"We Must Not Allow Chaos to Ferment as it Chooses:" Assessing the Causes, Methods, and Effects of Music Censorship in the Soviet Union during the Cold War

Honeycutt, Daniel

"We Must Not Allow Chaos to Ferment as it Chooses:" Assessing the Causes, Methods, and Effects of Music Censorship in the Soviet Union during the Cold War

Persistent URL

http://hdl.handle.net/10456/36029

Author(s)

Honeycutt, Daniel

Date Issued

April 14, 2014

Abstract

This project is a descriptive study of music censorship in the Soviet Union during the Cold War era (1945-1991). It explains and compares the Soviet government's efforts to censor and control classical music, jazz, and rock and roll, with a chapter on each genre detailing why, how, and to what effect the censorship occurred. The study emphasizes that the censorship occurred within the framework of the massive geopolitical competition of the Cold War, and finds that Soviet Union's conflict with Western capitalism was indeed a key factor in explaining the regime's cultural policies. A variety of censorship methods were used on music, ranging from authoritarian tactics, like arrests and instrument confiscation, to persuasive and administrative means, such as propaganda and bureaucratic control. Assessing the effects of the Soviet government's censorship presents a mixed message: while it could often effectively control the music that was composed, publicly performed, and sold on records, the government could never entirely remove Western influence from music and society. Additionally, its censorship of jazz and rock helped give the genres more political power than they originally possessed via their inherent qualities. Jazz and rock are even credited with playing a significant role in dismantling the Soviet Union, since they helped bring Western culture as a whole behind the Iron Curtain.

Honors

Political Science, 2014

First Reader(s)

Harward, Brian M.