Fascism, Soviet theatres underwent de-Stalinization in the post-war decades, indicating the potential for sluggish stability in such frameworks of cultural-political control. Alexander Golovlev is Research Fellow at the International Centre for the History and Sociology of World War II and Its Consequences, National Research University, Higher School of Economics / Fondation de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, and ATLAS Fellow, Centre d’histoire culturelle des sociétés contemporaines, Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines/ Université Paris-Saclay. His most recent publications include ‘Sounds of Music from across the Sea: Musical Transnationality in Early Post-World-War-II Austria’, in Yearbook of Transnational History 1 (2018) and ‘Von der Seine an die Salzach: die Teilnahme vom Straßburger Domchor an den Salzburger Festspielen und die französische Musikdiplom atie in Österreich während der alliierten Besatzungs zeit’, Journal of Austrian Studies (2018). He is currently working on the political economy of the Bolshoi theatre under Stalinism.

The 1933 production of Khovanshchina at La Scala conducted by Vittorio Gui (1885–1975) was chronologically the second one on the Italian opera stage, the first being the 1926 premiere. In studying the Italian productions of Khovanshchina, the 1933 stage version is usually overshadowed by the premiere; however, the performance under V. Gui’s direction was not a remake, but an independent work of artistic expression. The period of seven years between the first and second Italian productions marked a significant shift in academic and artistic attitudes to studying and performing author’s versions of M.P. Mussorgsky’s legacy in the Soviet Union, as opposed to the creative arrangements by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, which up to that time had been considered the standard versions. Thus, P.A. Lamm, with the support of B.V. Asafyev, initiated the publication of Mussorgsky’s Complete Works based on the composer’s autographs. The first volumes of this collection were published, including the piano-vocal score and the full score of the opera Boris Godunov and the piano-vocal score of the opera Khovanshchina. Additionally, there were several productions and concert performances of Boris Godunov based on sheet music as revised by Lamm. V. Gui was aware of the work carried out by Soviet scholars but did not have access to the manuscript of the orchestral score of Khovanshchina created by Asafyev. For this reason, he created his own stage version of the opera, having built it upon Rimsky-Korsakov’s score but changed its structure and, in individual fragments — the orchestration and the tonal plan.

В статье рассматривается балет Рейнгольда Глиэра и Михаила Курилко «Красный мак» в контексте закрепившегося за ним титула «первый советский балет». История его создания анализируется в качестве мифа о чудесном обретении «подлинно советского балета». Поставленный в год десятилетия Октября, «Красный мак» завершил попытки адаптировать монархическое искусство классического танца к социалистическому строю. Авторы избрали радикально консервативный метод: антиколониальный сюжет о советских людях и классовой борьбе в Китае был развернут в музыкальных и пластических шаблонах балетного театра конца XIX века. Это дало неожиданный результат: Россия предстала на сцене колонией Советского Союза. Поэтика «Красного мака» впервые рассматривается в тесной связи с дипломатическими маневрами советского правительства и культурными событиями времени, предшествовавшего премьере. В русскоязычный контекст вводятся работы Эдварда Тайермана, крупнейшего исследователя советско-китайской культурной коммуникации 1920-х годов. The article examines the ballet "The Red Poppy” by Reinhold Gliere and Mikhail Kurilko in the context of the title "the first Soviet ballet” that has been assigned to it and stuck. Its composition history is analyzed as a myth of the miraculous attainment of an "authentic-Soviet ballet.” Staged in the year of the decade of the October Revolution, it completed the choreographers' attempts to find a model of a "truly Soviet ballet,” that is to adapt the "monarchist art of classical dance” to the new socio-political system. The authors of "The Red Poppy” chose a radically conservative method. The anti-colonial plot about the class struggle in China and the Soviet people was developed in the patterns of the ballet theater of the late 19 century, which defined the script, the dance and the music. This gave an unexpected result of contemporary Russia appearing on the stage as a colony of the Soviet Union. For the first time the "Red Poppy” poetic is considered together with the diplomatic maneuvers of the Soviet government and the cultural events preceding the premiere. The work of Edward Thayerman, a major scholar of Soviet-Chinese cultural communication in the 1920s, is introduced into the Russian discourse.

