"Some Like it Hot!" State Department Commemorates "Jazz Diplomacy" as Cold War Weapon
A secret acoustic weapon of the US has been shown from every angle at an exhibition at the State department museum. It's devoted to jazz. Today, a member of the Department said it was a weapon of the American diplomacy.
"Jazz diplomacy performers were basically musicians-diplomats. They traveled to the countries of the Soviet bloc and promoted jazz there trying to oppose the Soviet propaganda".
The photos and records of the "jazz ambassadors" are displayed at the exhibition. At the time, many stars were performing on behalf of the State Department. The first one to sing in the USSR was Benny Goodman. Here is his most well-known photo: "the free American spirit at the Red Square." Unfortunately, the Square is hardly visible.
Jazz diplomacy was invented during the Cold War. For almost 20 years, the musical weapon had been targeting the Soviet countries, as well as Asia and Africa where black jazz musicians symbolized victory over racism. Racism made Louis Armstrong cancel one of his concerts in the USSR. The musician refused to be Washington's puppet that allowed an outburst of hatred against African Americans in the South telling them to take a hike. Still, the State Department considers their jazz diplomacy a rather successful project.
Zinaida Kurbatova with the details.
- "Today you play jazz, tomorrow you'll betray your country". So there's more to it than just a slogan?
- Of course, it's not just a slogan. It was invented by the Soviet people. Later, there was another one: "Today you wear Adidas, tomorrow you'll betray your country."
Let's go back to 1946 when the Light Pop Music Act was adopted in the USSR. It had no connection to any foreign activities. After World War Two, the Soviet soldiers weren't afraid of anything and posed a certain threat. The government tightened the screws. Certain dances and music genres got banned, including rumba and foxtrot.
Mikhail Kunitsyn, radio host: "The Blue Headscarf by Klavdia Shulzhenko, (a Boston waltz, by the way, that she performed with her jazz orchestra) was also banned. They said it was done to forget about the war, but in reality, they were fighting jazz".
The Soviet history was full of restrictions. The USSR was fighting formalism in art. Jazz was also considered formal, i.e. empty and meaningless music that should be alien to the Soviet citizens. From 1946 to 1958, jazz was banned.
Mikhail Kunitsyn: "Jazz was officially nonexistent in Russia. All jazz bands were renamed as stage orchestras. Klavdia Shulzhenko's band was disbanded. She had to perform backed up by a piano. What foreign threat are we talking about when our enemy was inside: we were our own enemies?"
Perhaps our Cold War opponents saw jazz banned in the USSR and adopted a cunning policy of jazz injection. Was it their music that led to the collapse of the USSR?
Andrey Koshkin, political analyst: "They want to emphasize having offered every kind of humanitarian relations and cultural exchange with the purpose of destabilizing the Soviet Union, so jazz music was one of the reasons why it collapsed. However, I believe that they are taking credit for things they didn't do".
Khrushchev wasn't always consistent. During the thaw, he allowed some African American music then, the relations froze and the music got banned. Still, the times were different. The first Russian jazz club opened in Leningrad in 1958.
In 1967, during Brezhnev's term, Some Like It Hot was shown in the Soviet cinemas. During that year, 44 million Soviet citizens watched the movie. There was no better propaganda.
At that time, Leningrad was the jazz center, copying rock music records on X-ray images. Here's a legend of that time, the man who did it underground. Rudik Fuchs was the first producer of Arkady Severny. His apartment in St. Petersburg is a vinyl museum.
Rudolph Fuchs, collector, producer: "Before rock'n'roll there was the Lindy hop dance. In St. Petersburg, we called it "Linda", and dancing it was called "to lindash". If a dancing couple got busted dancing Linda they could get expelled from their university".
They arrested fans and banned concerts, but our people didn't give up. The Luxembourg Radio transmitted music, as well as the so-called "enemy voices" broadcast in Russian: those were political shows accompanied by music.
Evgeny Fyodorov, member of State Duma: "The KGB had special units that were monitoring the cultural activities of the CIA. The Soviet security forces considered many things to be youth propaganda".
Fuchs also listened to the "enemy voices", translated song lyrics, and distributed records.
Rudolph Fuchs: "They were harming themselves. Instead of stopping the Western influence on the Soviet audience they even helped to spread the culture."
The U.S. propaganda was less successful at making the Western culture seem interesting and trendy than the strict Soviet laws. 30-40 years ago, Russian rock was also banned.