Drop one interesting detail-bomb about Disco and the Atomic War on the blog thread below, just so your prof. knows you were paying as much attention to the movie as an Estonian straining to hear Finnish broadcasts of rock 'n' roll...
Since Finland didn't have their own television programming, Soviets starting broadcasting propaganda from Estonia focused on the Finnish people in order to win them over to communism. Also the distance from Tallinn, Estonia to Helsinki, Finland is about 80 km which is the the range in which the TV waves could reach.
This film makes apparent that despite the clear detrimental effects that advancements in science and technology brought about with the introduction of atomic bombs, long range missiles etc., it was the development and use of other technologies associated with broadcast that more directly influenced the people of this time.
The film discusses extensively the topic of propaganda. In the beginning of the Cold War, Estonia's only connection to the free world, as a result of the iron curtain, was radio. However, the Finnish TV channel changed all of that. The USSR used the channel initially to advertise communist propaganda. The communist held control of the way they were advertised. For example few outside of Czechoslovakia knew about Prague Spring because instead of advertising the riots, the Soviets advertised Soviet leaders being warmly welcomed into the Czech country.
Finnish television broadcast American movies such as Knight Rider and Star Wars. These had a great effect on children, as they started speaking into their watches in order to talk to their cars just like in Knight Rider and became infatuated with space and spaceships thanks to Star Wars.
It is interesting how the popular culture of the time closely resembled the social and political spheres. For example, when Star Wars was released, nations were in competition to advance their space programs. The atomic bomb was in development. The ideas the children of Eastern nations fantasized about were soon to become reality...
This films shows the propaganda that was brought into the USSR through Estonia by Finnish TV. The most interesting part for me was the different ways that the Soviet Union tried to fight against the television's influence. When they removed the receivers, people figured out how to make their own antennas or smuggle in chips. When the USSR tried to ban TV but allowed disco, people were unhappy because of how far behind they were in terms of dance moves and rhythm. Since life was so limited behind the Iron Curtain, the influence from Finnish TV was so much stronger because it showed what life could be. I also thought it was extremely interesting that it wasn't the outflow of information of the political happenings in Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan that caused the USSR leaders but the programming of shows such as "Dallas."
At one point of the film, it discusses how Estonian TV is to blame for young people watching and imitating behaviors displayed on Finnish TV. Furthermore, on the onset of the color TV, microchips were smuggled to Estonia and sold to engineers. Another interesting fact is that at one point, antennas were made of mercury, which jammed signals of all antennas within a 3-5 kilometer area. Unfortunately, this mercury antenna was near a nuclear warhead, which jammed signals that were near the warheads, which in turn caused bans on all thermometers.
Finnish television was the beginning to a kind of escape from the world. While the government attempted to ban it, people found ways to watch it. Also, people seemed to focus less on what Lenin and Marx were doing and more on American television.
Soviet children loved programs like Knight Raider and Star Wars; however, these same TV shows glorified conflict and the advancement of technology. During a time of growing tensions between Communist countries and Capitalist ones, the Soviet state acted against the Finnish TV channels, under the guise of “protecting” the Estonian people from Western, bourgeois ideals. The state did so by physically removing Finnish TV antennas, even in hospitals, and by installing chips. By depriving the Estonian citizens of their entertainment, the state's plan of censorship essentially backfired.
Electrical engineers such as one of the child's fathers in the movie, were able to make television converters that enabled televisions in Estonia to receive the channels from Finland. It was pretty interesting to see how much underground and secret business went on in the country. I couldn't believe that the child was in on the whole business and actually had to go and pick up packages and help with copying down the TV guide.
The Soviets' repeated attempts to prevent Estonians from receiving Finnish television spurs the engineer to ingeniously create devices to enable local television sets to receive Finnish television, which he ends up producing in numbers and selling them for a handsome profit. Communism has inadvertently allowed Capitalism to flourish, revealing that humans are intrinsically capitalistic creatures.
The illegal commodity of Finnish converters and high powered television antennae demonstrate that technology is the forefront of change in a multitude of dimensions. If the estonians never had those illegal converters to watch western programming from Finland, they would have never been exposed to disco, and Night Rider which were seen affecting the new generations in estonia, from the dance craze to talking to cars. The advent of television created a new battleground in the cold war, propaganda and programming and intellectual warfare. It is analogous to how the internet has changed the way we live and carry out our lives now, or how airplanes brought people together.
I found it interesting that the estonian birth rate briefly skyrocketed nine months later. How does this sudden increase in population display the effect of western way of life versus the communist regime and why was this significant?
the film shows the impact and might of soft power in the struggle between USA and USSR during the Cold War. The Eastern Bloc's cultural life was so obsolete under communist manipulation that people in Estonia just find all kinds of nifty ways embrace western media despite the Communist state's frenzied blockage. Hold made antennas, modified television sets, thermometer antennas are invented by the people as result. An interesting and detailed fact would be that 9 months after the premiering of that erotic movie (Rosanna?), birth rate jumped by 37%.
