What? Why do you think so? Where did you get this from? In the original Latvian version, this song is about how a mother sang a lullaby to her daughter, and in the Russian version we are talking about the artist’s love for an actress. What kind of oppression you are talking about is generally unclear.
Good afternoon. I'm from Russia. What nonsense you write! Where did you read it? Do you know that Latvia, when it was part of the Soviet Union, was one of the most successful republics of the Soviet Union thanks to money from Moscow? I was a teenager in Soviet times and remember well that going to a resort in Jurmala was tantamount to visiting a resort in Panari. In general, in Soviet times the Baltic (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) were considered the small West. When we arrived there, it felt like we were somewhere abroad. Even when we were filming films set abroad at that time, film crews went to the Baltics and filmed there. And Baltic actors willingly starred in Soviet films in the roles of foreigners, knowing full well that for them this would first be an outlet on All-Union film screens, and then on International ones. In terms of technology of any kind, textiles and food, everything was also much better there than in Russia itself, because, again, they were excellently supplied with finances by Moscow. There was never a shortage in their stores. I remember well when we had a problem with food for the New Year's table, we went by car to Klaipeda (this is a city in Lithuania) and brought fish, sausages, all sorts of meat delicacies, etc. from there. There was no occupation of the Baltic and other republics by the Soviet Union. On the contrary, Russia infringed on itself in some sense in terms of housing for the sake of the prosperity of the 14 other republics. Go ahead. The author of the music for the song, Raymond Pauls, could not go against the Soviet Union in Soviet times, because he strived with all his might for All-Union glory. He understood perfectly well that if his songs were sounded only in the Latvian language, it would not have any success outside Latvia (at that time the Latvian SSR). And since the Russian language was then heard in each of the 15 union republics and the Soviet pop music was known throughout the USSR, famous Soviet poets began to translate Pauls’ songs into Russian, and the audience’s favorite pop, theater and film artists, including Alla Pugachova, actively began to take them into their repertoire. Further. How could Pauls resist Soviet power then, when he received the highest national awards from it: the title "People's Artist of the USSR", "Lenin Komsomol Prize", when his songs often won All-Union and International song competitions? How could he do anything against it when the All-Union Recording Company Melodiya, located in Moscow, was releasing export versions of his LPs for sale abroad and his songs themselves were translated into other languages of the world and performed by foreign stars, including Tokito Kato? Yes, Pauls, like all the artists from the then Soviet republics, was simply treated kindly by the Soviet authorities. Then, when Gorbachov came to power and the so-called perestroika began in the country and the wind of democracy blew, which, as we later realized, turned out to be pseudo-democracy, many of the politicians and cultural figures, wanting to get into the top list of the new time, began to “disown” en masse. from their past and declare that they were never friends with the Soviet regime. Including Pugachova. Including Pauls, who, having become the Minister of Culture of Latvia, by his own decree closed and dissolved the Russian Operetta Theater in Riga, which was incredibly popular in the Soviet Union and, among other musical performances, staged performances with Pauls’ music. This is the kind of bearish ingratitude he, a Latvian, showed to his Russian colleagues. Then, however, he realized his mistake when, after the collapse of the USSR in Latvia, due to skyrocketing unemployment and inflation, people began to emigrate en masse to Europe, and the few who remained there simply had no time for music. And the royalties for his songs came to him overwhelmingly from Moscow. And now, as we say in Russia, he is simply trying to sit on two chairs, without saying anything bad about either Russia or Ukraine. He looks in which direction the next wind will blow, so that, if anything happens, he will be in demand.