Let’s Go, Girls! (1970s)
As in many other countries across the globe, Televisions began to pop up in households the Soviet Union as well. One of the most popular television shows in Russia until 1973, when it was cancelled, was KVN (KVN Cancelled). KVN is the russian acronym for Club of the Merry and Resourceful (KVN Cancelled). KVN was a type of gameshow, where teams from the Soviet Union’s many universities competed against one another in humor, knowledge, and improvisation in front of celebrity judges (KVN Cancelled). Successful teams became household names (“KVN Cancelled”).
As shows like KVN became more popular, so did the popularity of Televisions. Between 1965 and 1970 Soviet households went from having one TV per four families to one TV per two families (KVN Cancelled). However, like everything else in the Soviet economy, the economy could not keep up with the demand for TVs. In 1973, the government had ordered 7,500 Rainbow-703 color televisions, but by May of 1973 the first quarters quotas had not been met for any province (“Why has the Rainbow Disappeared”). The Government said the slow progress was due to an upgrade from the Rainbow-702 to the Rainbow-703 (“Why has the Rainbow Disappeared?”). The question everyone asked salesmen was, “Where are the Rainbows?” (“Why has the rainbow disappeared?”).
As if failing to provide color televisions wasn’t enough, the government cancelled KVN in 1973. The government believed that the show was catering too much to the elite, since teams were made of university students, and were omitting the working class (“KVN Cancelled”). A.V. Men’shikov, a player on KVN, wrote later about a time the producers, because of pressure from the government, brought in a female team of competitors from a textile mill in order to appease to the working class (“Past Thoughts”). The regular players crushed the opponents, making it clear that KVN could not support the working class (“KVN Cancelled”). So, like every thing else in the Soviet Union, the government failed at television because of over regulation and over censorship.
“Why has the Rainbow Disappeared?”: http://dlib.eastview.com/browse/doc/13643260
“KVN Cancelled”: http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1973kvn&Year=1973
“Past and Thoughts”: http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=article&ArticleID=1973menshkvn1&SubjectID=1973kvn&Year=1973
I think you found some really good sources and did a great job of compiling them into an interesting post. It is easy to overlook the political influence over consumer goods like the television but that does not take away from its significance. The USSR’s communist background obviously played a significant role in the goal to cater to all tiers of society with its television programming and this can be viewed as a sort of leveling attempt by the government. It is almost scary how much influence those in power have, even in our own homes.
Its amazing that some of the things that we as Americans take for granted were so difficult to get under the Soviet government. It is not surprising however, that a government that struggle to feed its people could not supply enough color televisions.
I agree, that it is not surprising that the government was not able to provide enough color televisions. I can only imagine the sheer mayhem of people demanding “Where is the Rainbow?!” I would be interested to hear about some other typical Russian programs during the Soviet era. It’s interesting that KVN was the most popular program yet it was cancelled because it didn’t represent the working class well enough.
It’s interesting to compare the development of television programs in the 1970s to the modern day. There still exists many game shows in which groups of people compete, however, the diversity of these shows is what differentiates the modern from the past. A number of shows exist to cater to a member of the working class while others are viewed by a more white-collar audience.
Great post. It seems crazy to me how this was just another example of how the government failed by cancelling the show that made TV a lot more popular during this time period. I could see where the controversy could occur, but you would think there would be other options. TV was definitely a useful tool to use during this time as it was all the rave, but like Connor mentioned, it’s scary how quickly it could get taken away by the government because of a little problem.
This is a good post about the supply and demand of televisions in the USSR. I find it interesting that the economy had trouble keeping up with consumer demand – it seems like in a command economy like this one, the government would just be able to order more televisions and companies would have to comply. However, as we discussed in class it doesn’t always work out like that. I also wonder if the regime ever limited TV production because they were worried about Western influence coming in through certain programs (as it did in the music industry).
What a great topic and interesting discussion. What more do we know about the challenges facing KVN in the 70s? (Look back at the “KVN cancelled” essay). And what happened to the program in the eighties?
The somewhat of a geek when it comes to current game shows so this topic was very interesting to me, Great information and post :)