„Sovetskiy Ural“ №13 & Rok

„Sovetskiy Ural“ №13

In this report shot for the Sverdlovsker television studio, the director asks young people and musicians about the meaning of music in their lives.

Rok

Rock music was excluded for decades from official Soviet music channels due to its allegedly demoralizing and destructive effect on the younger generations according to Soviet authorities. Even in amateur circles, its existence was tolerated at best and at risk from the capriciousness of state positions. Alexei Uchitel’s documentary ROK is a key document of the Soviet rock scene that slowly formed itself into an autonomous musical phenomenon and countercultural mouthpiece in adverse circumstances and on an entirely different timescale to Western rock. The film creates a portrait of several rock musicians who remain important to this day, including Boris Grebenshikov, Viktor Tsoi and Yuri Shevtchuk, showing them in their everyday lives, in interviews and on stage. The musical consultant for the film was key music journalist and concert organizer of the time Artemy Troitsky, author of “Back in the USSR: The True Story of Rock in Russia”, which was published in 1988 and has become the standard work on Soviet rock. (nf/gv)

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