The Afro-Beat in Russia: The Influence of Black Music on Russian Popular Culture, 1890-2002

The Massacre (Russia: Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment, Interscope Records, March 5, 2005) by 50 Cent

In the following article, Russian DJ Ivan Tchijevsky describes exclusively for BlackPast.org the long history of black music and black musical performers in Russia. Writing from a musical festival in Odessa, Ukraine in June 2019, he outlines his views below.

As I visit festivals of electronic dance music in Russia and abroad, I have begun to reflect on the moment I found myself at a disco for the first time in my life. It happened somewhere in Georgia in the old Soviet Union in 1986. I was four years old at the time. The daytime disco had been organized for vacationers in a sanatorium, mostly parents and their children from throughout the Soviet Union. A tanned man in a yellow top and with African style hairdo was the DJ. Not only was black-influenced music played over the loud speakers but the event was part of a collective performance of elements of the new type of party dance that was sweeping across the country.

Later in the 1990s I visited several rock festivals and events in Moscow and other ex-soviet cities connected with electronic music. As I saw these performances I began to think about the sources of this international phenomenon. By this point I had been involved in the production of electronic music. It seemed to be a logical following of a family tradition. Several members of my family had been jazz music performers in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) since the mid-1960s. Besides their and my connections to this music, I began to think of the long historical and lyrical connections that brought me and millions of other Russians to an appreciation of these various musical styles imported from the United States and later from Africa. In this article I offer a brief chronology of this cultural integration which occurred in several stages.

The people of Russia first became familiar with pre-jazz forms of black music in the late 19th Century. American black orchestras and singing performers such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers first came to Saint Petersburg in the 1890s. At the same time ragtime, a more secular music, became popular, bringing with it “American” dances such as the cakewalk. Ragtime was performed in salons and garden parties as well as by brass bands which played in the streets or in night clubs and other entertainment venues in Russia’s major cities.

By the beginning of the 20th Century Brazilian maxixe and Argentinian tango entered Russia through Europe just before World War I and gained even greater popularity across the country. In Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and other major cities, mostly African American vocal-instrumental acts such as “The Louisiana Amazon Guard,“ “The Kristy Creole Duet,” and “The Harris Trio” as well as its individual performers such as Coretta Alfred, Emma Harris, Fannie Smith, and Ollie Burgoyne, began performing around 1903. Other African American performers such as Pearl Hobson, Belle Davis, Abie Mitchell, Josephine Morcashani, “The Black Troubadours,” and popular duet “Johnson & Dean” all had developed a following in pre-Revolutionary Russia. The Russian revolutionary period, 1917-1919 interrupted these performances but did not end the appreciation of the Russian people for African American music.

October 1, 1922 is considered the birthdate of Soviet jazz even though it was officially prohibited by the USSR. Despite the ban a number of African American jazz performers continued to visit the country. In 1926 the “Jazz Kings,” which included many of the early stars of jazz, toured Soviet cities. The Jazz Kings were New Orleans musicians including Frank Withers – trombone, Sidney Bechet – clarinet, Benny Peyton – drums, Fred Coxcito – baritone-saxophone, and Dan Parish – forte piano. Around the same time Sam Wooding’s variety show The Chocolate Kiddies, set to music by Harlem songwriter Noble Sissle, was seen by Soviet audiences. Film clips from this show were included in documentarian Dziga Vertov’s 1926 documentary A Sixth Part of the World, which was designed to introduce the world to the new Soviet society.

Eight years later on March 29, 1934 Coretta Alfred — who had performed in both pre-Soviet Russia and in the Soviet Union — celebrated the 30th anniversary of her creative work on the pre-Revolutionary and Soviet stage with a radio concert with other prominent Soviet artists. The radio program was recorded in Paris, France where it was highly praised by the French press. Coretta Alfred was one of the first African American performers to record and release vinyl records in Russia in early 20th century.

