ABBA in the Soviet Union

For the long decades the Soviet Union was isolated from the other World because of the Communist ideology. Though, infamous “Iron Curtain” wasn’t absolutely impenetrable. And a Swedish “vocal-instrumental ensemble ABBA”, as they called the quartet in the USSR, became one of the best-known and favourite “foreign variety performers” in late 70s – early 80s. It was possible because of the group’s nice tunes, great vocals, “neutral” lyrics and neat looks. But there was a force that turned that possibility into reality – enterprising and resourceful ABBA’s manager and “Godfather” – Stikkan Anderson. Having dealings with the Soviet part, he managed to find mutually beneficial financial solution.

SCARCE VINYL
There weren’t the national charts in the USSR, therefore it was impossible to accurately determine popularity of any foreign group or solo performer. However, the state label Melodiya, the absolute monopolist of the Soviet records market, gave ABBA more attention, than any other foreign group.

It usually took from two to four years for Melodiya to release a foreign LP under terms of license. Thus the album ‘ABBA’ (1975) was released in the beginning of 1977 (and then re-released in 1980 and 1987), while LPs ‘Arrival’ (1976) and ‘ABBA – The Album’ (1977) were released one after another in the fall of 1978 (and re-released in 1988). ‘Voulez-Vous’ (1979) was announced in the firm’s catalogue in the end of 1981 (“Melodiya” #4, October-December 1981), however, it appeared on the counters of Moscow stores not earlier than December of 1984.

At the same time, black market dealers (in the Soviet days they were called “speculators” and could be put into jail for their “illegal trade”) were standing by doors of all main record stores. They offered LPs for the price varied from 10 to 15 roubles, while the “official”, state price was 2.15 roubles and 2.70 roubles (glossy envelope) for a vinyl disc.

It was almost hopeless to wait till a treasured disc has appeared on a counter of a state store, and therefore it was easier to overpay to “obliging” buddies, “to purchase “from hands” as it was called. For some reason those buddies always had everything in abundance. Using their approach to stores salesmen and “Gramzapis” factory workers, enterprising buddies offered just pressed vinyl plates even earlier than they appeared for “official” sale at record stores!

But sometimes someone of pop music fans succeeded to be in the right time in the right place (desirably closer to a counter) – when cherished scarce plates “were ejected” for the state price. Then happiness from the purchase was just as great as long was the queue, which often formed up to the store doors. Sometimes LPs were bought up so extremely quickly that hearts of those who stood in the queue kept sinking after screams of a salesgirl to a cashier, who gave receipts at her cash-desk – “Valentina, do not give receipts for “…”!”

To be exhaustive, a couple of 33 rpm flexies should be mentioned. They were a kind of “schizophrenic” release – two ABBA tracks on one side (‘Money, Money, Money’ and ‘Dancing Queen’; ‘Kisses of Fire’ and ‘Voulez-Vous’) and tracks by a Soviet pop-performer on another.

Certainly, covers design and quality of the Soviet releases could not be compared with analogues from such “decaying capitalism” countries as USA, Canada, England, France, Germany and Sweden. On the black market original Western-made ABBA LPs usually cost from 30 to 50 roubles, whereas an average Soviet worker’s salary was about 120 roubles per month.

Early (1973/74) and last (1980/1981) ABBA LPs, as well as solo works of the group’s members were not released in the Soviet Union. Therefore it was harder or even impossible to find them. Rare copies brought from abroad (for example, double album ‘Chess’; 1984), cost up to 100 roubles on black market.

Since all vinyl releases were more or less hard to obtain, the significant part of the ABBA music, circulating in the Soviet Union, was on home-made tape copies. They were recorded from vinyl (preferably Western-made) originals onto reel tapes and later on cassettes. There were also copies from a copy, sometimes copies from a copy from a copy, and even copies from a copy from a copy from a copy…

ON THE SOVIET SCREENS
ABBA, as well as another Western pop stars, were “rare guests” on the Soviet TV screens. However, TV archives are still keeping the slightly shortened version of the Polish TV-show “ABBA w Studio 2” (1976). It was broadcast, apparently in the summer of 1977 – unfortunately it seems that the exact date can’t be clearly defined now. A handful of clips cut from that video (for instance, ‘S.O.S.’) subsequently “headlined” various musical TV-shows.

