How The Beatles Rocked the Kremlin
Leslie Woodhead
Bloomsbury
Forty-three years after The Beatles' demise, the understandable notion that there's little left to say about them continues to prove false.
Scott Neil and Graham Foster's soon-to-be-published Lennon Bermuda is a short, detailed account of John Winston's stay on the island in the summer of 1980, and now comes another geographically specific title, Leslie Woodhead's How The Beatles Rocked the Kremlin.
Substantive and diligently researched, Woodhead's book argues that The Fab Four's music was a powerful, uniquely seditious force in the Soviet Union. Indeed, Artemy Troitsky, celebrity rock guru and the author's "essential guide to the Soviet Beatles generation", holds that the Fabs were more decisive than nuclear missiles in winning the Cold War for the West.
It's a bold claim, and one which draws the reader into a book that will probably appeal to political historians as much as it does fans of Help! For while Woodhead's book is certainly Beatles-centric, it also takes a long, perspicacious look at more than six decades of Soviet cultural censorship. Mapping everything from Maxim Gorky's 1928 condemnation of US jazz ("It is like the amorous croaking of a monstrous frog") to the imprisonment of two members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot in October 2012, it is partly a miscellany of Soviet paranoia from Stalin to Putin. One also comes to understand why grown men and women wept openly when Paul McCartney finally made it to Red Square in 2003. Woodhead has excellent credentials for the job in hand. He was taught Russian at the Joint Services School For Linguists in Fife, Scotland, from 1956, and as he recalls in his 2006 book My Life As A Spy, his National Service took him to West Berlin, where he monitored the communications of Soviet pilots flying in and out of East Germany.
Best known as an award-winning documentary filmmaker, Woodhead has also worked extensively in the Soviet Union since the 1980s. But a much earlier entry on his CV made Soviets particularly willing to share their love of The Beatles with him.
In August 1962, Woodhead made the first-ever film of the band while he was working for Granada Television. He shot The Beatles playing live at The Cavern in Liverpool just four days after Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best on drums. When Woodhead recalls chatting with Paul McCartney, then 20, in the pub afterwards, we witness the author's acute descriptive skills: "My drinking companion was a jaunty young man with the eyes of a spaniel implacably confident of its charm," he writes.
Though the USSR's state record label Melodiya (one only has to imagine an imprint run by, say, David Cameron to grasp the hideousness of the concept) eventually made small quantities of A Hard Day's Night available in 1986, accessing Beatles music, rather than state-sanctioned songs about steel output, had previously involved covert ingenuity and great personal risk.
Record-scratching machines at Soviet airports rendered many Fabs discs imported by the few at liberty to travel useless, but "records on bones" - foldable recordings of western radio broadcasts made on medical X-ray films - were easier to distribute and much harder to police.
That even these low-fidelity artefacts were so prized speaks volumes, and naturally Woodhead works hard to decipher the precise appeal of The Beatles' music for Soviets contending with extreme cultural repression.
Numerous interviewees, such as the veteran Russian rock stars Andrey Makarevich and Boris Grebenshikov and the Fab's superfan Kolya Vasin tell him that, for them, The Beatles' music exuded a very tangible sense of freedom and exuberance. In a society that sought to eliminate God, it also seems that The Beatles' music had a quasi-religious dimension for many Soviets. The home of the aforementioned Vasin, a man so devout he named his cat Hey Jude, is a shrine dedicated to John Lennon overlooked by Beatles angels. Elsewhere, Soviet filmmaker Maxim Kapitanovsky reports, "We had a gap in our souls. The Beatles filled that gap." Over time, Woodhead shows that the cultural commissars' fear of The Beatles was a fear of the unknown; of something potent, amorphous and pervasive. In a state in which Sergei Mikhalkov, writer of the Soviet national anthem, denounced rock music as "the moral equivalent of Aids", The Beatles were soon subject to the distorting lens of propaganda.
One of the silliest examples - a contemptuous Pravda article that claimed The Beatles sat on the toilet while performing - only served to underline the ridiculousness of what the state was peddling. "The Beatles were the first to show us that there was something wrong with what we'd been taught by our Soviet rulers," another rock star, Sasha Lipnitsky, informs Woodhead further in. "We were told that people in the West were the enemy, not our neighbours on the planet."
