How did this thread get started, just with the BBC report or something before that? --- BBC report. --- I do not remember off the top of my head, did Vysotsky not record with the state label by his choice, by their choice, or by mutual lack of agreement? --- The last, I think. --- To me not recording with the state label IS a mark of dissent. However, I also assume the government decided he was sufficiently harmless that they could send him abroad and collect modest brownie points for some degree of "artistic freedom" at a time when ballet dancers and some nominally state-approved athletes and culture workers were defecting all over the place. --- It was token dissent. He was a movie star and on state TV all the time. Vystotsky level's of suppression by the state was: Well, you would go to the Melodiya state record store and see a couple of black-market guys hanging out in front, in full view of the police, carrying paper bags with Vysotsky, Beatles, Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd etc. records. I'm sure the KGB kept tabs on him, but they kept tabs on a lot of people. The rock and jazz musicians were the ones who had to eatch out. Akvarium and Mashina Vremena had their concerts raided in the pre-Gorby days.