African Americans Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson also performed in USSR in the 1930s. By the end of that decade African American performance culture became a popular segment of Soviet variety shows, cinema, and popular dance. For example, a famous cover version of Duke Ellington’s 1936 Caravan was recorded by Soviet jazz band leader Adi Rosner.

Duke Ellington Mobbed by Russian Jazz Fans in Moscow, USSR, 1971

Courtesy National Museum of American History (AC0301-0000039)

The 1950s were a difficult time for jazz in USSR as western cultural influences were increasingly restrictive by the Soviet government. Nonetheless, western musical influences continued to have an audience. Leonor Gonzales Mina, a prominent Afro-Columbian musician and actress, performed at the Sixth International Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow in 1957. Her performance became a milestone event. By the 1960s, black-influenced jazz seemed to be making a comeback marked by the two-month 1962 tour of Benny Goodman’s orchestra around the USSR which showcased the talents of Joya Sherrill, Joe Newman, and Teddy Wilson. Five years later in 1967, the band of American saxophonist Charles Lloyd came to the Tallinn (now Estonia) jazz festival.

Four years later in 1971 when the plane carrying Duke Ellington and his orchestra arrived in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) it was met by huge crowds. The band responded by playing Dixieland music on the landing field to the appreciative audience. Ellington’s Orchestra, the largest jazz band to tour the Soviet Union, included six saxophones: Russell Procope, Paul Gonsalves, Harold Ashby, Norris Turney, Harold “Geezil” Minerve, and Harry Carney; trumpets: Cootie Williams, Mercer Ellington, Harold Manny Johnson, Eddie Preston, and Johnny Coles; and trombones: Malcolm Taylor, Mitchell “Booty” Wood, and Chuck Connors. Joe Benjamin was on Bass and Rufus “Speedy” Jones was on drums. Two vocalists, Ned Brookshire and Tony Watkins, also accompanied the band.

Wherever Ellington’s Orchestra performed, tickets sold out. Each of three Ellington concerts in Kiev (now Ukraine) were attended by more than 10,000 people while more than 12,000 came to each of his shows in Moscow. Later Ellington recalled: “Do you know that some of our concerts lasted four hours? Yes, and no one complained, not the audience, not the stage workers, and not even the musicians in the orchestra. Russians came to listen to our music, with no other reason. Ten or twelve times they encored us.” One consequence of the concerts: more Soviet jazz musicians released cover versions of the orchestra’s performances than those of any other musician. More than 100 albums are listed in the vinyl catalog of the Soviet Union as tributes to this exuberant African American composer and performer.

The success of the Duke Ellington Tour led to other African American jazz artists visiting the Soviet Union. In Moscow, Leningrad, and other Soviet cities, local Russian jazz men played with musicians of some of the best jazz orchestras from the United States. Jazz became the music of thousands of Russians and the jam session led to significant information cultural exchange between artists of the USSR and the US. These exchanges also had an unintended consequence: more than one quarter of the soviet jazz musicians left for New York City as soon as the Soviet government in 1973 loosened control over emigration from USSR.

Jazz was the most popular African American-influenced music in the 1970s but even in that decade, its dominance was being challenged by newer black musical genres including rhythm and blues\soul music and disco and by the 1980s, hip-hop, jungle and house music. Stevie Wonder was one of the most important influences on the Soviet variety of R&B\soul music. More Soviet musicians covered his songs than any other artist of these musical styles. These covers both reflected and promoted the period of musical “thaw” for a younger generation of Soviet musicians who now eagerly displayed their own versions of soul-jazz, fusion, jazz-rock, folk-rock, and funk. Both the pre-jazz era (1890-1920) and the long period of Soviet jazz (1922-1975) had introduced thousands of Russian and Soviet citizens to African American music. The next generation was ready for the new music and dance experience.