Kolya Vasin offers the lovely metaphor of The Beatles being the holes in The Iron Curtain through which he and others like him breathed, but it's another of Woodhead's interviewees, the Soviet-American journalist Vladimir Pozner, who flags up some of the most glaring and blackly humorous fissures in Soviet propaganda.
"People would watch some report about the evils of capitalism with pictures of poor blacks and drunks on skid row," Pozner says. "But they would turn down the commentary, and focus instead on the miraculous displays of clothes and furniture and food in the shop windows."
Though Woodhead's incisive, fact-rich writing is leavened with humour, there is, of course, a very dark side to his story. Leaned upon by KGB heavies, Stas Namin of the group Tsvety (Flowers) had to quit music to become a photographer after the press called his band "the Soviet Beatles". Artemy Troitsky was expelled from school as a teenager for playing Beatles records to his fellow pupils, and we learn that even jokes spun from the punning possibilities of "Lennon" and "Lenin" could meet with harsh punishment.
Tracing leadership shifts from Krushchev to Brezhnev to Chernenko to Gorbachev, the author shows that Soviet cultural censorship was not subject to a gradual linear thaw - rather it was a case of one step forward and two steps back. The mercifully brief Chernenko era was particularly regressive, the said premier withdrawing a film about Abba from cinemas and accusing the West of trying to "poison the minds of Soviet people".
Woodhead's book is a fascinating and scholarly read, then. His very personal Beatles connection - clips from his vanguard film were legion when John Lennon, then George Harrison died - seems to have fuelled a labour of love that will likely remain the definitive account of The Beatles' impact on the Soviet Union.
Completists should know that the book includes a number of previously unseen Beatles photographs shot by the author in 1964, and that it explores its subject from all angles. I particularly liked rock star Vladimir Matietsky's account of how viewing The Beatles covertly at a distance led to some curious inversions.
"Some fans believed that The Beatles loved Soviet pop music," says Matietsky. "The legend insisted that the band would gather in Lennon's attic to try and listen to Russian radio. Some kids built a complete alternative world with this stuff. They told stories of how British kids who tried to dance like Russians would be deported to the Falkland Islands."
James McNair writes for Mojo magazine and The Independent.
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
RESULTS
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 2,200m
Winner: Arjan, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer).
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m
Winner: Jap Nazaa, Royston Ffrench, Irfan Ellahi.
6pm: Al Ruwais Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 1,200m
Winner: RB Lam Tara, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinal.
6.30pm: Shadwell Gold Cup Prestige Dh125,000 1,600m
Winner: AF Sanad, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi.
7pm: Shadwell Farm Stallions Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 1,600m
Winner: Jawal Al Reef, Patrick Cosgrave, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
7.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 1,600m
Winner: Dubai Canal, Harry Bentley, Satish Seemar.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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Lampedusa: Gateway to Europe
Pietro Bartolo and Lidia Tilotta
Quercus
RESULTS
2pm: Maiden Dh 60,000 (Dirt) 1,400m. Winner: Masaali, Pat Dobbs (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer).
2.30pm: Handicap Dh 76,000 (D) 1,400m. Winner: Almoreb, Dane O’Neill, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
3pm: Handicap Dh 64,000 (D) 1,200m. Winner: Imprison, Fabrice Veron, Rashed Bouresly.
3.30pm: Shadwell Farm Conditions Dh 100,000 (D) 1,000m. Winner: Raahy, Adrie de Vries, Jaber Ramadhan.
4pm: Maiden Dh 60,000 (D) 1,000m. Winner: Cross The Ocean, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
4.30pm: Handicap 64,000 (D) 1,950m. Winner: Sa’Ada, Fernando Jara, Ahmad bin Harmash.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:
1. Reynaldothewizard
2. North America
3. Raven’s Corner
4. Hawkesbury
5. New Maharajah
6. Secret Ambition
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
Torque: 760Nm from 3,000-5,750rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh1.05 million ($286,000)
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
WHAT IS GRAPHENE?
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were experimenting with sticky tape and graphite, the material used as lead in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But when they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
Celta Vigo 2
Castro (45'), Aspas (82')
Barcelona 2
Dembele (36'), Alcacer (64')
Red card: Sergi Roberto (Barcelona)
