Telebridge
For a very long time, the soviet people had been disconnected from the whole world, there was no access to what happens outside the country. The „Iron Curtain“ was the name of this occurrence. That time, there was only Soviet music like „Samotzvety“ and Yuryi Antonov accessible for the common people. There was no way to discover the West Pop Culture. The Idea, that there are only enemies in the West was strongly supported by the governing communists’ party. The common people were very bordered in their notions. In schools only Soviet and Russian authors had been read and discussed. And at history lessons, only the history of communists’ party were taught. Everything had been presented from the point of view of that governing party. There was no way for objectivity.
Suddenly, a new wave came. That was the „Perestroika“ officially started by Gorbatchev. The government fell partly apart. The politicians struggled with each other. Chernenko, Andropov, Bregnev had been poisoned and passed away one after the other. The power of the government got very weak. So the small things from the West began to appear in the Soviet Union. Since then, people could find in the shops music of The Beatles and other musicians. It was a breath of freedom. Teenagers could wear jeans. Since Gorbachov became the leader, and the Perestroika started, the new life began. People got to be more open in their expression of their feelings and opinions, as well as it became possible to have a trip outside of the Soviet Union. The people of that time were in the situation comparable with a small child, who has not got yet to try a lolly. And now, that was the time to explore everything.
In this period of time, the significant change happened to the television , which also became free of censure. The population wanted to get more information about the West. The journalist Vladimir Pozner was the person, who started to organize the «Telebridges», which aimed to represent the common people and their lives, as well as to explain the views which had become common in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Those bridges were organised through Sputnik. Altogether, there were 29 Telebridges. The first one took place in 1982. It was Musicfestival in San Bernardino, Cal. transmitted to Moscow. It was offered to talk to different thopics with each other. Telebridge was a project, which marked the coming end of the Cold War. The connection was organised not only with the US, but with another countries as well.
During one of those Telebrigdes, the topic regarding sexuality and advertisement was discussed. That was a Telebridge between Moscow and Boston. There were two groups of people: Americans and Russians in different spaces. During this program, the audience was eager to know more about the common life in the Soviet Union, therefore they asked many questions e.g. :„ How much money do people earn?“ etc. One of the American participants asked a question about sex in television advertisement. A Russian woman answered that question by saying, that there was no Sex in the Soviet Union, and they were categorically against it. It did not make sense to the American audience. However, another Russian woman added immediately: „ Yes, we do have sex. We don’t have advertisement“. But the Americans didn’t know how they supposed to interpret that sentence. The expression „There is no sex in the Soviet Union“ became a sort of symbol of that time with non objectivity and mythologization of the Soviet reality.