Radio Yerevan

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Radio Yerevan (also called Yerevan or Radio Yerevan ) is a fictional radio station that answers listeners' questions under the socialist - communist Soviet regime . This corresponds to a category of political and sometimes immoral jokes that are set in the socialist countries of the 20th century. In the GDR these jokes were circulated with the typical introduction "Inquiry to the station Yerevan: ...?", In the Federal Republic with "Question to Radio Yerevan: ...?" The answers to the questions usually begin with " In principle, yes, but ... "

Yerevan (Yerevan) is the name of the capital of Armenia , formerly a Soviet republic of the USSR . The radio station on which the jokes were based never existed, but there was a radio station in Yerevan at that time called “R. Yerevan ”and which sent abroad.

"[Radio Yerevan was ...] a free invention of the spirit suppressed by state propaganda, the small revenge of the Soviet citizens for the privations of everyday life."

- Andrea Jeska

In Russian , the non-existent station was called Армянское радио ("Armjanskoje radio" - "Armenian radio").

Structure of the jokes

The Radio Yerevan jokes imply that there is a broadcast on the fictional radio station in which queries from interested citizens are supposedly answered competently. The answer is formulated in a completely contradictory manner in the original form of the jokes, alluding to the fact that the state media in the socialist states had insurmountable problems in agitating a credible communist worldview in view of the undeniable misery in these countries .

The contradiction in the answer was firmly anchored in its basic construction: It always began with “In principle yes” or “In principle no” (in Russian “в принципе” - “W prinzipje”), followed by a contrary statement. Example (the answer was usually given with longer pauses):

  • Request to Radio Yerevan:
Is it true that Ivan Ivanovich won a red car in the lottery?
  • Answer:
Generally, yes.
But it wasn't Ivan Ivanovich, it was Pyotr Petrovich.
And it wasn't a red car, it was a blue bike.
And he didn't win it, it was stolen from him.
Everything else is correct.

With this joke, the absurdity of state agitation was denounced without any direct political reference. The other jokes were based on the same syntactic construction, but the answer mostly contained a direct political statement that unequivocally challenged socialism.

distribution

The Radio Yerevan jokes came to Germany not least through Sputnik magazine . Sputnik was a glossy magazine, roughly in A5 format, which was distributed throughout Europe by the Russian press agency RIA Novosti from 1967 in Russian, German, English, French, Spanish, Czech and Hungarian as a competitor to Reader's Digest .

The target group of Sputnik was not only socialist but also western countries. The German-language edition came to both the GDR and what was then the Federal Republic of Germany . Novosti tried at times to win sympathy in the West by formulations that were critical of the system. A prime example of this was the section on Radio Yerevan Jokes in many issues.

From 1985, in the wake of the beginning glasnost and perestroika policy of the Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev, general reporting in Sputnik became more open and critical of the system. As a result, the magazine was banned on November 19, 1988 in the GDR; the radio Yerevan joke series is not mentioned in the explanation. The jokes could still spread.

Examples

More or less representative examples of the Radio Yerevan jokes:

  • Is it possible to introduce socialism even in a highly industrialized country?
    - In principle yes, but it would be a shame for the industry.
  • Could the Chernobyl disaster have been avoided?
    - In principle, yes, if only the Swedes hadn't divulged everything .
  • Is it true that capitalism is on the brink?
    - In principle yes, but we are already one step further.
  • Is there press censorship in the Soviet Union?
    - In principle no. Unfortunately, we are unable to go into this question in more detail.
  • Can you drive 120 km / h on Russian roads in a Russian car?
    - Generally, yes. But only once.
  • Is it true that the woman always sleeps on the right in the marriage bed?
    - Generally, yes. But we have heard from party officials who left their wives by the way.

literature

  • Boris Bazarov: In principle yes - whispering jokes from the station Yerevan. Goldmann Verlag, Munich, 1970, ISBN 3-442-02777-2
  • Wolfgang W. Parth, Michael Schiff, Ivan Steiger: News from Radio Yerevan. Lichtenberg-Verlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-596-21299-5 .
  • Wolfgang W. Parth (Ed.): Radio Eriwans night program. Lichtenberg-Verlag, Munich 1977, ISBN 978-3-7852-1124-3 .
  • Ivan Steiger: Radio Yerevan answers. Lichtenberg-Verlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-7852-1086-8 .
  • Dieter Hildebrandt & Klaus Havenstein : Radio Yerevan answers - in principle yes . 1972, long-playing record, Intercord - 26 005-9 B.

Others

  • The US station Radio Free Europe , which broadcasts in the Eastern Bloc , was known by exiled Russians under the nickname “Radio Yerevan”.
  • The artist Marold Langer-Philippsen has been producing a fortnightly radio program on Radio Corax in Halle under the title Radio Erevan . During the RadioRevolten festival, Langer-Philippsen broadcast several hours a day for a month from the market square in Halle. In the program, the story is often spread that Langer-Philippsen received the official order to continue the station.
  • In 2014, Radio Yerevan was the subject of a “docufictional” re-enactment under the title Broadcasting Yerevan by the theater collective Intermedia Orkestra , which was performed at the Schwankhalle and the LOFFT Leipzig. It presented “Radio Yerevan” as a free radio station of originally Armenian origin, which inspired political resistance in Armenia and Germany. The piece is based on partly fictional alienated “interviews”. These would have been conducted, for example, with Armenian journalists and artists, the chairman of the German-Armenian Society Raffi Kantian and prominent actors from free radio and the (left) political scene in Bremen .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ World Radio TV Handbook from 1988, p. 144 (“External Broadcasts from the Soviet Republics”).
  2. ↑ today as "Voice of Armenia" ( memento of the original from May 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.asamnet.de
  3. ↑ "Life - a Wound" ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eurasischesmagazin.de
  4. ↑ Alexander Drozdzynski : The political joke in the Eastern bloc . 2nd Edition. Droste Verlag, April 1989, ISBN 978-3-7700-0395-2 .
  5. ^ Message from the press office of the Ministry for Post and Telecommunications in the GDR [Sputnik ban], November 19, 1988 (PDF)
  6. ^ Entry on discogs.com , accessed November 9, 2017.
  7. ↑ Interview with Marold Langer-Philippsen on freie-radios.net on July 31, 2016
  8. ↑ SWR2 dokublog: Rudi Guricht on Radio Erewan , accessed on July 31, 2016.
  9. ↑ Electromagnetic Summer 2007 at lora.ch, accessed on July 30, 2016.
  10. ↑ Alexander Schnackenburg: Citizens on air . In: Theater der Zeit 06/2014 (p. 90 f.), Accessed on May 31, 2017.