Magnitizdat

File:Самодельный магнитофон 1970ых.jpg

Tape recorder "Tembr" (1964) without casing (From museum of political history of Russia)

Magnitizdat (Template:Langx)Template:Sfn was the process of copying and distributing audio tape recordings that were not commercially available in the Soviet Union. It is analogous to samizdat, the method of disseminating written works that could not be officially published under Soviet political censorship.Template:Sfn It is technically similar to bootleg recordings, except it has a political dimension not usually present in the latter term.

Terminology

The term magnitizdat comes from the Russian words magnitofon (Template:Langx) and izdatel’stvo (Template:Langx).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Technology

Magnetic tape recorders were rare in the Soviet Union before the 1960s.Template:Sfn During the 1960s, the Soviet Union mass-produced reel-to-reel tape recorders for the consumer market.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In addition, Western and Japanese tape recorders were sold through secondhand shops and the black market.Template:Sfn

According to Alexei Yurchak, in contrast to samizdat, “magnitizdat managed to elude state control by virtue of its technological availability and privacy.”Template:Sfn While the state controlled the ownership of printing presses, Soviet citizens were allowed to own reel-to-reel tape recorders. Making more than six typewritten copies of a document to distribute was forbidden, but there was no legal limit on copying tapes.Template:Sfn In addition, only the performer on the recording was considered responsible for the content.Template:Sfn

Bard songs

Live recordings of bard songs performed at informal gatherings were the first works to be distributed as magnitizdat.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Bulat Okudzhava, Alexander Galich, Vladimir Vysotsky, and Yuli Kim were among the bards whose music was distributed as magnitizdat.Template:Sfn Their lyrics dealt with political themes and contained criticisms of Stalin, labor camps, and contemporary Soviet life.

The recordings were copied and recopied in private and distributed through networks of friends and acquaintances throughout the Soviet Union.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Recordings of bard songs were also brought to the West by tourists and emigres and then broadcast on Radio Liberty.Template:Sfn

Rock music

In rock music circles, magnitizdat was initially used for recording short-wave radio broadcasts and copying vinyl records of Western rock music.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Reel-to-reel reproductions of Western rock were sold on black market.Template:Sfn Recordings of Western artists such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Donna Summer were distributed throughout the Soviet Union as magnitizdat.Template:Sfn

By the late 1970s, magnitizdat was used to distribute Soviet rock music as well.Template:Sfn Soviet rock groups began recording albums, also known as magnitoal'bomy, as opposed to live concert recordings.Template:Sfn

Andrei Tropillo was the first to set up a studio to record Russian rock bands on a regular basis.Template:Sfn The AnTrop logo appeared on recordings from Tropillo's studio.Template:Sfn Tropillo’s distribution method usually consisted of handing ten master copies on reel-to-reel tapes to recording cooperatives, which then re-copied and distributed the tapes to other cooperatives and cities.Template:Sfn

In 1986, Red Wave, a compilation album featuring tracks from several bands associated with the Leningrad Rock Club, was released in the U.S. by Big Time Records.Template:Sfn The album contained tracks from magnitoal’bomy originally recorded in Tropillo’s studio and brought out of the Soviet Union by Joanna Stingray.Template:Sfn

Punk

The first punk recording in the Soviet Union has been attributed to the band Avtomaticheskie Udovletvoriteli. One of their performances in Moscow was recorded with a single microphone and released as magnitizdat in 1981.Template:Sfn

The Siberian punk group Grazhdanskaya Oborona recorded songs on minimal equipment in Yegor Letov's home studio.Template:Sfn Letov would then send his albums to acquaintances across the country, who made further copies of the tapes.Template:Sfn Other Siberian punk bands followed Letov's example by limiting their live performances to apartment concerts and making recordings with reel-to-reel tape recorders and microphones.Template:Sfn

See also

• Samizdat
• Roentgenizdat