Posted on 16 December 2010 by Comrade I
For a dash back into the realm of communist block propaganda tinged with a snobby capitalist ascetic, check out the film I am Cuba [Soy Cuba]. If you grew up in the communist block, it’s likely you’ve never heard of this film. Actually, if you grew up in the capitalist block, it’s also likely you’ve never heard of it, that is unless you’re a film freak. It only became well known after the fall of the Soviet Union, when it was discovered by western filmmakers in the newly opened Soviet archives.
It was made by a Russian team with a more or less unlimited budget. After its release in 1964, it was condemned by the Cuban and Soviet governments for basically not being communist enough. This allowed it to find an honorary place in some dusty Soviet archive where it sat for around 30 years.
The following brief synopsis shouldn’t spoil any of the movie for you. The film is narrated by Cuba herself in a poetic style, then goes on four vignettes displaying different forms of oppression during the pre-revolutionary Batista era. The first story starts at a Havana party full of Americans. The Cubans are treated as their toys with the Cuban men being entertainers and the Cuban women all being prostitutes. This vignette contains a powerful scene where an American gets lost in a Cuban slum. The next scene follows the injustices brought on a peasant and his family working in the sugar cane fields. After this we get to follow a student revolutionary and his fellow classmate’s struggles against the Batista regime. Finally, the film takes us out into the hills where the fighting between the Castro guerillas and the Bastista armed forces is taking place. Here we get to follow a peasant man and his family as they get caught up in the fighting.
If you come upon a film student, they probably have heard of I am Cuba and will then proceed to gush on about its artistic genius, marvelous long shots, and beautiful imagery (They might even use the term mise en scéne). Like most film students, they are most likely repeating what they heard in class or read in some book, but watching the film even the layman can’t help but notice some of the camera acrobatics. This becomes very clear from the beginning when the audience is taken to a decadent party in the Batista era full of Western tourists treating the country as their play thing. According to film aficionados, this is the most famous scene and these film geeks really get gushing when the camera splashes into the swimming pool to join the partiers, then emerges from the pool and continues on without a single cut. I’ll admit, it’s pretty impressive, but if you’re used to the tricks of modern cinema where whole worlds are created from CG, then you might not get as excited. Equally, if not more impressive is a scene later in the movie that follows the funeral procession of a fallen student. The camera goes up the side of the building to what looks like the third or fourth floor, through a window into a cigar rolling factory, then out another window where it dangles above the crowd.
Overall, I am Cuba is a good trip down communist nostalgia lane, but with an artistic style that many can appreciate today. It might even bring out the hidden quasi-socialist film snob buff in you. If anything, the fact that it’s shot on location in early 1960s Cuba is enough to make it historically relevant. The next step after watching the film would be to visit Cuba today for a real dose of communist nostalgia.
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Posted on 27 March 2010 by admin
bloc life archive #: 1
Contributor: Comrade Andy
Location: Berlin, Germany
In 1979, I lived in Berlin. In the middle of the night my father would open the door to two large men. They always drove a camouflaged car, which in the winter was white to match the snow.
My father was a spy and made no secret of the fact – to the Russians at least. During the Cold War an agreement existed by which spies could enter the USSR without issue if they declared their occupation on their papers, and vice versa. The agreement was simple, we have spies in your country, you have spies in ours, now just no one get caught and we can have a jolly good war.
The main objective of my father’s work was to observe the Warsaw pact was being followed, for example relating to troop movements close to the border. They would speed off over the Glienicke Bridge, which was famous for being a transfer point for spies, and then show their papers at the Russian control point. I remember my father saying they employed the best drivers around to be part of the team to ensure they could escape any tight spots should they arise. Once, they were chased by some Russians down a forest dirt track and the whole escape had to happen in reverse under gun fire, as there was nowhere to turn round. Those guys knew how to drive.
I enjoyed some privileges: I was allowed to exchange East German Deutsch Marks to West German Marks at an exchange rate 1 West to 30 East. The general rule for tourists at Checkpoint Charlie was 1:1. The authorities equalised the currencies artificially to try and encourage purchases over in East Germany, but this failed. The products they sold were about 20 years out of date, or they would stock just one size of Wellington boot, but only the left foot.For some reason plugs for sinks were really wanted as they never seemed to have any in the shops. For six months the bike shops only stocked girls’ bikes.
I didn’t spend that much in the East side of Berlin. We used to do these cultural exchanges with East German kids that they used to bus in to look at buildings and history. Most of my time was spent drinking. Although I was only 14 at the time, West Berlin at the time was full of military and regarded as the safest city in the world. I was allowed to roam carefree as a son of the protected military. My pass was written in French, German, Russian and English and pretty much ensured I was imune from trouble by the local police.
They didn’t care for a military boy – after all I was someone else’s problem.
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Posted on 21 February 2010 by admin
In 1990 McDonalds got a permission from the Communist Party of Soviet Union to open its first restaurant in Soviet Russia in Pushkin Square, Moscow. It was not only the first McDonalds, but generally the first fast food place in Russia ever. Everyone wanted to visit this ‘pearl of capitalism’, so there were literally mile-long queues of diners. With 27 cash registers and seating 700, Moscow-McDonald’s was for a long time one of the brand’s busiest branches in the world.
According to information from the time, the expansion of McDonald’s Canada to Russia was accomplished after thirteen years of difficult negotiations and an investment of $50 million. What’s more, profits were split 50-50 between the company and the Russian government. Business was conducted entirely in Russian rubles that were nearly worthless outside the country, so to take any profit out of Russia McDonald’s would have had to buy Russian products with rubles and then export them to Europe or North America for sale. In fact, the company spent the rubles to buy farmland and put up office towers, a distribution center and a factory in the Moscow suburbs. In 1993, the company built its first office building, just two blocks from the Kremlin and tenants like Coca-Cola and Upjohn moved in.
According to a publication called The Agribusiness Examiner:
‘McDonald’s here [in Russia] has been able to avoid some problems that have troubled it in the West. The “Super Size Me” controversy, and accusations that fast-food chains like McDonald’s promote obesity, are not issues for Russians, some of whom demand mayonnaise with 40% fat content. Nor does McDonald’s low pay seem to bother many here – Russian wages average $250 a month. Some even argue that McDonald’s is identified in the public mind with glasnost and perestroika, the policies of openness and restructuring under Mikhail S. Gorbachev in the final years of the Soviet Union.’
Do you remember McDonald’s-Moscow opening?
Images courtesy of English Russia.com
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Posted on 18 February 2010 by admin
Although taken 50 or so years ago, when Lithuania was part of Soviet Union, these photos look touchingly contemporary.
Republished with kind permission from English Russia.com
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