Russian prog

I personally am always feel ashamed for the occupation of Eastern Europe committed by the USSR. There perhaps were several rare good fruits of the Socialist course in those countries, but for the most part it was a terrible mistake. Meanhile, I have no doubt that Lenin was a pretty decent theoretician, philosopher, thinker, scientist. 

I have totally different views on it all, because it was MY country, my motherland, my birthplace. For Slovakia it was definitely an invader, an occupier, an enemy. Not anti-Slovak/anti-Slavic like Hitler - but an enemy. 

Many former Soviet citizens looked at their past jokingly, yet with shades of nostalgia. It's hardly very much the same in Slovakia. There is even a modern day Russian TV channel called Nostalgiya where I once noticed GG's Spooky Boogie playing in some Perestroika era Soviet TV program... 

As you know I'm a prominent musician  of cult status - so, sure, it's all my life, these guitars. Jokes left behind, when I was very very small, I liked to visit the Music Goods shop in my native city. There I saw guitars, drum sets, castanets, accordions, flutes and tons of vinyl recordings. Nowadays there's a bank in that building. Where there were vinyls are now young women with long legs. Not a trace of vinyl! It's all nylon and leather these days... 

There were more mainstream, more popular occasionally-prog bands that may or may not be of some interest to you:  

This album by Zvuki Mu below was produced by Brian Eno: 

 

Gusliar by the band Pesniary:

 

Song Of Fate by the same authors (modern day performance below): 

 

I like the band NOM: 

 

I feel that I am going to start a new world war local to this thread, but the whole Russia-Ukraine issue is not that obvious. Certainly, there are numerous problems in Russia, and Ukraine has its on culture, language... Still, there are many Ukrainians who at least want to be friends with Russians. There are racists in Russia, but there are also racists in Ukraine who, for example, used to say that Russians are not enough Slavs because they are a mix of Finno-Ugric tribes and Asian nomads. As if Finns, Hungarians and Asian people are subhuman... As if Finland is not a civilised country... As if Maidan in Kiev is not a word of Turkic origin, meidan... 

Nowadays Ukraine is at conflict with Russia and I don't want to become the victim of that conflict... So, I can only say that the whole issue is very complex from adult point of view, mature point of view. 

The Soviet crooner that I posted first (and then removed) in that my post above, was from Odessa, Ukraine. He spent all his years in the superstar status in Russia, Moscow. Is he a Russian or Ukrainian legend? He is a Soviet Jew who came from the Soviet Ukraine to the Soviet Russia within the borders of the same one country, the USSR. I have no doubt that he was totally Russian- (and probably a bit Yiddish-)speaking, he has not spoken a word in Ukrainian in his whole life. He did not identify himself with Ukraine as the country. So... 

Again, I live in a democratic country, but I do not want to become a surrepticious victim of the current ongoing conflict between our countries. So, I'd better stop. 

Original Poster here, thank you for this! 

Here I am, posing with my "evil twin" Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in Bratislava, Slovakia (back then it was Czechoslovakia) in the Gorbachev years.  Young lads seemed to like wearing Western heavy metal logo clothes like Judas Priest etc.