Written by Sally Dolphin
The ‘Iron Curtain’ has become an infamous representation of the metaphorical and physical divide between the East and West that existed for the majority of the twentieth century. In many aspects of life, both the West and East made conscious efforts to distinguish themselves as culturally ‘superior’ to the other. To the West, the ‘Iron Curtain’ represented a clear divide between their freedom and democracy and the repressive policies of the Soviet Union. Unsurprisingly, the Soviet Union demonised the West during the height of the Cold War as the most pressing threat to the survival of communism and the State. The image of the West as a danger to the stability of the motherland trickled down into the citizenry through extensive censorship and state propaganda. Yet, whilst Soviet posters in shop windows and street signposts reiterated the State’s anti-western propaganda, by the 1950s, the growth of ‘samizdat’ was underway.
The term ‘samizdat’ described the growth of black markets within Soviet countries, in which the distribution of contraband literature, music, and Western youth culture spread during the Cold War. In the post-World War Two USSR, Western music, in particular was seen as corrupting Soviet youth, encouraging behaviour that did not align with the State’s ideological propaganda. Thus, jazz, rock and roll, and traditional Russian folk music became contraband. Music that once promoted community, enjoyment and love became a threat to one’s livelihood. Music creators in the USSR could no longer access recording material and had to first be approved by the state-controlled Composers Union. This ‘criminal music’ was known as ‘Blatnaya Pesnya’ and was one of the top priorities for the Soviet State’s ideological battle against the West throughout the Cold War. Despite the State’s vision of the ‘iron curtain’ as impenetrable to Western influence, western music was able to transcend this barrier via the growth of ‘samizdat’.
Stephen Coates, the leader of a British band called ‘The Real Tuesday Weld,’ came across a relic of these black markets during a visit to St Petersburg. As Coates explored a local market, he spotted what appeared to be a disused X-ray depicting human skeletons. Upon further inspection, the X-ray began to resemble a vinyl record, with grooves carefully inscribed into the thin material. It was not until Coates decided to play the X-ray on a record player, and ‘Rock Around the Clock’ by Bill Haley could be heard, that historians began to uncover the black market of ‘bones music’.
The majority of X-Ray vinyl bootlegging took place between the 1940s and the 1960s, after which the developments of tape recordings largely replaced vinyl. The United States and Britain widely promoted the newly praised rock and roll and jazz artists during the birth of the sexual revolution. The smuggling of these Western records often took place amongst elites and corrupt officials who were able to afford the high prices. Western films featuring American music also circulated amongst much of the Soviet Union’s youth, fuelling a secret distribution of this culture. The culprits of this distribution were the youth groups known as ‘stilyagi’, who attempted to appropriate Western culture, including fashion, slang and music. The utilisation of X-rays for creating vinyl replicas was a practical approach to the censorship and expense of real bootlegged vinyl. Due to the flammability of X-rays, Soviet hospitals were required to dispose of them after short periods of time, leading to an abundance of material that could be transformed into musical contraband. This created a convenient situation for both those wishing to purchase old X-rays for illicit reasons and hospital workers who could earn monetary benefits from the trade. More practically, the flimsy material of X-rays made it easy for both seller and buyer to conceal the records in shirtsleeves or discreetly in bags. Music that was in high demand amongst those pressing illicit X-ray records included records of Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis and Bill Haley & His Comets.
There existed a fascinating irony about the material of X-ray to carry illicit music. The black market of Western music was in high demand and was recognisable by the skeletons of Soviet citizens. This irony was even acknowledged through State propaganda intended to counter the continuation of the trade. In a short film released in 1960, young Soviet boys skipping school to participate in the trade of bootlegged X-ray discs next to the Red Square were shown. The narrator of this film stated ‘”These X-rays reveal the anatomy of their terrible souls”’.1 As with the majority of state propaganda within the Soviet Union, particularly those targeting Soviet youth, the film simply brought the illicit ‘bones music’ trade to the forefront of Soviet youth imagination.
The black market of ‘bones music’ also carried contraband records of Russian folk music that had been forbidden under the Soviet state. It was thought that these songs promoted anti-revolutionary rhetoric and encouraged criminal behaviour. Again, it seems ironic how these songs were mostly enjoyed from within the confines of the gulag between Soviet citizens deemed criminals and traitors.
The Golden Dog Gang exemplified the dedication of Soviet music lovers to continue the distribution of ‘bones music’ despite being under the constant threat of discovery. Two young Soviets, Ruslan Bogoslowski and Boris Taigin, formed the Golden Dog Gang, a duo that facilitated much of the black market for Western music. For decades, the pair used a record duplication machine to etch the forbidden sounds of Ella Fitzgerald and the Beatles onto discarded discs until they were discovered in 1950 and imprisoned until Stalin’s death in 1953. Nevertheless, this pair has been praised as one of the most important facilitators of the spread of Western music within the post-war Soviet Union.
The legacy of ‘bones music’ provides a fascinating insight into the underground culture of Soviet youth who were prepared to face imprisonment in order to share musical experiences. The harrowing appearance of X-ray records will remain a poignant reminder of the power of music to transgress boundaries, even one as historically impenetrable as the ‘iron curtain’.
Bibliography
Furness, Dyllan. “In Soviet Russia, Forbidden Music was Smuggled on X-Ray Records.” Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/evdewp/soviet-russia-forbidden-music-x-ray-records July 28, 2017.
Minium, Alice. “How X-Rays Became the Backbone of Bootleg Music in 1950s Russia.” Grunge. https://www.grunge.com/757636/how-x-rays-became-the-backbone-of-bootleg-music-in-1950s-russia/ February 4, 2022.
NPR staff. “Bones and Grooves: The Weird Secret History of Soviet X-Ray Music.” NPR. https://www.npr.org/2016/01/09/462289635/bones-and-grooves-weird-secret-history-of-soviet-x-ray-music#:~:text=Hourly%20News-,Bones%20And%20Grooves%3A%20The%20Weird%20Secret%20History%20Of%20Soviet%20X,anyone%20would%20think%20to%20look. Last modified January 9, 2016.
Nicolov, Alice. “The Secret History of the Soviet X-Ray Vinyl Black Market.” Dazed. https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/32308/1/russia-x-ray-vinyl-music-soviet-union August 3, 2016.
Featured Image Credit: Dmitry Rozhkov, English: “Rock on Bones” Gramophone Record (USSR, 1950-s). Gallery “Vinzavod”, Moscow, December 6, 2008, December 6, 2008, Own work, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rock_on_Bones2.jpg.
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