Real USSR » TV

Sherlock Holmes VS USSR: 1 Nil.

eugenia — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:18:05 +0000

My iPad has really got me reading recently. On iBooks almost all of classic literature is free, so I am reading a book by Arthur Conan Doyle — The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Man with the Twisted Lip. There was a passage that struck me as remarkable (or, as Conan Doyle would put it, rather singular):

One night — it was in June 1889 — there came a ring to my bell. … We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps upon the linoleum. Our door flew open, and a lady, clad in some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room.

The Soviet movie illustration of this book. 1979. Vasily Livanov as Sherlock Holmes and Vitaly Solomin as Dr Watson.

Really. In June 1881, just like that, Sherlock had linoleum, which was nothing extraordinary at the time — given he was presumed to somewhat struggle financially, and thus his need to share a flat. In the USSR — and this is the point I am making now — linoleum was one of the highest sought-after products until at least early 1980. I wouldn’t believe it myself, but I remember how excited my Mum was when in 199o we managed to “secure” some of this precious material to floor the kitchen in our apartment.

What was the price of those space exploration programmes if linoleum was a scarce commodity at least for a century after it became widespread in the rotten, capitalistic West? You feel my pain?

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Oleg Popov, The Sad Clown

eugenia — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:16:03 +0000

In about six weeks this remarkable man will celebrate his 80th Birthday. Who is he? The most popular clown of the Soviet Union, also known as the Sunshine Clown, Oleg Popov is true icon of its own. Born in 1930, he had on of the toughest upbringings ever — yet he managed to become one of most recognisable people of the 20th century: he also was in Guinness Records Book for “being popular in the West and in the East”.

On top of his game. Oleg Popov in 1976.

He was training to be a plumber when, at the age of 17, his friends took him along to the local circus — overwhelmed, he later said there was no way back. He started learning acrobatics, gymnastics, tricks; he spent all of his time and money on learning about the famous clowns and their techniques. It did not take him long to become famous: his natural talent and an open smile made wonders.

In his interview for the Russian newspaper Arguments and Facts, Oleg Popov is reminiscing about the happiest day of his life:after Stalin’s death in 1953, all entertainment was banned as a deep mourning was announced. So the circus he was working at was shut, and those weeks of not doing what he loved was torturous. It took over two months for the ban to be lifted, and even then he was briefed not to joke “too much”. So coming out on stage and receiving a huge round of applaud made Oleg realised that it wasn’t only him who missed performing — it was also the spectators who needed laughter.

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AWOL Tigger, or a Soviet Take on the World-Famous Cartoon Characters

eugenia — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:30:21 +0000

Apart from the Soviet writers’ prolific input into the children literature, a great deal of stories was translated into Russian, so the kids of the USSR grew up on the stories by Hans Andersen, Charles Pierrot and the Grimm brothers. Often the translators took the liberty of changing the plot of the storyline: this is how the famous book by A. Milne “Winnie the Pooh” in its Russian version features no Tigger yet there are some extra characters not from the original script. Arguably, it allowed the translator to become somewhat of an author and hence their name went onto the book cover (this is what happened to the Russian version of The Wizard of Oz). As cartoon making was one of the most developed (and certainly less censored ones) graphic arts, it can be of interest to see how the Russian animators saw the traditional Western fairy tales characters.

Piglet, Winnie the Pooh and Rabbit. 1969

The story of Pinocchio (Buratino in Russia) is another fine example of how things got transformed on the way from Italy to the USSR: the plot retains very little of the original story, and the only thing unchanged is the wooden puppet.

Pierrot, Buratino (the Russian Pinnocchio), and Malvina, the beautiful female puppet friend. 1969

Little Red Riding Hood

The Jungle Book: Mowgli, Baloo the bear, Bagheera the black panther and Kaa the python. 1973

Dr Doolittle. 1984

The Treasure Island. 1984

The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy (Ellie in the Russian version, for some reason); the Scarecrow; the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man. 1974

Puss in Boots. 1968

The Nutcracker, with the original music by Tchaikovsky. 1973.

However, we would fall short of a fair story if we did not mention the most famous Russian cartoon of all times — Well, Just You Wait, Hare! It is an original Russian-made script and the plot line, with a loose resemblance of the Tom & Jerry cartoon. The cartoon is a slapstick adventure of the Hare who is being chased by the Wolf, and each episode (there were 16 of them altogether) has its own wee plot. The popularity of it was so huge that possibly everyone born in the USSR still has the nicest memories of it. During the hay days of the Soviet power, this series were imported into the countries of the Eastern Bloc, as well as China, India and some other pro-socialist countries where it found to be liked by the audience, due to very little spoken language and a happy end of each episode. You can still buy an adapted version on amazon and enjoy it just as much, almost 40 years later.

The Wolf and the Hare: Well, Just You Wait! 1969

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The Very First Miss USSR

Dmitry Yakimenko — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:11:32 +0000

The very though of women competing for the title of the most beautiful was a fairly adversarial concept for the Soviet ideology. A woman, first and foremost, was a worker, an achiever, a mother and a wife, and nobody would consider judging one on the physical attractiveness — let alone allow women spend the valuable time and money on pointless fashion, cosmetics and hair styling.

A uniform parade was the closest thing to a beauty pageant in the USSR. It was an honour to participate in one.

That’s why, when across the globe beauty contests became popular and widespread after the Second World War, the USSR had its ban on such events. Until 1989, when the very first beauty contest took place in Moscow — trying to find the prettiest of them all.

Needless to say, the public interest and anticipation for the performance were huge: the tickets for the show never came on sale, but were distributed only to the people “in the know”. At the same time the ordinary people could enjoy the show live broadcast on the TV during the six long hours (and that’s the running time, as TV commercials did not exist in the USSR back then). The finalist of the competition was a 16 years old schoolgirl from Moscow Julia Suchanova. Julia was granted theright to participate further in “Miss World” but her parents refused point-blank to sign the contract on her behalf. When the young beauty came of age she moved to the USA where she started the modelling career and later owned a company specialising on the sport equipment.

Yulia Sukhanova. No, she was not married, it is just a ring.

Yulia — the first Miss USSR, 1989, Gettyimages

The interest for the second beauty pageant was just as huge as to the first one. Contenders for the title “Miss USSR — 1990” were selected from over the country. The winner was the 17 years old Maria Kezha from Belorussia.

Maria Kezha — Miss USSR 1990, photo by Jack Goldenberg

The beauty pageant “Miss USSR” took place only twice as in 1991 the USSR collapsed. Nevertheless, the competition resuscitated under the new name “Miss Russia” in 1993. Sadly, just like Yulia Sukhanova, Maria never pursued the modelling career to the full. She got married shortly after the contest and later emigrated to Germany.

It cannot be helped to note that the first “officially” recognised Soviet beauty by the West was the winner of pageant “Moscow Beauty” Masha Kalinina from Moscow in 1988. Masha was in good graces with the destiny also after the competition - she continued to work as a model for the well-known Germany Company “Burda-Moden”. Later Masha enrolled into the acting school in Hollywood where all her expenses were paid by an elderly American couple who she met at the reception at the White House, where she was invited by George Bush-Sr. Visit Masha’s official website.

Masha Kalinina (in the middle) — Moscow Beauty, 1988

Maria Kalinina nowadays

Have a look at this 26 min interview with Masha for Russia Today. What does it take to be one of these girls and how do you obtain a crown, and, most importantly, what happens next.

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