Friday A/V Club: Footage from the Communist Mirror-Universe

With all the Cold War nostalgia
in the air, I thought I’d post this relic from either the final
days of the Soviet Union or the first moments of the post-Soviet
era, I’m not sure which:

I’ve blogged this all-star pop cover of the Soviet national
anthem once
before, but it’s one of those things you just
need to remind the world about from time to time. The video’s
maybe-earnest, maybe-ironic, maybe-kinda-both nostalgia for the
USSR feels like it was made by someone trying to create an East
Bloc version of an American patriotic montage. That Bizarro-world
effect is intensified by the fact that half the Soviet musicians in
the video look like ersatz versions of the West’s pop stars. The
last time I posted this, a commenter
spotted the Soviet Sebastian Bach, the Soviet Culture Club, the
Soviet John Oates, and several more—and he didn’t even mention the
Soviet Meat Loaf. Clearly, the Communists were growing pod versions
of our celebrities.