The Samokhodnaya Ustanovka 122

Excerpt from Tanks Encyclopedia 

The SU-122 was the first major variant of the successful T-34 chassis. After the first German Sturmgeschütz assault guns were seen in operations, an order was issued in April 1942 to several design bureaus to devise plans for a prototype SPG. Many heavy guns were tested in the process. It was seen the assault gun formula amassed the advantages of a cheaper, easier produced vehicle with the use of heavier guns, albeit with the disadvantage of having to turn the entire vehicle to aim in combat. In the end, both 122 mm (4.8 in) and 152 mm (5.98 in) field howitzers were retained. Only the 122 mm (4.8 in), developed by F. F. Pietrow’s design bureau as the M-30S, was found suitable for a medium tank chassis.

Development of the SU-35

In fact, before any T-34 adaptations were produced, ten captured German Sturmgeschütz IIIs served as testbeds for the adaptation of the M-30S, under the name of SG-122. Deemed too complicated and difficult to maintain, they were phased out in favor of a proper Russian mass-built SPG. The most obvious option back then was the T-34. This choice was made by Uralmashzavod Uralsky Machine Building factory (UZTM), headed by chief engineers Kurin and Kusjin. They then developed the U-34, a long barrel 76 mm (3 in) gun armed turretless version based of the T-34 chassis.

They decided not to waste time, thus using the gun mount of the SG-122 and the hull, chassis, engine and transmission of the T-34. This led to the development of the final U-35, during the summer of 1942. After difficult trials led during the winter, the SU-35 was officially approved for production in limited numbers because of many flaws, but larger orders came after better trials and it was renamed into the SU-122.

Specifications and production

The Samokhodnaya Ustanovka 122 mm (4.8 in) or, in short, SU-122, was not at first a satisfactory model. The gun elevation was poor (initially designed for −3° and +26° with a 10° of traverse), the crew compartment was poorly ventilated and the crew was badly placed. All these defaults were corrected, as well as other minor modifications for mass-production. A slightly less sloped glacis (still 45 mm/1.77 in thick, almost 80 mm/3.15 in effective), simplified slits, rearranged fighting compartment layout, an increase in ammunition carried and a more efficient commander periscope.

Vanha mies talvella/Great Winter War

On January 21, 1932, the Soviet Union and Finland signed a non-aggression pact. In spite of this pact, on November 30, 1939, the Soviet army invaded Finland, starting the so-called “Winter War.”

Before the October revolution of 1917 in Russia, Finland had been a part of the Russian Empire. The country received independence from the Bolsheviks, but in the Civil War which took place in Finland in 1918, the Communists suffered a defeat, straining the relations between the Soviet Union and Finland. Finland was afraid of Soviet aggression, and the Soviet Union feared that in case of war, Finland would give the enemies of the Soviet Union an opportunity to attack from Finnish territories.

On July 10, 1931 the government of Finland created the Defense Council, headed by Carl Mannerheim. Mannerheim was sure that the Soviet Union was an unpredictable and dangerous country, calling the Communists “the eastern plague.” In August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. It was a non-aggression treaty with a secret protocol about “spheres of interest” in it. According to that protocol, Finland fell into the Soviet sphere of interest.

On October, 5, 1939, the Finnish delegation, headed by J. Paasikivi, came to Moscow for negotiations. The reason for negotiations was the location of the border between Finland and the Soviet Union. Stalin thought the border was too close to Leningrad and asked the Finnish government to move it.

“Both of us can’t go against geography,” Stalin said, “and it is not possible to move Leningrad instead.” In addition, Stalin wanted to lease the Hanko peninsula and to establish a military base on it. In exchange, Stalin offered to Finland some lands in North Karelia, in the north of Russia.

Before the negotiations, Paasikivi had been instructed to reject all offers, and so he did. Both the Soviet Union and Finland started mobilizing. On November 3, the Soviet Union declared: “We, the civilians, did not achieve any progress. We should call the soldiers to speak.”