Educational conditions reflect society’s cultural traditions and political system, in turn affecting society’s development. The development of the younger generation is guided by way of education, for which reason working out educational policy requires the participation of society’s various interest groups. This article analyses changes in the teaching of history in the transitional period from the Soviet era to restored independent statehood. The development of subject content, the complicated role of the history teacher, the training of history teachers, and the start of the renewal of textbooks and educational literature are examined. The aim is to ascertain in retrospect the developments that took place prior to the restoration of Estonia’s independence, in other words the first steps that laid the foundation for today’s educational system. Legislation, documents, publications, and media reports preserved in the archives of the Ministry of Education and Research and the Archival Museum of Estonian Pedagogics were drawn upon in writing this article, along with the recollections of teachers who worked in schools in that complicated period. These recollections were gathered by way of interviews (10) and questionnaires (127). Electronic correspondence has been conducted with key persons who participated in changes in education in order to clarify information, facts, conditions and circumstances. The discussion in education began with a congress of teachers in 1987, where the excessive regulation of education was criticised, along with school subjects with outdated content, and the curriculum that was in effect for the entire Soviet Union. The resolution of the congress presented the task of building a national and independent Estonian school system. The congress provided an impetus for increasing social activeness. An abundance of associations and unions of teachers and schools emerged in the course of the educational reform of the subsequent years. After the congress, the Minister of Education, Elsa Gretškina, initiated a series of expert consultations at the Republic-wide Institute for In-service Training of Teachers (VÕT) for reorganising general education. The pedagogical experience of Estonia and other countries was analysed, new curricula were drawn up and evaluated, and new programmes were designed for school subjects. The solution was seen in democratising education: in shaping the distinctive character of schools, taking into account specific local peculiarities, establishing alternative schools, differentiating study, increasing awareness and the relative proportion of humanities subjects and foreign language study, better integrating school subjects, and ethical upbringing. The problems of schools where Russian was the language of instruction were also discussed. The Ministry of Education announced a competition for school programmes in 1988 to find innovative ideas for carrying out educational reform. The winning programme prescribed compulsory basic education until the end of the 9th grade, and opportunities for specialisation starting in the second year of study in secondary school, that is starting in the 11th grade. Additionally, the programme prescribed a transition to a 12-grade system of study. Schools where Russian was the language of instruction were to operate separately, but were obliged to teach the Estonian language and Estonian literature, history, music and other subjects. Hitherto devised innovative ideas for developing Estonian education were summed up in the education platform, which is a consensual document that was approved at the end of 1988 at the conference of Estonian educators and in 1989 by the board of the ESSR State Education Committee. The constant reorganisation of institutions hindered development in educational conditions. The activity of the Education Committee, which had been formed in 1988 and brought together different spheres of educational policy, was terminated at the end of 1989, when the tasks of the committee were once again transferred to the Ministry of Education. The Republic-wide Institute for In-service Training of Teachers, the ESSR Scientific-Methodical Cabinet for Higher and Secondary Education, the ESSR Teaching Methodology Cabinet, the ESSR Preschool Upbringing Methodology Cabinet, and the ESSR Vocational Education Teaching and Methodology Cabinet were all closed down in 1989. The Estonian Centre for the Development of Education was formed in July of 1989 in place of the institutions that were closed down. The Institute for Pedagogical Research was founded on 1 April 1991 as a structural subunit of the Tallinn Pedagogical Institute, and was given the task of developing study programmes for general education schools. The Institute for the Scientific Research of Pedagogy (PTUI) was also closed down as part of the same reorganisation. The work of history and social studies teachers was considered particularly complicated and responsible in that period. The salary rate of history teachers working in secondary schools was raised in 1988 by 15% over that of teachers of other subjects, since their workload was greater than that of teachers of other subjects – the renewal of teaching materials did not catch up with the changes