Tusovka Music Journal (Samizdat) (Draft)
A central zine of the Siberian underground music community. One of Tusovka's central feats was duping the KGB into allowing the continuation of its publication and dissemination. Before the first issue went to print, the journal's founder Valerii Murzin took the bold step of delivering the pre-print manuscript of the journal to his local KGB office, in this way guaranteeing the publication's survival.
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Band Survey from the Leningrad Rock Club completed by Sergei Kuryokhin of Pop Mekhanika
An official rock club survey in which Sergei Kuryokhin utlilizes the late-Soviet aesthetic of stiob and performative socialism to underscore the club's dependence on the KGB
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Leningrad Rock Club
A wall of graffiti in the courtyard of the Leningrad Rock Club (1981-1991) on 13 Rubinshteyna Street in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), which featured fan street art dedicated to USSR's most revered rock-music collectives. When the wall was painted over in 2010 by the bulding's new proprietor, this caused a public outcry from both rock fans and the many surviving musicians from that era, who sought to preserve the LRC's legacy and designmate the wall and the building a historical landmark.
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The First Article on Prostitution in the Soviet Union
"The White Dance" by Evgeny Dodolev broke a major taboo of Soviet press by reporting on the existence of foreign-currency prostitutes in the USSR. Dodolev would then go on to be a part of the "Vzgliad" team, as well as the creator of 1990s "Novyi vzgliad." "Moscovskii komsomolets," 19-21 November, 1986
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The World Made of Plastic Has Won
Egor Letov performs his song “Moia oborona” (My defense), during his “concert in the hero city Leningrad,” part of Grazhdanskaia oborona’s 1994 tour Russkii proryv (Russian breakthrough).
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Mumiy Troll's Breakthrough “Utekai (Take Off)" Becomes the 1997 Song of the Year
Mumiy Troll’s 1997 breakthrough song “Utekai” (Take off) displayed the combination of surrealism, dark humor, and provincial romanticism that defined the band’s trademark style.
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