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Author Topic: Bizarre Russian Message: Swan Lake / Swan Song  (Read 1370 times)

Offline NQC

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Bizarre Russian Message: Swan Lake / Swan Song
« on: March 10, 2022, 1657 UTC »
Hey All,

Group W seemed to be unavailable, so I hope this is OK here.

Recently independent  Dozhd / TV Rain Russia signed off under intense pressure from Putin.

After the staff walked off the set, the station began to play an old short video loop from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Ballet.

Apparently, this was an old signal that the Soviets used to prepare the masses for big news, re instability or leadership change.

The loop was of ballerinas dancing for around a minute. It would be played over and over and over again for hours  and hours and hours on Soviet state TV and radio.

This was done during the 1991 Russian coup attempt, and the deaths of Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko.

Obviously, TV Rain co-opted the old Soviet warning as their notice to the Russian people that the country was in BIG trouble.
 
Swan Lake represents a “mourning for broken dreams, sadness  for opportunities lost or regrets for unfulfilled plans”.

Who thought of using Swan , KGB psyops?
 

For Russians, it’s a kind of EAS/ EBS warning tone played on flutes and violins.Everyone knows what this video means.

I find this procedure almost bizarre, and there certainly is no counterpart to in in the West.

When JFK was shot , TV just broke right in. We didn’t need to prepare ( or warn certain people in the country) that something big was happening. We just did it.

Again , strange.

K
« Last Edit: March 10, 2022, 1702 UTC by NQC »
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Offline ChrisSmolinski

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Re: Bizarre Russian Message: Swan Lake / Swan Song
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2022, 1940 UTC »
Group W seemed to be unavailable, so I hope this is OK here.

The Group W Bench is where moderators move misfit messages. If your posts end up there, you're doing it wrong  :)
Chris Smolinski
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Offline Ct Yankee

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Re: Bizarre Russian Message: Swan Lake / Swan Song
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2022, 2200 UTC »
In case the nomenclature escapes anyone, from Alice's Restaurant:

"And I, I walked over to the, to the bench there, and there is, Group W's
Where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after
Committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly
Looking people on the bench there."
Tecsun H501x (broadcast received on this unless noted), Zenith T/O G500, Zenith T/O Royal 7000, Emerson AR-176, Zenith 8S154, T/O 7G605 (Bomber), Tecsun PL-600, Tecsun PL-880, Zenith 5S320, Realistic DX 160 using 40 feet of copper wire.  With apologies to Senator Gramm for his thoughts on firearms, "I have more radios than I need but not as many as I want."
QTH:  Durham, Connecticut (rural setting, 15 miles north of Long Island Sound)
qsl please to:  jamcanner@comcast.net  (Thank you)

Offline NQC

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Re: Bizarre Russian Message: Swan Lake / Swan Song
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2022, 1500 UTC »
Hey Chris,

I understand.

Yankee,

Yes, I got the reference.Several times on each Thanksgiving local WZLX-FM would play the entire song.I know it by heart  .

K
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Offline Rob.

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Re: Bizarre Russian Message: Swan Lake / Swan Song
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2022, 2134 UTC »

Yes, I got the reference. Several times on each Thanksgiving local WZLX-FM would play the entire song. I know it by heart  .



Oh, you brought back a fond memory. I remember listening to ZLX playing that on turkey day. :)

- Rob
- Rob

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