Is it easy to be the last generation of Soviet punks?

Is it easy to be the last generation of Soviet punks?

Jānis Daugavietis, University of Latvia, Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art

Negotiating the Revolt: Punk in Times of Political Transformation, 16.-18. maijs, Prāga, Čehija

ABSTRACT
At the end of 1986, one of the most significant documentaries of the perestroika era, “Is It Easy to Be Young”, was completed, in which Riga punks were also depicted among various young people. Although relatively controversial, in 1987 the film was used in the official education policy of the state, practically mandatory showing it to certain groups of the population (for example, senior schoolchildren). The film was watched by tens of millions of viewers. It was one of the first times when various types of unconventional choices of young people were shown on the big screen in a relatively empathetic way in the Soviet Union (the film features a morgue worker, a minor mother, it talks about teenage suicides, etc.), including actually legitimising and normalising punks.
After 10 and 20 years, sequels are created, in which some of the punks from the 80s film also act. In the paper, I will try to understand how the same punks are talked about in different historical periods: in the Soviet regime in the mid-80s, which had begun the process of democratization, but was still authoritarian; less than 10 years after the collapse of the USSR, in the independent but economically and socially depressed Republic of Latvia; 20 years after regaining independence, when the economic situation has improved and the country is already an EU member state. In parallel, I will trace the life stories of some of the film’s characters, based on other sources (e.g., published and original interviews). The final result of the paper will be a general and typological account of the life stories of the last generation of the rather narrow punk community in Soviet Latvia, which began in the first half of the 1980s and continued for more than 30 post-Soviet decades.
Keywords: soviet punks, the last Soviet generation, post-soviet transition, documentary cinema, life stories

REFERENCES

‘Vai viegli būt jaunam? (Par tiem, kas meklē savu vietu dzīvē)’ [Is It Easy to Be Young? (About those seeking their place in life] (1986) dir. Juris Podnieks, Rīgas kinostudija, 80 min., https://www.filmas.lv/movie/1364; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126711/

‘Vai viegli būt …? pēc 10 gadiem’ [Is is easy to be… after 10 years] (1997) dir. Antra Cilinska, Jura Podnieka studija, 66 min., https://www.filmas.lv/movie/1079; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178086/ 

‘Vai viegli …?’ [Is is easy…] (2010) dir. Antra Cilinska, Jura Podnieka studija, 84 min., https://www.filmas.lv/movie/3221; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2358712

Daugavietis, J. (2018). Vom Ende der Estraden. Die späten Anfänge des Punk in Lettland. In A. Pehlemann (Ed.), Warschauer Punk Pakt: Punk im Ostblock 1977-1989 (pp. 202–214). Ventil Verlag. www.warschauer-punkpakt.de

Daugavietis, J. (2025). A Systematised History of Latvian Music Samizdat and Fanzines. Converging Paths: The Baltic Between East and West, The 16th Conference on Baltic Studies in Europe (CBSE 2025 Cambridge), University of Cambridge, UK. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15298004

Rozenšteine, A. (2010). “Vai viegli būt jaunam?” Filmas vēsture: Tapšana, apstiprināšana, parādīšanās ekrānos [“Is it easy to be young?” Film history: Creation, approval, appearance on screens]. In O. Proskurova (Ed.), Laiku atšalkas: Žurnālistika, kino, politika (pp. 73–90). Latvijas Universitātes Sociālo un politisko pētījumu institūts. https://pietiek.co/files/29012012m/laiku_atsalkas.pdf