Word: sovietism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Washington insists it is undeterred. "The Russians say they are not prepared to live with any of the former Soviet republics inside NATO," notes an Administration official. "Russia will have to get over that." If Russia does not get over it, though, the result could be precisely the European instability that the expansion of NATO was intended to lock away in the trophy case of history...
...role in keeping the peace for the past 48 years will open its doors to former adversaries. Some will be invited to join as full members soon; others will be encouraged to do so later; and representatives of all the emerging democracies in what used to make up the Soviet bloc will intensify their cooperation with NATO on a range of common concerns, from arms control to regional crisis management...
There's one simple explanation for the triumph of capitalism over Soviet communism: we had Astaire and Marilyn; all they had were boy-loves-tractor pictures. As the battle of the ideologies was fought on movie screens around the world, the edifying drabness of Soviet-bloc films couldn't compete with America's glamorous, sexy, lilting pop culture. As Dana Ranga, director of the terrific documentary East Side Story, puts it, "A specter was haunting communism: the specter of Hollywood...
...joke. Many Commusicals were censored for having a decadent Westernized tone. As an officious official bellows to a young dancer in Carnival Night (U.S.S.R., 1957), "We want to raise the consciousness of our workers. But what do you expect to raise with naked legs?" Only about 40 Soviet-bloc musicals were made in 40 years, from The Jolly Fellows to the glossy, ginchy No Cheating, Darling (G.D.R., 1973). Yet these films brought vigorous fun to an audience starved for it. Their makers deserved to be named Heroes of the Soviet People...
...only Soviet specialists in musicals were Alexandrov and Ivan Pyriev, the man who made the tractor movies. Pyriev's peasants in Tractor Drivers (1939) sing, "With shellfire thundering and gleaming steel,/ The machines will race ahead to lead the march." In Alexandrov's factory fantasy The Bright Path (1940), workers sing, "Whether you work a machine or break through rocks/ A wonderful dream reveals itself and calls you forward." Naive, yes, but ferociously pertinent for the Russian audience--propaganda in its noblest form...