that were taking place in society and teachers themselves had to draw up pertinent teaching materials in place of Soviet era textbooks. Articles published in the press, newer viewpoints found in the media, published collections of documents, national radio broadcasts, historical literature and school textbooks from before the Second World War, and writings of notable historians, including those that were published in the press throughout the Soviet Union, were used for this purpose. Teachers had extensive freedom in deciding on the content of their subject matter, since initially there were no definite arrangements in that regard. A history programme group consisting of volunteer enthusiasts took shape at a brainstorming session held after the teachers’ congress. This group started renewing subject matter content and working out a new programme. The PTUI had already launched developmental work. There in the PTUI, Silvia Õispuu coordinated the development of history subject matter content (this work continued until 1993, when this activity became the task of the National Bureau of Schools). The curriculum for 1988 still remained based on history programmes that were in effect throughout the Soviet Union. The greatest change was the teaching of history as a unified course in world history together with themes from the history of the Estonian SSR. The first new curriculum was approved in the spring of 1989, according to which the academic year was divided up into three trimesters. The school week was already a five-day week by then, which ensured 175 days of study per year. The teaching of history began in the 5th grade and it was taught two hours per week until the end of basic school (grades 5 – 9). Compulsory teaching of history was specified for everyone in the 10th grade in secondary school, so-called basic education for two hours a week. The general and humanities educational branches had to study history three hours a week while the sciences branch only had to study history for two hours a week. Students were left to decide on optional subjects and elective subjects based on their own preferences and on what the school was able to offer. The new conception of teaching history envisaged that students learn to know the past through teaching both in the form of a general overview as well as on the basis of events and phenomena that most characterise the particular era under consideration. The teacher was responsible for choosing how in-depth the treatment of the subject matter would be. The new programmes were implemented in their entirety in the academic year of 1990/1991. At the same time, work continued on improving subject programmes. After ideological treatments were discarded, the aim became to make teaching practice learner-oriented. The new curriculum was optional for schools where the language of instruction was Russian. Recommendations for working with renewed subject content regarding Estonian themes in particular were conveyed by way of translated materials. These schools mostly continued to work on the basis of the structure and subject content that was in effect in the Soviet Union, teaching only the history of the Soviet Union and general history. Certain themes from Estonian history were considered in parallel with and on the basis of the course on the history of the Soviet Union. The number of lessons teaching the national official language (Estonian) was increased in the academic year of 1989/1990 and a year later, subjects from the Estonian curriculum started being taught, including Estonian history. The national curriculum for Estonian basic education and secondary education was finally unified once and for all in Estonia’s educational system in 1996. During the Soviet era, the authorities attempted to make the teaching profession attractive by offering long summer breaks, pension insurance, subsidised heating and electricity for teachers in the countryside, and apartments free of charge. This did not compensate the lack of professional freedom – teachers worked under the supervision of inspectors since the Soviet system required history teachers to justify Soviet ideology. The effectiveness of each teacher’s work was assessed on the basis of social activeness and the grades of their students. The content and form of Sovietera teacher training were the object of criticism. They were assessed as not meeting the requirements of the times and the needs of schools. Changes took place in the curricula of teacher training in 1990/1991. Teachers had to reassess and expand their knowledge of history during the transitional period. Participation in social movements such as the cultural heritage preservation movement also shaped their mentality. The key question was educational literature. The government launched competitions and scholarships in order to speed up the completion of educational literature. A teaching aid for secondary school Estonian history was published in 1989 with the participation of 18 authors. Its aim was set as the presentation of historical facts that are as truthful as possible from the standpoint of the Estonian people. Eesti ajalugu (The History of Estonia) is more of a teacher’s handbook filled with facts that lacks a methodical part, and does not