Why didn’t The Beatles perform in Russia?
During the height of their powers in the mid-1960s, The Beatles could have played anywhere in the world. For the most part, they did. America and Britain weren’t the only lands that the Fab Four conquered: between 1964 and their final tour dates in 1966, The Beatles were a global band, playing everywhere from Germany to Japan to the Philippines. But there was one land where even The Beatles couldn’t get into – communist Russia, AKA the USSR.
Although Paul McCartney poked fun at the restrictions of the cold war on ‘Back in the U.S.S.R.’, there was no plane hopping from Miami Beach to Moscow back in 1968. The USSR had a strict ban on all western culture and media, a tactic used by the communists to control the general populace. There were no pop records, films, media rolls, or even new stories covering The Beatles. But it was impossible to keep the biggest band in the world away from anyone in the 1960s.
Not long after The Beatles first started producing records, a black market sprang up in the Russian underground. It was discovered that discarded X-ray films could be used to etch the grooves of vinyl music. So-called “music on the bones” became the most popular way for Russians to secretly listen to music being made outside of the country. Unsurprisingly, The Beatles were one of the most heavily bootlegged acts.
By the late 1960s, the USSR had a major problem with smuggled recordings. People who travelled frequently in and out of the country, including famous actors and even high-profile government figures, were caught bringing in albums that were hidden in their luggage. It was nearly impossible to stop the influx of western music coming into the country, but the USSR held tightly to its ban. It would take another 20 years for the country to ease its restrictions.
By the 1980s, the USSR began to take a lighter stance on the outside influence of western culture. Official government-regulated manufacturers like Melodia began doing something that would have been unthinkable in the 1960s: they began producing Beatles records. By that point, the group had been gone for two decades. John Lennon was dead before the first official government-approved Russian Beatles album was printed. But it was still progress nonetheless.
Paul McCartney took note of his popularity in Russia. In 1988, while the country was still the USSR, McCartney recorded an album of old-school rock and roll covers that was meant to be an exclusive release in Russia. CHOBA B CCCP (which translates to “Back Again in the USSR”) featured McCartney taking on classic songs from Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Fats Domino. He even included a version of ‘Twenty Flight Rock’, the Eddie Cochran song that he impressed Lennon with when the two first met in 1957.
McCartney finally visited Russia in 2003, performing in the Red Square for a large crowd of fans who had waited their entire lives to see a Beatle live and in person. Check out footage from that performance down below.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Beatles Newsletter
All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.