The Komsomol and Punk Rock

November 12, 2006

I’m currently reading Alexei Yurchak’s fascinating book, Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation. Yurchak asks why did the Soviet system’s implosion “seemed so unexpected when it began, and at the same time so unsurprising and fast once it had occurred.” The contains numerous examples of the contradictory nature of Soviet life, where as citizens participated in the ritualized, pro forma ideological discourse, this very discourse allowed them to carve out what they called “normal meaningful life” that went beyond the state’s ideology.

Anyway, I hope to discuss Yurchak’s book in more detail once I finish reading it. What I want to present here is this interesting Komsomol document pictured on the left. The document has been floating around the internet for a while now. Yurchak states that it was published in Novaya gazeta in July 2003, but I didn’t find it in their archive.

Here is a translation:

Approved Copy Workers of the World Unite! ALL-UNION LENIN COMMUNIST YOUTH LEAGUE NIKOLAEV REGIONAL COMMITTEE OF KOMSOMOL OF UKRAINE. For internal use only. To Secretaries of Gorkoms and Raikoms of the Komsomol of Ukraine. The following is an approximate list of foreign music groups and artists whose repertoires contain ideologically harmful compositions. This information is recommended for the purpose of intensifying control over the activities of discotheques. This information must be also provided to all VIA (vocal instrument ensembles) and youth discotheques in the region. Secretary of the Obkom Komsomol, P. Grishin.		Approximate list of foreign music groups and artists whose repertoires contain ideologically harmful compositions.
		Group Name	Type of Propaganda
		1. Sex Pistols	Punk, violence
		2. B-52s	Punk, violence
		3. Madness	Punk, violence
		4. Clash	Punk, violence
		5. Stranglers	Punk, violence
		6. Kiss	Neofascism, punk, violence
		7. Crocus	Violence, cult of strong personality, violence, vandalism
		8. Styx	violence, vandalism
		9. Iron Maiden	Violence, religious obscurantism
		10. Judas Priest	Anticommunism, racism
		11. AC/DC	Neofascism, violence
12. Sparks	Neofascism, racism	23. Originals	Sex
13. Black Sabbath	Violence, religious obscurantism	24. Donna Summer	Eroticism
13. Black Sabbath	Violence, religious obscurantism	25. Tina Turner	Sex
14. Alice Cooper	Violence, vandalism	26. Junior English (reggae)	Sex
15. Nazareth	Violence, religious mysticism	27. Canned Heat	Homosexuality
15. Nazareth	Violence, religious mysticism	28. Munich Machine	Eroticism
16. Scorpions	Violence	29. Ramones	Punk
17. Gengis Khan	Anticommunism, nationalism	30. Van Halen	Anti-Soviet propaganda
17. Gengis Khan	Anticommunism, nationalism	31. Julio Iglesias	Neofascism
18. UFO	Violence	32. Yazoo	Punk, violence
19. Pink Floyd (1983)	Distortion of Soviet foreign policy (‘Soviet aggression in Afghanistan)	33. Depeche Mode	Punk, violence
		34. Village People	Violence
		35. Ten CC (10 cc)	Neofascism
20. Talking Heads	Myth of Soviet military threat	36. Stooges	Violence
20. Talking Heads	Myth of Soviet military threat	37. Boys	Punk, violence
21. Perron	Eroticism	38. Blondie	Punk, violence
22. Bohannon	Eroticism
“APPROVED BY” Head of the General Department of the Obkom of Komsomol E. Priazhinskaia 10 January 1985

This document is interesting for a number of reasons. First, it shows that Soviet youth were quite in tune to global youth culture. Soviet youth listened to the same metal and punk groups that were popular in the United States and Western Europe. Second, Komsomol moralists and ideologues had similar concerns of their Western counterparts. They were also afraid that rock, punk and metal spread violence, deviance, and sex among its listeners. Still, this list expresses concerns about ideology, specifically what the author’s labels “anticommunism” and “neofascism.” I am not sure what the latter means, but I can guess that it is a synonym for bourgeois ideology.

There are some funny miscategorizations in this list. For example, the Village People are denounced for “violence.” I have no idea where they got that idea. If anything they should have gotten the “homosexuality” label. Also Depeche Mode getting the “violence” label is equally laughable.

I suspect that while the documents shows that Soviet youth were quite hip to global youth culture, Komsomol leaders were not or at least played like they were. My guess this is a generational issue since the age between the Komsomol rank and file and their leaders grew in the postwar period. You could easily have a Komsomol Obkom secretary in his or her thirties, while the rank and file in the teens and twenties.

At any rate, I wanted to offer this document and its translation to readers so they could get a taste of the Soviet past.

The Komsomol and Punk Rock

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