The Soviet satirical couplet of the 1950s-1980s: THEMATICS AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The article reveals the features of the phenomenon of a satirical couplet on the Soviet stage of the 1950-1980s. The lack of research on this subject in modern historical science is explained by a biased attitude towards Soviet culture in general as a fully determined by official ideology and censorship. It is shown that in the Soviet satire the role of the personalities of the entertainment artists and their creative manner was great. The entertainment duets of P. Rudakov and V. Nechaev, A. Shurov and N. Rykunin, as well as such artists as B. Bentsianov, A. Belov, I. Nabatov were all-Union known. As a rule, in the genre of satirical couplet, they worked for decades (almost their entire creative life), having constant success. It was extremely important to use familiar for audience, popular songs, as the basis for the couplet and perform with high-quality musical accompaniment. The ways of getting the couplet to the audience are reflected in the article. It is noted that the viewer could get acquainted with the works in the genre of satirical couplet at concerts, both solo and divertisment, and until the end of the 1960s. - on television, since variety satirical acts were a mandatory component of the holiday TV broadcast «Goluboy Ogonyok». Interest in the genre of couplet and satire content led to the appearance of official records on gramophone records and amateur tape recordings. The subject of satire in couplet is disclosed. It is shown that satire did not bypass the hot topics and urgent problems of Soviet society, among which - poor quality of services, shortage of goods, bureaucracy, bribery, miscalculations of the state power in the development of agriculture and industry, and even censorship. At the same time, the satirical works themselves, of course, passed a sieve of censorship, which reduced their severity and topicality.