“We tell you what was happening in the country at the time when “Swan Lake” was shown on all TV channels.”, — write: www.unian.ua
We tell you what was happening in the country at the time when “Swan Lake” was shown on all TV channels.
The ballet “Swan Lake” in the USSR had not only an educational mission / pixabay.comThose who saw the year 1991 probably remember the famous “Swan Lake” on TV screens. For three days, the same ballet was broadcast on all channels, as if time had stopped in the country. For older people, this sight was familiar: they had seen a similar “ballet without end” before and already guessed what might be the reason. Why “Swan Lake” was shown on TV in the USSR and the post-Soviet space for days, what events were behind it, and why Tchaikovsky was actually “twisted” and not KVN – we will tell you further.
Why was the ballet shown in 1991The time when “Swan Lake” was shown on all channels in the USSR was not only in 1991. But it was almost always an alarming signal: something serious had happened in the country, and difficult times were ahead. Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet became a kind of pause – it was put on the air in moments of crises, political changes or nationwide mourning.
“Swan Lake” appeared on the screens:
- after the death of the general secretaries – Leonid Brezhnev, Yuriy Andropov and Kostiantyn Chernenko;
- in August 1991 – during the coup attempt;
- sometimes – as a neutral “technical replacement” during breaks in television broadcasting.
For the first time, the Soviet audience saw the ballet “Swan Lake” in 1982 – instead of a concert for the Militia Day. The reason was tragic: Brezhnev died. Then this technique was repeated two more times – after the death of Andropov and Chernenko.
In 1991, the Soviet authorities outdid themselves: during the attempted coup d’état of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine – the August putsch – the ballet was broadcast on TV for three days in a row. However, there is another version: the broadcast of the ballet was allegedly scheduled two weeks before the putsch and happened to coincide with this event. The coincidence seemed too symbolic to be easily believed.
But why did they show the ballet, and not some entertainment program? First, it was forbidden to put any “entertainment” on TV during mourning days. Ballet was considered a symbol of classical art, a neutral and highly cultural content. Some cultural figures even called such broadcasts “enlightening” – they say that millions of people who have never been to the Bolshoi Theater got a chance to see the legendary production of Tchaikovsky and Grigorovich.
But the main reason was, of course, different. The ballet lasted a long time, did not contain words and distracted from reality. In this way, the authorities removed the news from the TV airwaves – reduced the degree of anxiety, avoided panic, uncomfortable conclusions and gained time.
Already in the post-Soviet era, “Swan Lake” was sometimes staged during technical breaks or to synchronize broadcast channels. Today, few people remember the last time “Swan Lake” was shown on TV – not counting 1991. We would like to believe that this last time for the successor of the USSR is not far off. The story usually doesn’t let you down – it just likes to pause before the finale.
Previously, we told what products were in the USSR, how much they cost and what was the “crazy” shortage.
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