Musical Dissent: Soviet Bards and the All-Russia Bard Festival of 1968

Music became a big part of dissent in the Soviet Union.  Soviet Bards were at the center of musical dissent and at the forefront of a movement of self-published and self-distributed music.  This method known as samizdat, or magnitizdat for recordings, became the central tool for bards to distribute their music.  Many Bards found it difficult to distribute their music through the big state-run record company Melodia and were often times spread through hand written song books and bootleg cassette tapes.  Large Bard festivals and concerts did occur, but were uncommon.  Many were helf outside of the large cities in a type of nowhere space, but being able to perform the songs in public was a victory in itself.    

Credits

Created as part of the Politics of Peace & Gender course at Cleveland State University