On November 26, near the village of Mainila, a border incident took place. A Soviet border guard post was shelled, and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov claimed it was a Finnish artillery attack. More than likely, it was a Soviet provocation to renounce the non-aggression pact with Finland, but in the following years, Soviet historiography remained silent about this version of events.

On November 30, Soviet troops received the order to attack. Khrushchev in his memoirs wrote what Stalin had said about Finland that day: “We shall just raise our voices a bit, and the Finns will give up.”

Stalin was not right. It was a short but cruel war.

The main Finnish defense line, known as the “Mannerheim line,” went across the Karelian Isthmus. The landscape of the Isthmus served as a basis for fortification. The features of Karelian nature are the great amount of big boulders, lying here and there, rocks and the stony chines hidden in the forests. In addition, there are many lakes, rivers and swamps in Karelia.

The Belgian General Badu wrote, “Nowhere else in the world were the natural conditions as good for building fortification as in Karelia.” The Mannerheim line was about 100 kilometers wide and consisted of three zones. The first zone, the operational defensive area, was about 40 kilometers wide. It took 10 days for the Soviet army to pass it – there were minefields, abatises and barbed-wire obstacles. There were about 200 mines per kilometer of every road. In addition, the Finns dug holes 7-10 meters deep into the roads and put the explosives in them – about 200 kg of explosive in a hole.

The second zone, the main defense zone, consisted of 22 defensive posts. There was a system of permanent fire positions and fire trenches. All permanent fire positions were protected from tanks and from infantry by barbed-wire obstacles and guard rail posts. For example, one of them had 45 rows of barbed wire attached to iron posts around it.

In the third zone were placed the tactical reserves. The ammunition was kept there, and the reserve troops based there.

The Soviet command had no definitive information about it and did not consider it.

The battles on the Karelian Isthmus were the hardest battles in that war, because the Soviet troops were not ready for the “Mannerheim line.” Only in the middle of December did the Soviet army break through the security area of the line, but could not go any further. Some historians say that the main reason for the failures of Soviet army was the weather. The winter of 1939-1940 was very cold – about 40 degrees below zero and the snow was waist-high.

Finns used the tactics of guerilla war. Small squads of skiers, armed with machineguns, attacked Soviet troops at night and withdrew to the forests after the attacks. In the opinion of the majority of Soviet soldiers, the greatest danger came from “cuckoos” – Finnish snipers who hid in the trees. They killed commanders and, according to some historians, destroyed the field-kitchens.

However, the Soviet army broke through the Mannerheim line in February 1940. The Soviet Union was able to occupy the country and change the government, so Finland asked for peace. The peace treaty was signed on March, 12, 1940. The three-month war took the lives of 67,000 Finnish soldiers. On the Soviet side, 48,475 died and 158,863 were injured.

Because of this war, the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations, and the United States stopped selling aeronautic technologies to the Soviet Union. However, this decision did not do much harm to the Soviet aeronautic industry.

Russiapedia.com

© Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005–2020. All rights reserved.

who is ABRAMOVICH, ROMAN ARKADYEVICH?