On the New Year night of 1981 the Soviet fans were delighted to see a brand new video ‘Happy New Year’. And that year became happy for them indeed, bringing a priceless gift – motion picture “ABBA – The Movie”. In the Soviet distribution it was called simply “ABBA” and was purchased with the right of demonstration for five years. It was the result of another sortie by Stikkan Anderson, who visited Moscow for negotiations in 1980.

In August 1981 the movie was presented in TV-program “Sputnik Kinozritelya” (“Moviegoer’s Companion”) by it’s host, a Soviet actress Irina Miroshnichenko, and from September it was demonstrated in Moscow.

The Soviet distribution copy was five minutes shorter than the original. Concert performance of ‘I’ve Been Waiting for You’ was cut out, as well as the scene in a hotel. Looking through Australian press the quartet members were discussing a newspaper’s headline. Since the article was entitled “ABBA’s Kinky Velvet Bed” they mentioned sexual perversions – a subject undoubtedly not to be mentioned on the Soviet screen!

Russian fans have become able to see the cut out fragments considerably later, about the beginning of 90s, after the film had been released abroad on video in 1987 and 1989 and re-recorded copies began to spread around the country.

Soviet cinemas’ equipment did not make it possible to estimate entire charm of the movie’s sound palette. There weren’t modern cinemas with the multi-channel Dolby system in the Soviet Union. But this didn’t prevent the “ABBA” movie from becoming for the group’s fans something more than just a footage of the gigs in Australia. It became a cult show, to which they went as to a real concert. They attended the movie many times.

But favourable attitude of the Soviet authorities to ABBA has suddenly changed. On 11 February 1982, a defeating article “Where the Commerce Begin – an Epilogue to the “ABBA” Movie” appeared in “Komsomolskaya Pravda” (“The Komsomol Truth”), the newspaper of the Young Communist League’s (aka Komsomol) Central Committee. As a result, thousands angry letters from the quartet admirers arrived at the editor’s address. But the decision has already been made – the movie quietly disappeared from the screens of Moscow central cinemas.

On TV “ABBA – The Movie” appeared only 15 years later. The Russian ORT TV-channel broadcast the complete version on 4 January 1998.

CHESS COMBINATIONS
In the end of January 1983 the men half of the quartet, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, unexpectedly arrived to Moscow. Tim Rice, the lyricist of such famous works as ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and ‘Evita’, arrived with them. The purpose of the trip was acquaintance with the Russian atmosphere that should contribute to the work on the new joint project of Benny, Björn and Tim Rice – ‘Chess’ musical.
The chess World Champion Anatoly Karpov became the prototype for the main character of the future work, and the authors planned to visit him. Tim Rice’s previous encounter with Karpov, which had happened in London, suggested him the idea of the pop-opera’s subject.

During three days in Moscow (28, 29 and 30 January), the guests visited the Bolshoi theatre, attending “Nutcracker” ballet by Tschaikovsky – one of Benny Andersson’s favourite composers. They also visited circus and admired the famous Moscow underground. Certainly, they took a walk across the Red Square, where were caught by the camera of a stunned fan. That snapshot showed Benny and Björn accompanied by a woman – in fact, Benny’s wife Mona Norklit. But the fact of their marriage hasn’t been widely known yet, so the legend was born that Benny and Björn were in Moscow with Agnetha or Frida.

They wasn’t allowed to meet Anatoly Karpov, and Marianna Hultberg, attaché on the culture of the Swedish embassy in Moscow, who accompanied the famous guests, proposed them to be introduced to a Soviet pop star Alla Pugacheva attending her show. The first meeting took place behind the scenes of the Olympic village concert hall, and later the entire delegation visited the singer at her own. Benny and Björn were deeply impressed with Pugacheva’s performance and her ability not only to sing a song, but also “to live” it on a stage. They proposed her a role in their future project – the role of the wife of a Soviet chess player, which stays in the West. Of course, Alla Pugacheva had to refuse. “The time was the Soviet, on the top of it, and such a role was not simply forbidden for Pugacheva, it was impossible even to think about it! We’ve found ourselves in an embarrassing situation. It turns out that the entire delegation has come to us, but we have nothing to say. Alla was advised that the reception is possible, but the role is necessary to refuse”, recalled Yevgeny Boldin, then her husband and the director of the Alla Pugacheva’s theatre (“A Novel in the Photos”, “Ogonyok” (“The Gleam”) magazine #24 (June) 1997).