include maps, explanations of terms or illustrations meant for students. The compendious treatment of Estonian history Kodulugu I and II (History of our Homeland) by Mart Laar, Lauri Vahtre and Heiki Valk that was published in the Loomingu Raamatukogu series was also used as a textbook in 1989. It was not possible to publish all planned textbooks during the transitional period. The first round of textbooks with renewed content reached schools by 1994. Since the authors had no prior experience and it was difficult to obtain original material, the authors of the first textbooks were primarily academic historians and the textbooks had a scholarly slant. They were voluminous and filled with facts, and their wording was complicated, which their weak methodical part did not compensate. Here and there the effect of the Soviet era could still be felt in both assessments and the use of terminology. There were also problems with textbook design and their printing quality. Changes in education did not take place overnight. Both Soviet era tradition that had become ingrained over decades as well as innovative ideas could be encountered simultaneously in the transitional period. The problem that the teaching of history faced in the period that has been analysed here was the wording of the focus and objectives of teaching the subject, and the balancing of knowledge of history, skills, values and attitudes in the subject syllabus. First of all, Soviet rhetoric and the viewpoint centring on the Soviet Union were abandoned. The so-called blank gaps in Estonian history were restored in the content of teaching history since it was not possible to study the history of the independent Republic of Estonia during the Soviet era or to gain an overview of deportations and the different regimes that occupied Estonia. Subject content initially occupied a central position, yet numerous principles that have remained topical to this day made their way into the subject syllabus, such as the development of critical thinking in students and other such principles. It is noteworthy that programmes for teaching history changed before the restoration of Estonia’s independence, when society, including education, still operated according to Soviet laws. A great deal of work was done over the course of a couple of years. The subsequent development of the teaching of history has been affected by social processes as well as by the didactic development of the teaching of the subject. The school reform that was implemented in 1987–1989 achieved relative independence from the Soviet Union’s educational institutions, and the opportunity emerged for self-determination on the basis of curricula and the organisation of education.

In this paper we focused on investigating how the sphere of musical amateurism functioned in Yugoslavia in the decades following the end of WWII. Observing through changes in the role and significance of amateur music ensembles, specifically choirs, in Yugoslav society from the late 1940s until the late 1960s/early 1970s that were manifest in their de-massification, gradual professionalisation and extensive use in cultural diplomacy, we sought to explain that this involved multiple factors - above all, the shifts in Yugoslav international policy after the confrontation with the Soviet Union in 1948, and, consequently, the revisions of its cultural policies. Their influence was observed through a detailed examination of the activities of the Beogradski madrigalisti choir, from its foundation in 1951 until the late 1960s/early 1970s. Although it was unique among Yugoslav choirs in many respects, the early history of this ensemble clearly reflected the demand for excellence in the sphere of amateur performance from the 1950s onwards, one of the most prominent indicators of its deep structural transformation.

The study is devoted to the functions of musical quotations in the film Vaghe stelle dellʼOrsa… (1965) by the outstanding Italian neo-realist director Luchino Visconti. For the first time in the history of Russian film music, the article analyzes in detail the audial side of this film, its interaction with the video sequence. In Russia, from Luchino Visconti’s extensive cinematic legacy, Vaghe stelle dellʼOrsa… is the least studied. According to the author, this situation has developed due to neutral and negative assessments of the movie by cinema critics inthe Soviet Union and other countries. Years later, these trends have not been overcome by Russian researchers. The main problem of such inattention is seen in the difficulty of analyzing the material of the film. Throughout the running time, twenty musical quotations from Prelude, Chorale and Fugue by Cesar Franck and specimens of popular music, for example, E se domani by Carlo Alberto Rossi and Giorgio Calabrese, Strip Cinema by Paolo Calvi, Io che non vivo by Pino Donaggio and Vito Pallavicini, etc. The producer works with quotation material, creating sound-visual counterpoint. He “collides” the video sequence and musical quoted not only vertically, but also juxtaposes the musical layers horizontally to each other. As a result of the interaction in the film, the musical quotations carry out a number of compositional, dramatic and semantic functions.

