Last Respects to Late Russian and Soviet Composer V Ya Shainsky Today

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Here’s Krokodil Gena’s famous birthday song

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Here’s another of Shainsky’s sweet songs…

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Today, friends and relatives will pay last respects to the late Russian and Soviet composer V Ya Shainsky before his burial later today at Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in western Moscow. Widely known in the world of animation as the composer of the soundtrack for the famous Soviet cartoon series about Cheburashka and Krokodil Gena, Shainsky died at the age of 92 in San Diego CA USA on 25 December 2017. The Ministry of Culture quoted Deputy Minister A V Zhuravsky:

Due to the lengthy holidays, his relatives in the USA were unable to promptly obtain documents verifying his death. Moreover, relevant documents were also required to obtain permission for taking the body from the USA, and that required time.

Shainsky excelled in writing songs and music for children, marked by unpretentious but catchy tunes that very often enticed a child to sing along. He scored stunning success in composing songs for movies, and the multifilms about Cheburashka and Krokodil Gena, which now have versions in languages as different as Hebrew and Japanese, offer a shining example of it. Kid’s music wasn’t the only popular part of his output. Some of his songs for grownup audiences, like A Soldier’s Walking through the Town, surprisingly spilt over Russia’s borders. Shainsky lived in San Diego since 2007.

22 January 2018

TASS

http://tass.com/society/986182

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ITAR-TASS Presents… Memories of Soviet New Years

New Year celebration in 1963 in the Dom Profsoyuzov, Moscow (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) USSR

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Ded Moroz and Snegurochka entertain children in the Kremlin Palace of the Soviets, Moscow, 1977

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New Year celebration in the Kremlin Palace of the Soviets

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New Year celebration in the Kremlin Palace of the Soviets

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Queue at Detsky Mir (Children’s World) toy store, Moscow, 1983

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New Year celebration in the Tbilisi Palace of Sports, Tbilisi (Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic) USSR

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Buying a new TV set ahead of the New Year holiday, 1963

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New Year programme on Estonian TV, 1982

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New Year celebration in a kindergarten, Moscow, 1964

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Sale on the Arbat ahead of New Year, Moscow, 1985

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Ded Moroz at a winter Pioneer camp in Moscow Oblast, 1984

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Antonov An-2 aircraft delivered New Year trees to residents in Bukhara Oblast, Uzbek SSR, 1965

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Ded Moroz and Snegurochka in Altai Krai USSR, 1980

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New Year celebration, 1985

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Ded Moroz leads gymnastics class in Moscow, 1985

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Ded Moroz in Riga, Latvian SSR, 1986

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The first official New Year performance for children in the USSR was in the Column Hall of Moscow’s Dom Profsoyuzov (House of Trades Unions) in 1936. These images recall Soviet New Year celebrations and activities.

29 December 2014

ITAR-TASS

http://itar-tass.com/en/non-political/769813

Editor:

THIS is the “Evil Empire” that pigs like Victor Potapov and Patrick Buchanan expostulated about. Living standards in the USSR were lower than in the USA because the Soviets had to spend huge amounts on armaments to defend against Western aggression and rebuild their war damage, all at once. The USA suffered NO war damage… so American boasting about the Cold War is wrong, not to the point, and mendacious in the extreme. The main Sov forces were in the Western Military District in Byelorussia, that’s where all the most-modern stuff was… the forces in Germany and Czechoslovakia were meant to absorb the impact of a Western attack. The history of the last twenty-odd years proves that wasn’t paranoia… the Anglo Americans are violent and peevish toddlers… ask the Serbs, Afghans, Yemenis, Palestinians, Iraqis, and Novorossiyans… and the Native Americans and Filipinos before them (a Filipino said, “The Spaniards were bad, the Americanos were worse, the Hapons were worse than that, but the worst of all were the New Americanos”).

The USSR was done in by Gorbachyov’s incompetence, not the “superiority” of the West. VVP is right… the fall of the USSR was a historical tragedy. These photos prove it. One last thing… this image set is NOT anti-Soviet… fancy that… it proves that Russians do NOT despise their past, as Anglo Americans do. I think that a new socialism is arising in Russia. A spectre haunts the country clubs and Tea Party haunts… methinks that the prideful rightwing obituaries for socialism were a bit premature…

BMD

11 August 2012. Something to Remember…

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Here’s Masha in one of the cartoons… part of it’s based on Pushkin‘s The Fisherman and the Fish… the last part contains the moral message (it looks good in the larger screen format)…

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Of course, all of us familiar with contemporary Russian life know Masha of the famous Маша и медведь (Masha i Medved: Masha and the Bear) cartoons, which is based on an old Russian folktale. There’s much afoot in our world that can “turn” a child… some of them are very subtle, indeed. Be especially wary of those who mouth “religious” platitudes… such sorts can be the most demonic of all (as one can see in American Radical Sectarianism in its theomachistic alliance with Libertarianism and those who extol the evil pushed by Ayn Rand). Our children aren’t only our “future”, they’re our TREASURE and gift to posterity…

BMD

26 March 2012. A Multimedia Presentation. Спокойной ночи, малыши! “Good Night, Kids!” The Most Beloved Sov and Russian Kids’ Show on the Telly

A contemporary set scene…

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A monument to Valentina Leontieva (1923-2007), the beloved “Auntie Valya”

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The popular cartoon character Luntik first appeared on this show

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Vladimir Ukhin (1930- ), the equally-loved “Uncle Volodya”

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Good Night Kids! is, probably, the most well-known kids’ show on the old Soviet space. It started in 1964, and has remained popular ever since. All of Russia (and all the other ex-Sov spaces) grew up with Uncle Volodya and Auntie Valya. If you want to read about the show, click here and here. Do click on the video links above… you’ll see why all of Russia (and all other Sov lands) love this show.

BMD