After departure of the celebrities newspapers “Moskovskiy Komsomolets” (“Moscow Komsomolets”) (1 February 1983) and “Trud” (“The Labour”) (9 February 1983) published interviews with Tim Rice, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. The latters denied the split of ABBA (“Who are we without our ladies? Initials of Brigitte Bardot?”) and promised to come with a tour in the nearest future. All that remained only words. It also became known that both couples of the quartet had been divorced, and both men, judging by the black and white picture in “Trud”, were now bearded.

There was nothing to hear about ABBA members for several years. But on 1 November 1986 a small article titled “And Now – in Chorus” out of the blue appeared in “Komsomolskaya Pravda”. Its author, a sport journalist Jozsef Sasi, distorted the plot of musical beyond recognition, putting an anti-Soviet complexion on its subject. It was another move in the “chess game” “Politics Vs Art”, and the musical was unofficially banned in the USSR.

THANKS TO JACOB
Nevertheless the ban of “Chess” didn’t prevent Benny Andersson in the early 1987 from visiting Moscow again. This time to take part in shootings for joint Swedish-Soviet musical TV-show “Jacob’s Ladder” on a Visit to “Morning Mail” in Ostankino TV centre. The show was hosted by well-known TV-personalities – Jacob Dahlin (on the Swedish part) and Yuri Nikolayev (on the Soviet part).
Benny brought Gemini duet with him – sister and brother, Karin and Anders Glenmark. They presented four songs from their new English-language album ‘Geminism’ (released on Melodiya in 1989). One of the tracks from the album, ‘Mio My Mio’, was the title song for a Swedish- Soviet-Norwegian movie “Mio in the Land of Faraway” directed by Vladimir Grammatikov. The movie was based on a famous Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren’s fairy tale, and music was written by Anders Eljas and Benny Andersson.

A Swedish rock group Europe has arrived late in the evening also to participate in the shootings. They were very popular then and, to be honest, stole the show.

From the Soviet part, besides other well-known pop performers, Alla Pugacheva appeared. She sang a couple of her new songs, and then presented Benny Andersson to viewers and guests of the studio. He run through several ABBA tunes, while Alla was humming to his piano. She said to Benny: “For me, of course, it will always remain a big drama of my life, that I couldn’t sing then in “Chess”. It’s just a nostalgic melody for me. Please, play that Svetlana’s theme (i.e. ‘I Know Him So Well’ – note by the authors) for me”.

The program was being shot/recorded in the end of March and was shown on the Central TV’s 1st Channel on the Saturday night, 18/19 April 1987. However, Soviet TV-spectators hadn’t got a chance to see the part of conversation by the piano, which was concerned to “Chess”.

Realisation of this unique project became possible mainly thanks to Jacob Dahlin (1952-1991). Until now he remains the only Swedish journalist who turned his look on the Soviet Union/Russia.

The Soviet Union ended its existence in December 1991, and a new era has begun. Now ABBA CDs, CD-ROMs, videotapes and DVDs, Western or Russian releases – all that stuff is very easy to purchase. In the beginning of 1992 the Unofficial Russian ABBA fan club had been established. Its members took significant part in Russian edition of the remarkable Carl-Magnus Palm’s “ABBA. Människorna och Musiken” book. This lavishly illustrated and supplemented edition has been published in November 2001. And, as some pop group sang almost thirty years ago, “The history book on the shelf is always repeating itself”…

On 5 August 2002 Björn Ulvaeus (who inherited to the late Stikkan as a promoter) has arrived to Moscow. Obviously he intended to keep it quiet and since wasn’t keen on talking with journalists waiting him at the doors of “Musical Stage Production” company’s office. He said his visit has nothing to do with possible staging “Mamma Mia!” musical in Moscow.

But it’s no secret that one of the company owners is a legendary Soviet hockey player Igor Larionov (now in NHL), a big fan of ABBA. He attended the Broadway premiere of “Mamma Mia!” and was so impressed, that decided to discuss a possibility of staging it in Moscow with Benny Andersson. And the latter promised “to make some idea up”.

Has he already made it up?

Dmitry Shipov, the Head of Unofficial Russian ABBA Fan Club
Peter Kulesh

Translate by Aleksander Kardakov (http://abbanet.ru)

The article "ABBA in the Soviet Union" from the russian version of the book
"ABBA: people and music" (2001).