AbstractThis article examines the historical and cultural significance of the attempted ban on the Beatles’ concerts in the US by the American Federation of Musicians and the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the United States government in 1964. While there has been much attention given to the court case against John Lennon waged by the INS and the Nixon Administration in the early 1970s, much less is known about the earlier case brought against the Beatles by the INS and the Department of Labor on behalf of the AFM, which became a national scandal in 1964, pitting fans of the Beatles against the AFM and the INS. Fans framed the controversy over the Beatles as a cultural conflict between generations, while the AFM framed the problem as a labour market issue. My examination of the incident reveals the way in which a submerged cultural problem embedded in a putatively economic discourse rose to the surface through conflicts over the discursive framing of the Beatles controversy. This case is important not only in terms of expanding our empirical knowledge of the internal history of the Beatles and rock and roll music, but also more generally as an episode that foreshadowed the cultural conflict between the American labour union bureaucracy and the counter-culture that emerged in the late 1960s. This essay analyses heretofore-unexamined documents from the US National Archives and Records Administration.

Respecting the ideological aspects of the totalitarian regime and interpreting the most significant functions of the institution, the article provides an insight in one of the institutions under the supervision of the Latvian Republican branch of the USSR Foundation for Literature—the Polyclinic of Latvian Republican Branch of the USSR Foundation for Literature—locally the most important medical institution for the representatives of creative professions and related persons. This polyclinic was one of the most prestigious medical institutions in the entire Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and was commonly referred to as the Polyclinic of Writers or the Polyclinic of Lit-Foundation. In the framework of the functions of this institution, the article sheds light on various memories of the previous employees and patients looking into their memoirs, memory literature and interviews. The article briefly examines the importance of the two leading or key persons—the Director of the LSSR Foundation for Literature Elvīra Zaķe (1909–1992) and the Head of the Polyclinic, Head Doctor Vitāls Oga (1924–1984), as well as their role in the domestic lives of the creative individuals and cultural history of the Soviet period. The most essential five functions, which characterise the activities and existence of the Polyclinic are the following: 1) basic—service or treatment function; 2) the psychological support function; 3) (LSSR) the ideological-prestige function; 4) the function of sustaining Latvian cultural environment; 5) the function of a cultural sign (entails the processes of the respective period and the history of literary circles).

The study presents an overview of the history of instrumental music in Ukraine, where choir and solo singing has always played a prominent role. Singing was a substantive part of the church life and folklore of the city and countryside. Thus, the more prominent was the distribution of instrumental music, which embodied cultural links between Ukraine and other European countries. Instrumental music tradition, more common for Catholic and Lutheran countries, came to Ukraine and brought some remarkable examples of brilliant composers with great theoretical and performing skills. Many important names, which belong to Ukrainian musical culture, have been known in the Western Europe as ‘Russian’. For many foreign researchers ‘The Former Soviet Union’ remains a terra incognita, where the national origin of an artist is some- times forgotten. In the past, for many years the most talented Ukrainian musicians were invited or came for fame and money to other countries and became popular there. Although they often got music education in Ukraine, they were often considered as representatives of the Russian culture. For some time, Ukraine was the source of specialists for nearby countries, so it was the ‘in-between’ between the Western European and Slavonic musical cultures. Rediscovering it by research, performing and elaborating is a very important task for modern Ukrainian per- forming musicians as well as for scholars. Historically Informed Performance in Ukraine nowadays is also an important field for research and promotion among professionals and non- professionals. Achievements in the field of rediscovering of early music are often unknown in the wide circle of musicologists and performing musicians. At the same time, this knowledge can turn out useful not only for early music lovers, but also for musicians who play classical repertoire. This path easily creates many opportunities for collaboration between Ukrainian and European musicians and forms a positive image for Ukraine on the world scene. It also explains the importance of the study.

