The Myths of Time

In November of 1989 the Berlin wall fell. (George H. W. Bush was President.) On Christmas day, 1991, the demise of The Soviet Union was signaled by the resignation speech of Mikhail Gorbachev.

Previously, in a June ’87 speech at the Brandenburg Gate, President Ronald Reagan had said: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Any Republican will tell you that Ronald Reagan was personally responsible for the fall of the communist state. Democrats tend to think the nation collapsed of its own dysfunction and inability to adapt to a modern world. The Soviet Union was, as the historian Stephen Kotkin put it, “lethargically stable.”

In the first place, it was not Reagan’s bellicosity, or even the threat of “Star Wars” that softened the Soviet State. While he is now our right-wing darling, at the time, Reagan’s conciliatory policies through arms negotiations and diplomacy provoked anguished and increasingly bitter denunciations from the right. Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus branded Reagan “a useful idiot for Soviet propaganda.” Conservative columnist George Will pounded away at Reagan for having changed. “Four years ago, many people considered Reagan a keeper of the Cold War flame,” he wrote in 1988. “Time flies. For conservatives, Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy has produced much surprise, but little delight.” Republicans are notorious for poor or “selective” memory.

In fact, American presidents for decades had publicly advocated dismantling the wall. Mr. Reagan’s variation was to address their leader personally, at the wall.

Officially, this was East Germany’s wall. President Erich Honecker had no intention to tear down the wall. (He declared at the beginning of 1989 that the wall “will still exist in 50 or even 100 years.”) Honecker had been succeeded by Egon Krenz in November, however, and on the night of Nov. 9, 1989, as East Germans began streaming across the border, Krenz, tried to telephone Gorbachev to ask what he should do. Gorbachev didn’t take the call, and did not intervene. He wanted an entirely new relationship with the United States and Western Europe.

Neither Krenz nor Gorbachev had ordered dismantling of the wall, rather a directive to border guards had been misunderstood. The spokesman for the East German Communist Party misread a press release and told his country's people they were free to go -- "immediately," as of the night of Nov. 9, 1989, and not the next day, when new travel rules were officially supposed to take effect. When East Berliners started one-by-one walking through an open gate, no one intervened.

So the big question is, “to whom or what do Russians attribute the fall of the Soviet Government?” I’m going to put this in small font so it doesn’t jump off the page, but the actual answer is The Beatles.

Emerging from WW II, the Soviet Union was the second most powerful nation in the world. They commanded an enormous army and held much of Eastern Europe in their grip. They had robust industry, educated scientists and working social systems. With Western technology the Soviets exploded an atomic bomb in 1949, then a hydrogen bomb in ‘55. In October of 1957, they put the first satellite in orbit, a wake-up call to the world. They had cool clients all over the world such as Fidel and “Che”.

Though lampooned by Western press, Nikita Khrushchev was a colorful and charismatic leader. He commanded the respect and admiration of most of the Soviet people, and allowed modest forms of freedom, unknown in those lands. Remember that for centuries the Russian peoples had been enslaved and indentured by Mongols and Tsars. These developments were a strange breath of fresh air for a people for whom passivity and general misery had been cultural traditions. In fact, though, the Soviet state was held together by fear and belief. Still there was much at this time for the Russian people to celebrate and be proud of.

In 1964 two significant events occurred. One, Khrushchev was unseated by the Communist Party for being too liberal. He was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev. Dour and phlegmatic, he brought a geriatric regime to power and stifled all seeds of reform.

The second big event of 1964 was the world-wide explosion of The Beatles. While other bands and artists of the age (The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Who) cast themselves as angry, rebellious, stolid, The Beatles exuded freedom and happiness. These were characters straight from the Russian fancied imagination. The Beatles became icons of all that young Russians wanted or cared about. The government condemned the group as bourgeoisie and dangerous---Western pollution, but enhanced their appeal by banning them, along with anything to do with “rock and roll.” “Popular” Russian music of the age still consisted of accordion-based folk groups and stodgy crooners, singing songs of the 30’s.

People caught with paraphernalia connected with The Beatles (music, attending live performances featuring Beatles music, even pictures) were subject to harsh reprisal including loss of career, loss of educational opportunity for self or children, sometimes imprisonment. Fans might carry pictures of their favorite group hidden in seams of their clothing. The vast majority, even with a picture of the four mop-tops, could only guess at connecting names with faces. The Beatles infiltrated the Russian mass-consciousness. Pictures were copied over and over until they had the fuzzy gauze of a spiritual icon. In a country with state-banned religion, they became the unofficial state religion. The Beatles punched holes in the iron curtain through which the Soviet people breathed.

Music came to the black market when it was discovered that X-ray film could carry the tiny imprints that created phonograph records. Small booths existed throughout The Soviet Union where people could make phonograph records. People could tape a recording of a Beatle song from Radio Luxembourg, take it into one of these kiosks and come out with a Beatle record to sell. If one emerged with Beatles music on a hard disc, they were likely to be apprehended. X-ray film could be rolled up and concealed in the sleeve of a coat.

The allure, fascination, frustration over this group was amplified when Paul seemed to speak to the people with Back in the USSR on the White Album (1968).

By the mid 70s, Beatlemania grew and expanded generationally, as the government began to cash in by selling pirated recordings and paraphernalia. The Beatles had become the embodiment of what the entire culture had longed for. By denying the people the object of their obsession, the government sealed its own fate, total cultural irrelevancy. The people had already defected in mind and heart. Present leaders, including Mr. Putin and Deputy Prime Minister Sergai Ivanov shared the Beatle craze.

In retrospect, for 40 years our elders admonished us that Communism was our greatest threat and came to rail over the emergence of rock and roll music, claiming it would destroy our youth and undermine society. Turns out that far more than any defense system or propaganda campaign, our music destroyed their great enemy.

For those who love to explode myths, the greatest book of the genre that I’ve found is Lies My Teacher Told Me, James W. Loewen.