<HTML>Arrrrgh! How did this thread get started, just with the BBC report or something before that? Anyway, I lose patience wading through all the cultural crit verbiage, esepcially cutural crit verbiage recycled in two or three rounds of contained replies and then of course along comes a concrete example. In the West, I am pretty sure Vysotsky's counter cultural poetic license image qualified him as a dissident against the norms of Soviet Society. That may say as much about Westerns fantasies and ways poets get marginalizied or sometimes marginalize themselves as about real dissent. Every drunken bard may or may not carry huge transformative significance even if they also come along telling the truth in unpopular ways. 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? 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. The other point about draping Moscow with flowers right after his death: his death occurred during the 1980 Olympics after the Authorities had done the customary "roust everybody in Moscow without proper documents" that happened before many large events. Draping the city with flowers is one thing. Actually letting fans into the city to mourn might have been another. DoreneC In a message dated 1/27/2003 3:14:51 AM Pacific Standard Time, chrisd@russiajournal.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"> Aargh. Vysotsky was not a "dissident." He was just not recorded in the state music agency. They let him sing in Paris, for God's sake. When he died in 1980, they draped Moscow in flowers. BBC Monitoring Russian establishment lines up to mark late dissident songwriter's birthday Source: Channel One TV, Moscow, in Russian 1500 gmt 25 Jan 03 Today the legendary Russian actor and songwriter, Vladimir Vysotskiy, who died in 1980, would have celebrated his 65th birthday. To commemorate the anniversary, this afternoon Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila visited Moscow's Taganka Theatre where Vysotskiy had worked, Russian Channel One TV reported at 1500 gmt on 25 January. The TV showed the Putins being welcomed at the entrance to the theatre by its artistic director, Yuriy Lyubimov, and his wife. Vladimir and Lyudmila Putin were shown a display of Vysotskiy's theatre costumes and notebooks and were presented with a new book about the poet and a complete CD collection of his songs. Later they had tea at the theatre with the Lyubimovs and the poet's son, Nikita Vysotskiy. Vladimir Putin was shown asking him in detail about Vladimir Vysotskiy's museum being set up close to the theatre. The next report in the news bulletin showed the leadership of Russia's major centrist party, One Russia, including Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov, Emergencies Minister Sergey Shoygu and Moscow mayor Yuriy Luzhkov, laying flowers at the monument to Vladimir Vysotskiy in Strastnoy Boulevard in central Moscow. </BLOCKQUOTE> </HTML>