Cтатья посвящена истории русской православной духовной музыки в СССР и в русском зарубежье в 1920–1930-х годах. В ней уделяется внимание истории хоров и исполнению духовной музыки на богослужениях и в концертах, судьбам духовных композиторов и их творчеству. Ставится вопрос об истории в СССР и русском зарубежье Нового направления — передового творческого течения, возникшего в императорской России в конце XIX века. Обсуждаются новые тенденции в развитии духовной музыки, связанные с образованием национальных Православных Церквей за пределами СССР.Источники демонстрируют большое значение религиозной музыки в духовной жизни православного общества в периоды социально-политических и военных потрясений, а также верность этому виду искусства со стороны тех, кто стремился сохранить национальные традиции и идентичность. Материалы показывают преемственную связь между диаспорами и митрополией: русские музыканты за рубежом сыграли большую роль в развитии религиозного искусства в 1930-е годы, когда в СССР оно было практически остановлено. Возрождение духовной музыки, которое началось в России с конца 1980-х годов, вряд ли было бы столь триумфальным, если бы не вклад музыкантов русского зарубежья, а также стойкость и верность своему делу их коллег в Советском Союзе. The article concerns the history of Russian Orthodox sacred music in the 1920s and 30s in the USSR and the Russia Abroad. Attention is paid to the history of choirs and the performance of sacred music at church services and concerts, and the destinies of composers of sacred music and their work. The history in the USSR and the Russia Abroad of the New Direction — the leading creative current arising in Imperial Russia in the late 19th century — is discussed. New trends in the development of sacred music arising from the formation of national Orthodox churches outside the USSR are outlined.Sources demonstrate the great significance of religious music in the spiritual life of Orthodox society in periods of social and political turmoil and in wartime, as well as fidelity to this form of art on the part of those who strove to preserve national traditions and identity. Materials show the line of succession running through the diasporas and the mother country: Russian musicians abroad made a big contribution to the development of religious art in the 1930s, when in the USSR it came practically to a standstill. The revival of church music which began in Russia in the late 1980s would scarcely have been so triumphal had it not been for the contribution of musicians from the Russia Abroad to the common concern as well as for the tenacity and loyalty to the cause of their colleagues in the Soviet Union.

The article is a cultural-historical study and a part of the project Uniting History, which aims to discover the multicultural aspect of performing art in pre-war Liepaja and summarize key facts about the history of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra. The study also seeks to identify the performing artists whose life was associated with Liepāja and who were repressed between 1941 and 1945, because of aggression by both the Soviet Union and National Socialist Germany. Until now, the cultural life of this period in Liepāja has been studied in a fragmentary way, and materials are scattered in various archives. There are inaccurate and even contradictory testimonies of events of that time. The study marks both the cultural and historical situation of the 1920s and the 1930s in Liepāja and tracks the fates of several artists in the period between 1939 and 1945. On the eve of World War II, Liepāja has an active cultural life, especially in theatre and music. Liepāja City Drama and Opera is in operation staging both dramatic performances, operas, and ballet, employing an orchestra. The symphony orchestra also operated at the Liepāja Philharmonic, where musicians were recruited every season according to the principles of contemporary festival orchestras. Liepāja Folk Conservatory (music school) had also formed an orchestra of students and teachers. Guest concerts were held regularly. A characteristic feature of performing arts in Liepaja was its multicultural character – musicians of different nationalities with experience from different schools of the world were encountered there. World War II not only disrupted the balance in society, but it also had a very concrete and tragic impact on the fates of the people, including the performing artists. Many were killed, many repressed and placed in prisons and camps, and many went to exile to the West. Others were forced to either co-operate with the occupation forces or give up their identity and, consequently, their career as an artist. Nevertheless, some artists risked their lives to save others.