Word: magnitizdat
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Illegal broadcasting by homemade transmitters has become a persistent and growing youth cult in the Soviet Union. After samizdat (clandestine publishing of dissident writings) and magnitizdat (circulating tapes of unorthodox poetry and music), there is now radioiz-dat-air-it-yourself programs of pop music, teen-age talk, messages to girl friends and even dirty jokes. All of which represents a somewhat refreshing contrast to official state-controlled broadcasting, which is apt to be long on lectures about beet growing and the life of Lenin, but short on entertainment...
...current Russian practice of samizdat (self-publishing) is well-known in the West. By samizdat, Russians endlessly retype and clandestinely circulate the work of such banned Russian writers as Alexander Solzhenitsyn. With the increasing availability of tape recorders, another practice, called magnitizdat (publishing by tape recorder), is becoming even more popular than samizdat. Through magnitizdat, artists record songs that are not acceptable for official release. The tapes are then passed from hand to hand with lightning rapidity as each person makes copies for his friends...
Unlike samizdat, which is forbidden, magnitizdat has not been declared illegal. "So far as we know, no one has yet been arrested for composing, performing, taping or playing the tapes in Russia," says Misha Allen, an emigre from Russia living in Toronto who has collected more than 700 modern Soviet songs. "Probably the state regards the songs as a safety valve for the rebellious. Besides, many are patriotic." Still, as Allen points out, the Soviet authorities are not exactly delighted about the trend. Recently, tapes acquired in Russia by a few Western tourists have been seized by Soviet customs...
Another of magnitizdat's themes is the contrast between the Soviet Union's technological advances and the wretched living and working conditions endured by many citizens, including the veritable army of shawled grannies who still sweep the street of today's Russia. Mikhail Nozhkin, a young movie actor turned balladeer, sings of Auntie Nyusha, the tireless, smiling cleaning woman who sweeps up the messes of others. She is avoided by an immaculate bureaucrat, who fears he would dirty his clean hands if he touched her. While others want pensions and vacations, she never stops working. "Reactors...
...their inspiration from the experience of slavery. In the fearful days of Stalin, the bitter, poignant songs of prisoners, which wafted beyond the gates of the slave labor camps, were known and hummed by millions of Soviet citizens. Although the Stalinist terror has since subsided, the memories endure. In magnitizdat, Russians sing of their struggle to maintain integrity in a society that all too often has brutalized its citizens. The stanza of one famous song begins: "Our own war is a hand-to-hand combat between honor and evil-something people don't usually write songs about...
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