The Stagnation (??????)

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The Stagnation(??????)

• 1964-1985

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Leonid Ilich Brezhnev 1906 10 Nov. 1982

• 14 October 1964 elected First Secretary of CPSU
  (from April 1966 General Secretary)
• Represents the conservative wing of the Party
• Grows defence budget

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Repression of dissent at home

• Solzhenitsyn persecuted, unable to publish
• 1964 trial of poet Joseph Brodsky
• February 1966 Trial of writers Yury Daniel and
  Andrei Siniavsky
• 7 years for anti-Soviet propaganda.

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The Prague Spring

• 1968 Alexander Dubcek becomes head of Party in
  Czechoslovakia
• Announces Socialism with a Human Face - reform,
  multiparty elections
• 20 August 1968 Invasion of Czechoslovakia by
  Warsaw Pact countries
•  

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Brezhnev Doctrine

• "When forces that are hostile to socialism try to
• turn the development of some socialist country
• towards capitalism, it becomes not only a
• problem of the country concerned, but a common
• problem and concern of all socialist countries.
• (Appeared first in an article in Pravda, then
  pronounced in Brezhnevs speech to Polish United
  Workers Party, 13 November 1968)

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Semi-liberal culture policies within limits
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Expelled

• Joseph Brodsky, poet(1972)

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Expelled

• Alexander
• Solzhenitsyn,
• writer (1974)

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Defected

•  
• Mstislav
• Rostropovich, Cellist
• (1974)

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Defected

• Mikhail Baryshnikov (1974)

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Détente

• May 1972 Nixon visits Moscow. Signs SALT I.
• Nixon gives Brezhnev a Lincoln Continental
• 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment opens up emigration
  for persecuted groups (mainly Jews).
•  
• 1975 Helsinki Final Act recognizes borders in
  Europe, respect for human rights

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Stalinism with a Human Face

• No reform of the command-administrative system
  all planned from centre.
• Decline in economic growth, technological gap
• Main funding went to arms (15 of GDP)
• Dependence on oil exports

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(No Transcript)
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The Lada (??????, b. 1970)
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The good old times

• Secure but drab life-style Sovok
• Standing in line for everything
• Waiting for an apartment
• Decline in health standards
• alcoholism

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The Bards

• Poetry as subversion

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Authorial Song

• Late-Soviet Russian genre of poetry sung to a
  guitar
• Tolerated to a limited degree by authorities
• Circulated in tape recordings of private
  performances
• Equivalents in GDR (Wolf Biermann), Poland (Jacek
  Kaczmarski)
• Cf. in France Jacques Brel, Canadas Félix
  Leclerc. US Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez

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Aleksandr Galich (1918-1977)

• Well-known screen play writer.
• began sing his poetry to the accompaniment of the
  guitar in the 1960s
• 1974 Forced to leave Russia, worked for
  Radio-Liberty in Paris
• 1977 died in a domestic accident

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Aleksandr Galich (1918-1977)

• Poem Silence is Golden about how you need to
  be silent to get ahead
• Poem on death of Boris Pasternak about how he was
  lucky to die in his bed, not shot or worked to
  death in a camp
• Poem Kaddish tells story of Jewish doctor
  Korczak and his orphanage in Warsaw ghetto

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Bulat Okudzhava (1924-1997)

• Screen-writer, poet
• Dozens of popular songs
• Especially popular in Poland
• Not political, some songs written for movies
• Statue stands on Arbat pedestrian street in
  Moscow

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Okudzhava defined his age
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Vladimir Vysotsky (1938-1980) mocked and raged
against it

• Actor at the Taganka Theatre in Moscow
• Movie actor
• Singer of his own poetry
• Married French film star Marina Vlady
• Alcoholism led to early death
• Funeral caused spontaneous demonstration during
  1980 Olympics

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I dont like it (Vladimir Vysotsky) 

• I dont like a fatal conclusion I never get
  tired of life. I dont like any season of the
  year when I get sick or drink.
• I dont like cold cynicism, I dont believe in
  lofty enthusiasm, or when a stranger reads my
  letters, looking over my shoulder.
• I dont like it when things are done by halves,
  or when a conversation is interrupted. I dont
  like it when they shoot you in the back I am
  also against shooting in the face.
• I hate gossip that pretends to be true, I hate
  the worms of doubt, the needle of honours, or
  when people rub you against the grain, or when
  they scrape steel against glass.

• I dont like smug assurance its better if the
  brakes fail. It bugs me when the word honour is
  forgotten, and when they honour you and slander
  you behind your back.
• When I see broken wings I dont feel pity, and
  for good reason. I dont like violence or
  powerlessness Im simply sorry to see Christ
  crucified.
• I dont like myself, when Im a coward, and I
  cant stand it, when they beat the innocent. I
  dont like it when people poke around in my soul,
  or even less when they spit in it.
• I dont like stadiums and arenas where a
  million is turned into a rouble. Let there be
  great changes ahead I will never like that!
•  

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My capricious horses

• On a rugged cliff, the very edge, above the
  endless chasmI keep lashing at my horses with my
  whip clenched in a spasmBut the air is growing
  thinner, I am gasping, drowning, cryingI can
  sense with horrid wonder, I am vanishing, I'm
  dyingRefrain
• Slow your gallop, oh my horses! Slow your gallop
  I say!Don't you listen to my stinging whip!But
  the horses I was given, stubborn and so
  unforgiving,Can't complete the life I'm living,
  cant conclude the verse I'm singing

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The Wolf Hunt

• In my flight, sinews bursting, I hurtle,
• But as yesterday - so now today,
• They've cornered me! Driven me, encircled,
• Towards the huntsmen that wait for their prey!
• From the fir-trees the rifle-shots quicken
• In the shadows the huntsmen lie low.
• As they fire, the wolves somersault, stricken,
• Living targets brought down on the snow.
• They're hunting wolves! The hunt is on, pursuing
• The wily predators, the she-wolf and her brood.
• The beaters shout, the dogs bay, almost spewing.
• The flags on the snow are red, as red as the
  blood.
• In the fight heavy odds have opposed us,
• But the merciless huntsmen keep ranks.
• With the flags on their ropes they've enclosed
  us.
• They take aim and they fire at point blank.
• For a wolf cannot break with tradition.

• We are swift and our jaws are rapacious.
• Why then, chief, like a tribe that's oppressed,
• Must we rush towards the weapons that face us
• And that precept be never transgressed?
• For a wolf cannot change the old story
• The end looms and my time's, almost done.
• Now the huntsman who's made me his quarry
• Gives a smile as he raises his gun
• .
• They're hunting wolves! The hunt is on, pursuing
• The wily predators, the she-wolf and her brood.
• The beaters shout, the dogs bay, almost spewing.
• The flags on the snow are red, as red as the
  blood.
• But revolt and the life-force are stronger
• Than the fear that the red flags instil
• From behind come dismayed cries of anger
• As I cheat them, with joy, of their kill.
• In my flight, sinews bursting I hurtle,

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Some more songs by Vysotsky

• ?? ?? ???????? ?? ???
• (He didnt return from the battle)
• ? ??? ??? ?????? ????
• (I dreamt about yellow lights)
• ??? ?????? ??????
• (Dark eyes)

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Vysotsky today

• Still the number one cult figure in Russia today
• New film Vysotsky. Thanks for being alive.