In 1985 the Cold War was still in full swing and the world still living under the looming spectre of Mutually Assured Destruction. But nuclear winter wasn’t a concern to the Komsomol, the Youth Wing of the Communist Party, who were more nervous about the violence of the Village People.
As SPIN reports, the Komsomol compiled this list of suggestions for banned music — which includes names like AC/DC, who were considered violent neo-fascists, and Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias, whose romantic ballads were likewise a front for neo-fascist propaganda — with the suggestion that the Communist Party uses “these findings to more strongly control what happens in discotechs.”
Readers can check out a more comprehensive rundown of the artists considered persona non grata in the USSR, which was taken from Alexei Yurchak‘s new book Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More, below, as well as the purported original Russian-language list (via Boing Boing).
List of Music Banned By the Soviet Union and Why
List of Music Banned By the Soviet Union and Why – Russian