Oligarch.  Born into a Jewish family in the provincial capital of Saratov,  Abramovich was orphaned as a young child. As a result, he lived  with his relatives in various parts of the Union of Soviet Socialist  Republics (USSR), including Komi in the Russian Far North. He  left university studies before obtaining a degree, though he later  earned a correspondence degree from Moscow State Law Academy.  In the late 1980s, when Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika reforms  permitted private enterprises, Abramovich began his business career  specializing in black market goods before moving into the oil trade.  In 1995, together with Boris Berezovsky, he acquired a controlling interest in the Sibneft oil company through the controversial  loans for shares program. Through Berezovsky, he also developed  a relationship with Boris Yeltsin’s inner circle, known as “the Family,” and was particularly close to Tatyana Dyachenko. Abramovich  and Berezovsky later fell out over business dealings. Eventually,  Abramovich’s business empire grew to include Aeroflot airlines,  aluminum plants, automobile manufacturers, a television station,  food processing companies, real estate firms, and other concerns.  Indicted in several trials and fraud investigations, Abramovich has  always managed to avoid conviction. In 2002, he acquired immunity  from persecution by becoming an elected governor of Chukotka.  During his tenure as governor (2000­-2008), he invested over a  billion dollars into the region, boosting local incomes and curbing  unemployment. In 2005, he sold a lump share of Sibneft to the  state-owned Gazprom. That year, he was reappointed as Chukotka’s  governor by President Vladimir Putin, with whom he reportedly had  a close working relationship. Abramovich resigned his governorship  immediately after Dmitry Medvyedev was inaugurated in 2008.  Ranked as one of the world’s richest figures according to Forbes  magazine, Abramovich owns property in Russia and Europe, and  mainly resides in Great Britain, where he is considered to be  the second-richest person. He owns Millhouse Capital, a Britishregistered investment fund that manages his vast holdings.

Why is the Lena River important?

The Lena River plays a very significant role in the life of the people settled along its banks. Where the river flows through lowland regions, a wide variety of crops, like cucumbers, potatoes, wheat, and barley, are commercially cultivated. Animal ranching is also widely practiced here, facilitated by the availability of vast pasture lands for animal grazing. The land around the Lena River also has a rich repository of mineral wealth, including such precious metals as gold and diamonds, as well as iron ores and deposits of coking coal, which are the two key ingredients in steel-making. Other coal and natural gas deposits also occur in this region. The Lena River is also largely navigable, allowing for the transport of cargo, including excavated minerals, fur, food, and industrial products, from their respective production areas to the consumption and trade centers along the banks and the rest of the world by way of the Arctic Ocean routes. The river also holds an immense potential for development of hydroelectric power, but only a small fraction of this prospect has been exploited to date.

The Lena River is the 11th longest river in the world, flowing through a distance of 4,400 kilometers from its source in the Baikal Mountains 7 kilometers west of Lake Baikal, to its drainage point into the Arctic Laptev Sea. The drainage basin of the river covers a massive area of 2,490,000 square kilometers. The Lena River Delta is the largest Arctic Delta in the world, with an area of 32,000 square kilometers. Vast tracts of land along the river are protected in the form of nature reserves, such as the Lena Delta Nature Reserve, the Lena Pillars, and the Ust-Lensky Nature Reserve.

Historical Role

The origin of the name of the Lena River is said to have been derived from the local word Elyu-Ene, meaning the ‘Large River’. The river was probably first explored by a troupe of Russian fur hunters led by Demid Pyanda in the 17th Century. In 1623, Pyanda explored a 2,4000-kilometer stretch of the river. Since then, a large number of explorers have ventured out onto the Lena in order to record its course and discover its potential. In 1885, an expedition funded by the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences, and headed by Baron Eduard von Toll and Alexander von Bunge, was carried out to explore the Lena Delta and its path of entry into the Arctic Ocean. Ever since the discovery of the river, the Lena has been used as a significant trade and transport route for cargo into the Arctic Ocean.

Threats and Disputes

Not only is the Lena River still one of the cleanest sources of freshwater on this planet, but it also flows along its natural course, as its flow has not been impeded by the large-scale construction of dams and reservoirs. This sets the Lena apart from many other rivers that have been exploited for their respective high hydroelectric power-generating potentials. Threats from oil spills, however, do occur, as a large number of vessels carrying cargo ply on this river regularly. In fact, 25,000 tons of oil from the Lena River pollute the Arctic Ocean each year. Even though large areas of the river basin are protected, threats from overfishing, overgrazing, deforestation of land for cultivation, and excessive water extraction for irrigation of croplands continue to be ongoing problems.

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/where-does-the-lena-river-flow.html