In my last article on LewRockwell.com, I wrote about proximate reasons for the downfall of the Soviet communism. However, there were other phenomena which, although much less dramatic, had been gnawing away at the foundations of the Marxist-Leninist faith for decades. The epitomes of those were blue jeans, boomboxes, and rock-n-roll.
In the 1960s, the Soviet people were slowly introduced to the new Western counterculture personified by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Elvis Presley. These musicians offered new seductive and subversive rhythms, rhymes, and appearances. They sported long hair and wore blue jeans.
The Soviet authorities went ballistic. They had a tradition of being wary of foreign influences. In the 1920s, there was a slogan: today he listens to jazz, tomorrow he'll sell out the motherland. The 1960s' reaction was no less strong. The long hair, hip shaking, and blue jeans were declared to be alien and incompatible with the "moral profile of a builder of communism." A true builder of communism had to sport a crew cut, dance waltz or polka, and wear traditional style, well-ironed pants. LewRockwell.com's readers are smart and know that the forbidden fruit is sweet. To be sure, young people around Russia embraced the new Western "abominations." There was a problem though. You can always grow long hair and whiskers (unless you have strict parents or are in the army). Almost anyone can shake hips. But… not too many of us could make our own blue jeans, especially if there is no denim for sale.
As time went on, blue jeans became less a statement of rebellion and more a status symbol. The Soviet government would neither manufacture, nor import them. But the blue jeans would still trickle into the "Evil Empire." Some were brought in by Soviet diplomats, sailors, or military advisers to Arab regimes such as Egypt or Syria. Some were smuggled in by foreigners. Blue jeans gave life to "fartsovshchiki," a special kind of black market "profiteers." Those would buy jeans and other stuff from foreigners in exchange for traditional Russian wares, such as fur hats and caviar.
Blue jeans were very expensive. They sold for anywhere from 150 to 250 rubles. As a reference point, an average monthly salary was under 200 rubles and you could buy regular pants for 10 to 20 rubles.
Now, you may be thinking: OK, this is all good and well, but what's your point? In fact, I have two. First, even the dimmest Soviet citizen could follow this line of thinking:
- Blue jeans are expensive and prestigious; they make girls like those who wear them.
- Blue jeans come from the West; the best come from America (Levi's, Calvin Klein, Jordache, etc.).
- The West is good; America is the best
- Why can't we make blue jeans??? Forget the space stations and Russian ballet!
Second, the blue jeans were the best counterargument against the Soviet propaganda, much more effective than the Voice of America. Consider the following. When the Soviet TV showed the West and especially the United States, it didn't so much lie as did not tell the whole truth. The Soviet TV showed poor people in urban ghettos, student protesters, trade union strikes, etc. (rather than suburban soccer moms and country clubs). All these people were angry at the capitalist system, or life, or whatever. The Soviet people were supposed to watch and become more confident about the superiority of the socialist system. However, there was a small but crucial problem… you guessed it – blue jeans! All poor urban folks and union marchers wore the coveted blue jeans!!! Even the homeless people in the West wore them. So, the wheels of Soviet minds turned, these people couldn't be all that poor and miserable if they all wore the pants which we couldn't afford!
So the blue jeans were triumphant. In fairness, they were not blue only anymore. They were black, brown, white, stone-washed, etc. They outlived the Soviet communism and became the favorite attire of Russians, Ukrainians, and other former Soviet people.
In the pantheon of objects that brought down the Soviet communism, blue jeans have a very special place, second to none. However, I do have my favorite runner-up. It is the (former) champion of consumer electronics – the radio cassette recorder, aka a boombox. Why the boombox?
First, the cassette (and tape) recorders allowed the Soviet people to listen to the subversive Western sounds. People-to-people copying of recordings was the only way to listen to the underground Soviet rock bands (at least for those of us who didn't live in Moscow or Leningrad – the hotbeds of the Soviet rock-n-roll). Ah, the magic of copying! The Soviet government kept a very tight lid on photocopying technology lest the Soviet people start copying the works of the dissidents… yet the communist party forgot that popular music is no less potent a weapon! When I was a college student, we put our money together and bought vinyl discs (LPs) on the black market. We then copied them to tapes and cassettes; then we traded our LPs for new ones. Ultimately, one disc could generate hundreds or thousands of copies.
Second, Soviet consumer electronics were always so much behind the times! It was a different case from the blue jeans; with the jeans, the communist party simply could never understand what all the fuss was about. However, the Soviet government did consider electronics to be important consumer goods, but the centrally planned economy cannot react quickly – it messes up the planning (the ideal centrally planned economy is prison or the military – everybody eats the same stuff, wears the same clothes, etc.). As it happened, the Soviet industry produced four and eight track tape recorders in the 1970s and 1980s when the rest of the world switched to cassette recorders. When the Soviet industry finally started mass-producing cassette recorders in the 1980s, the rest of the world started switching to CD players. For the Soviet people, boomboxes were another example of how glorious the West was – all the best, sleekest, and loudest came from there after all! One of the happiest days of my life was when my parents finally got me a foreign boombox in 1986.
Of course, there were other objects of desire. Since the socialist economy can manufacture consumer goods which are either of low quality and out of fashion or just out of fashion (it gets the quality right occasionally), most desired objects came from abroad. Austrian and Italian shoes, boots, and clothes, mohair scarves and sweaters from Scotland and India, Japanese electronics – the list goes on and on. All these things exposed the Soviet communism for the fraud it was – bit by bit, step by step, year by year.
Finally, some musings about the US Cuban policy (perhaps a non sequitur?). The US government maintains strict controls on travel to Cuba as well as other commercial activities with the communist "Freedom Island." The ostensible rationale is that by traveling and/or engaging in commerce with Cuba, US nationals provide Fidel Castro's government with much needed foreign currency.
No doubt, tourists and businessmen do provide Castro with funds just as foreign tourists and businessmen provided funds to the erstwhile Soviet Union. However, foreign tourists, usually unintentionally, subverted the Soviet regime with their dollars, jeans, LPs, etc. The resulting damage to the Soviet system far exceeded any utility from the obtained foreign exchange. In the same way, foreign tourists and trade subvert the Castro regime far more effectively than any government propaganda effort ever could. Foreign exchange is nothing in comparison. The blue jeans clad Cubans with dollars in their pockets, Miami music booming from their mp3 players, and American soaps playing on their DVD systems have no use for communism. Unleash the power of consumerism and popular culture on the last Stalinist bastion in the Western hemisphere and watch it work its magic!
July 20, 2006
