Russian Active Measures. Группа авторов
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that quoted sympathetically a diatribe from the Daily Telegraph. To illustrate all this, a few photos of “monsters” with swastikas were printed … The image of punks as Nazis was established very effectively, and in our country, as you should understand, the swastika will never receive a positive reaction, even purely for shock value.59
Indeed, Soviet propagandists shaped the views of KGB officials and Komsomol activists who believed that punks and fascists were the same. All Komsomol functionaries and those who ran discotheques in Soviet Ukraine received a special notice warning against the punk ideology. The warning included Russian translations of phrases employed by British punks. This information was reprinted in many publications by Ukrainian journalists who covered this anti-punk campaign. In their texts, they quoted the punk slogans: “Live only for today! Do not think about tomorrow! Do not give a damn about all these spiritual crutches of religion, utopia, and politics! Forget about this. Enjoy your day. You are young, and do not be in a hurry to become a new young corpse” [sic!]. Unfailingly, they emphasized the anti-human essence of “fascist punk music” that allegedly embodied “bestial cynicism and meanness,” undermining the Soviet youth’s moral principles.60
The first public scandal that involved both “fascist music” and the display of fascist symbols took place in the city of Dnipropetrovsk in the fall of 1982. The city police arrested two college students, Ihor Keivan and Oleksandr Plastun who owned record collections of Western music and whose public behavior was described as “neo-Nazi.” These students were dressed in T-shirts with the images of American and Australian rock bands “Kiss” and “AC/DC,” which attracted the attention of policemen who interpreted these images as “fascist.” After Keivan’s and Plastun’s arrest, their “fascist” record collections were confiscated, and the information about these students’ anti-Soviet behavior was sent to their colleges.
In December of 1982, the entire city of Dnipropetrovsk and the Dnipropetrovsk oblast were shaken by police raids and searches, part of the anti-fascist and anti-punk campaign. The Dnipropetrovsk City Party Committee approached Nadezhda A. Sarana, an experienced Communist and a member of the anti-fascist resistance group during the Second World War, and asked her to write a letter about the dangers of the local fascist punks’ fashion statements. On 22 December 1982, the communist functionaries staged an open public meeting with participation of all communist and Komsomol activists in Dnipropetrovsk’s downtown. During this event, they publicly endorsed Sarana’s letter against the punks and declared war against the punk movement in Soviet Ukraine. Under KGB pressure, local ideologists organized a show trial of Keivan, Plastun, and another young punk, Vadym Shmeliov, that was held in January of 1983. All three were expelled from the Komsomol and their colleges. KGB officers were outraged when they learned that Keivan and Plastun interpreted this punishment as a violation of their human rights. This case established the precedent and routine practices of Komsomol cells in the region to purge those members who were suspected of enthusiasm for the forbidden music.61
This anti-punk campaign especially affected the Ukrainian fans of heavy metal music.62 In 1983, the Dnipropetrovsk police arrested ten students from a local vocational school on charges of “hooliganism.” The police discovered images of the Nazi era and of the American Ku Klux Klan in their possession. As it turned out, Serhii Onushev, Oleksandr Rvachenko, and their friends made white robes and put the letters KKK on them, impersonating their membership in this American organization.63 Serhii Onushev was identified as the leader of this group, who listened to the tapes that included the music of the bands that “belonged to the pro-fascist movement—Kiss, Nazareth, AC/DC, and Black Sabbath.”64 Local ideologists established a direct connection between this music and the fascist inclinations of Onushev’s group. According to them, the musicians of Kiss represented a group of four hooligans, who chose SS and Nazi symbols as the emblems of their band, tearing apart live chickens and vomiting during their performances. They emphasized that, for Soviet students, they had become idols and “trendsetters” in popular culture, inspiring young Soviet people to commit inhuman fascist acts.65
The case of Dmitrii Frolin, a student of the Department of Philology at Dnipropetrovsk University, became another sensational case that attracted the attention of local journalists. As a result of the anti-punk and anti-fascist campaign, Frolin was arrested in 1983 and expelled from both the Komsomol and the university in 1985 for “propaganda of fascism.” Local ideologists pointed out that Frolin’s activities were the direct result of “intensive listening” to the music by “fascist bands,” such as Kiss and AC/DC: “Over his bed, Frolin put a fascist cross and a poster with the faces of the members of the band Kiss, distorted in non-human grimaces with ugly make up (Frolin paid forty rubles for this Kiss poster on the ‘black market’). In addition, he had a variety of audio tapes with the music of Kiss and AC/DC. Just press a button of his tape recorder and you will hear this music.”66 A journalist called the audience to consider the ideological implications of these activities:
They, the musicians of AC/DC, call themselves the devil’s children. Their song “Back in Black” became an anthem of the American Nazi Party. During a Komsomol meeting, Dmitrii justified his behavior by saying: “I do not consider myself collecting such things a crime. This is just mere collecting. It does not matter what the subject of this collection is. These items reflect a certain period in the history of these people. I consider listening to my favorite music and collecting music records part of my private life. And I have a right to protect my privacy, according to Soviet and international laws.”67
In December of 1983, a local youth periodical published the results of a sociological analysis of ideological maturity among Dnipropetrovsk youth, compiled by the Komsomol scholars. According to their findings, special Komsomol raids discovered images of the American band Kiss in many student dorms at Dnipropetrovsk colleges. One could easily observe the SS symbols and Nazi signs on these images. The analysis also included a concern pertaining to the visual appearance of young people, stating that the majority of the student population in Dnipropetrovsk were wearing T-shirts that had images of the U.S. military insignia and ones that glorify capitalist countries hostile to the Soviet Union. Apparently, they purchased these T-shirts on the black market, wearing them even during their classes.68
According to KGB officers, the “youth culture of fascist music” was shaped by the idealization of Hitler and Ukrainian nationalist leaders, such as Stepan Bandera, who were active during the Second World War. In 1983 and 1984, the police arrested the members of a “fascist Banderovite group,” students at the Dnipropetrovsk Agricultural Institute. These students, Konstantin Shipunov and his five followers, listened to “fascist rock music,” organized their own party, and popularized the ideas of Nazi leaders and Ukrainian nationalist politicians. They criticized the Russification of cultural life in Ukraine, advocated Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union, and insisted on protecting the national rights of all Ukrainian patriots.69
The criminal cases of Ukrainian “fascist” heavy metal fans reveal interesting connections among various forms of cultural consumption in Soviet Ukraine in 1982–1984. The arrested members of Onushev’s and Shipunov’s groups confessed that they were inspired by the images of “clean, intelligent and civilized” Nazi officers portrayed in the Soviet TV series Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973). Based on the novel by Yulian Semenov, a famous Soviet writer of mystery and spy novels, this TV series narrated the story of Shtirlitz (Viacheslav Tikhonov), a Soviet agent posing