Television in the Soviet Union
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Television in the Soviet Union was owned, controlled and censored by the state. The body governing television in the era of the Soviet Union was the Gosteleradio committee, which was responsible for both the Soviet Central Television and the All-Union Radio.[1]
Soviet television production was classified into central (Soviet Central Television), republican, and regional broadcasting.
History
In 1938, television
On 1 October 1934, Russia's first television receivers were produced. The B-2 had a 3×4-centimetre (1¼×1½-inch) screen[3] and a mechanical raster scan in 30 lines at 12.5 frames per second. On 15 November 1934, Moscow had its first television broadcast, of a concert. On 15 October 1935, the first broadcast of a film was made.
On 9 March 1938, a first experimental studio television program was broadcast, from
In time for the golden jubilee year of the October Revolution, 1967, SECAM color broadcasts debuted in both Moscow and Leningrad on their local TV channels. By 1973, the Soviet television service had grown into six full national channels, plus republican and regional stations serving all republics and minority communities. [citation needed]
Distance and geography
The size and
Soviet television standard
The Soviet broadcast television standard used
Soviet television channels
There were six television channels (called "programmes") in the Soviet Union. "Programme One" was the main channel, with time-slots for regional programming (see "Regional television services", below). The other channels were Programme Two (also known as the All Union Programme), the Moscow Programme (the third channel), the Fourth Programme (the fourth channel), the Fifth programme (broadcast from Leningrad), and the Sixth Programme (sports, science, and technology). [citation needed]
Not all channels were available across all the Soviet Union. Until perestroika and the establishment of the Gorizont satellite network, many regions received just the First Programme and the All Union Programme. The satellite network brought all six channels to the entire Soviet Union. The new channels offered urban news and entertainment (Channel 3); culture, documentaries, and programmes for the Intelligentsia (Channel 4); information and entertainment from the point of view of another city (Channel 5); and scientific and technological content (Channel 6).[citation needed]
Regional television services
In addition to the national television channels, each of the
Soviet satellite services
The Soviet Union's domestic satellite television system, Orbita, was as large as Canada's Anik and the United States' satellite system. [citation needed]
In 1990, there were 90 Orbita satellites, supplying programming to 900 main transmitters and over 4,000 relay stations. The best-known Soviet satellites were the
Broadcasts were
Only the First Programme was time-shifted on the pattern of a similar radio programme, the All-Union First Programme from Soviet radio. TV Orbita-1 was broadcast in the
All other national television channels (the All-Union, Moscow, Fourth, and Leningrad programmes) used the "double" programme composite time-shifting.[citation needed]
Programming
Soviet TV programming was diverse and similar to that of American
The broadcasts had relatively high levels of self-censorship. Prohibited topics included criticism against the status and implementation of
]The leading news programmes used presenters with exemplary diction and excellent knowledge of the
Despite these limitations, television grew in popularity. The average daily volume of broadcasting grew from 1673 hours in 1971 to 3,700 hours in 1985. A new television and radio complex, the "PTRC" was built for the 1980
In the late 1980s, the nature of programming began to change. Some Western programs, mostly from the
Until the late 1980s, Soviet television had no advertisements. Even then, they were rare, because few companies could produce advertisements about themselves. [citation needed]
The Soviet Union's
Made-for-TV movies
At the beginning of the 1960s, television in the USSR expanded rapidly. The increase in the number of channels and the duration of daily broadcasts created a shortage of suitable content. This led to production of television films, in particular of multiple-episode television films (Russian: многосерийный телевизионный фильм)—the official Soviet moniker for miniseries.[5] Despite that the Soviet Union started broadcasting in color in 1967, color TV sets did not become widespread until the end of the 1980s. This justified shooting made-for-TV movies on black-and-white film.
The 1965 four-episode Calling for fire, danger close[6] is considered the first Soviet miniseries. It is a period drama set in the Second World War that depicts Soviet guerrilla fighters infiltrating German compound and directing the fire of the regular Soviet Army to destroy the German airfield. During the 1970s, the straightforward fervor gave way to a more nuanced interplay of patriotism, family and everyday life wrapped into traditional genres of crime drama, spy show or thriller. One of the most popular Soviet miniseries—Seventeen Moments of Spring[7] about a Soviet spy operating in Nazi Germany—was shot in 1972. This 12-episode miniseries incorporated features of political thriller and docudrama and included excerpts from period newsreels. Originally produced in black-and-white in 4:3 aspect ratio, it was colorized and re-formatted for wide-screen TVs in 2009.
Other popular miniseries of the Soviet era include The Shadows Disappear at Noon[8] (1971, 7 episodes) about the fate of several generations of locals from a Siberian village, The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (1979, 5 episodes) about the fight against criminals in the immediate post-war period, and TASS Is Authorized to Declare... (1984, 10 episodes) about the tug-of-war of Soviet and American intelligence agencies.
Numerous miniseries were produced for children in the 1970s-1980s. Among them are:
See also
- Censorship in the Soviet Union
- Propaganda in the Soviet Union
- Soviet Central Television
- Media of the Soviet Union
References
- ^ О РЕСПУБЛИКАНСКИХ МИНИСТЕРСТВАХ И ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫХ КОМИТЕТАХ РСФСР. Закон. Верховный Совет РСФСР. 14.07.90 101-1 :: Инновации и предпринимательство: гранты, технологии, патенты In Russian.
- ^ Указ Президента РСФСР от 28.11.1991 № 242 «О реорганизации центральных органов государственного управления РСФСР» In Russian.
- ^ "Why was it so dangerous to watch Soviet TV sets?". www.rbth.com.
- ^ ОБ УТВЕРЖДЕНИИ ПОЛОЖЕНИЯ О МИНИСТЕРСТВЕ ПЕЧАТИ И ИНФОРМАЦИИ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ. Постановление Правительства РФ от 18.05.93 № 473 in Russian.
- ^ "Television film in the USSR (in Russian)". russiancinema.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2017-09-22.
- ^ "Vyzyvaem ogon na sebya (Calling for fire, danger close)". imdb.com. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
- ^ "Seventeen Moments of Spring". imdb.com. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
- ^ "Teni ischezayut v polden (The Shadows Disappear at Noon)". imdb.com. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
- ^ "Dva kapitana (The Two Captains)". imdb.com. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
- 1990 edition of the WRTH (World Radio and Television Handbook)
External links
- CCCP TV: the Soviet TV portal
- (in English) Library of Congress—The U.S. Naval Academy Collection of Soviet & Russian TV
- (in Russian) Russian Museum of Radio and TV website
- The U.S. Naval Academy Collection of Soviet & Russian TV
- Nu Pogodi[dead link], the Soviet equivalent of Road Runner/Coyote, or Tom and Jerry.
- (in English) Television of Perestroika