Comment from Rebecca Sai: When I was watching the film, I found it interesting that Finnish TV was considered some sort of a taboo and people were not allowed to watch it. It was something that young people loved to watch, although Finnish TV was accused of spreading lies. This truly showed how certain powers tried to control the type of information that constituents were taking in. This could even be related to other nations like South Africa, when during apartheid certain books and programs were off limits to south Africans. However one of the most interesting things by far was the mere fact that finnish TV showed star wars when, according to the movie, the superpowers of the world were playing their own star wars.
I thought it was interesting that FInland didn't have a television programming system. It's was the 20th century.... However, it was a very smart move on the Russians part to broadcast communist propaganda from Estonia because it was an idea just far enough out side the box that it might actually work in their plan to spread communism. I also found it interesting that the Estonia community found ways to sort have a mini technological rebellion against communist ideals in the form of western media technologies such as TV. Not to sure why or how that correlates to the rise in birth rate amongst the Estonia population, but it seemed to be positive!
I found the fact that the Esotonian community built TV antennae to be interesting, especially since this showed that the Soviet method of blocking social interaction was a failed endeavor. It also shows that media and human interaction causes technological advancement.
I think that the film did a great job of showing how the struggle between the Soviet Union and Estonia went beyond the political sphere, but infiltrated the daily lives of every citizen. If the citizens couldn't physically fight the Soviets out of their streets, they were willing to use pop culture as a weapon, just as the Soviets were willing to use propaganda to try to change the mentality of the Estonians. However the Estonians became more engaged in topics such as "who shot JR?" than communist ideals.
How did the film represent the importance of the American entertainment industry, especially television, in showing other countries the way of life outside of Soviet control? in the modern time, with televisions and programs being much more common, can television ever have such a drastic effect on society again?
One of the interesting things about the movie was the scene in which the Soviet government was talking about U.S. propaganda. They mentioned sexual "looseless" when talking about women as though it was an infectious disease. Also, the engineer/inventor in the movie saved the day by created antennas and unblocking U.S. channels. How would the Soviet Union have been different if the channels were completely blocked successfully?
Since Finland didn't have their own television programming, Soviets starting broadcasting propaganda from Estonia focused on the Finnish people in order to win them over to communism. Also the distance from Tallinn, Estonia to Helsinki, Finland is about 80 km which is the the range in which the TV waves could reach.
ReplyDeleteThis film makes apparent that despite the clear detrimental effects that advancements in science and technology brought about with the introduction of atomic bombs, long range missiles etc., it was the development and use of other technologies associated with broadcast that more directly influenced the people of this time.
ReplyDeleteThe film discusses extensively the topic of propaganda. In the beginning of the Cold War, Estonia's only connection to the free world, as a result of the iron curtain, was radio. However, the Finnish TV channel changed all of that. The USSR used the channel initially to advertise communist propaganda. The communist held control of the way they were advertised. For example few outside of Czechoslovakia knew about Prague Spring because instead of advertising the riots, the Soviets advertised Soviet leaders being warmly welcomed into the Czech country.
ReplyDeleteFinnish television broadcast American movies such as Knight Rider and Star Wars. These had a great effect on children, as they started speaking into their watches in order to talk to their cars just like in Knight Rider and became infatuated with space and spaceships thanks to Star Wars.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how the popular culture of the time closely resembled the social and political spheres. For example, when Star Wars was released, nations were in competition to advance their space programs. The atomic bomb was in development. The ideas the children of Eastern nations fantasized about were soon to become reality...
ReplyDeleteThis films shows the propaganda that was brought into the USSR through Estonia by Finnish TV. The most interesting part for me was the different ways that the Soviet Union tried to fight against the television's influence. When they removed the receivers, people figured out how to make their own antennas or smuggle in chips. When the USSR tried to ban TV but allowed disco, people were unhappy because of how far behind they were in terms of dance moves and rhythm. Since life was so limited behind the Iron Curtain, the influence from Finnish TV was so much stronger because it showed what life could be. I also thought it was extremely interesting that it wasn't the outflow of information of the political happenings in Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan that caused the USSR leaders but the programming of shows such as "Dallas."
ReplyDeleteAt one point of the film, it discusses how Estonian TV is to blame for young people watching and imitating behaviors displayed on Finnish TV. Furthermore, on the onset of the color TV, microchips were smuggled to Estonia and sold to engineers. Another interesting fact is that at one point, antennas were made of mercury, which jammed signals of all antennas within a 3-5 kilometer area. Unfortunately, this mercury antenna was near a nuclear warhead, which jammed signals that were near the warheads, which in turn caused bans on all thermometers.
ReplyDeleteFinnish television was the beginning to a kind of escape from the world. While the government attempted to ban it, people found ways to watch it. Also, people seemed to focus less on what Lenin and Marx were doing and more on American television.
ReplyDeleteSoviet children loved programs like Knight Raider and Star Wars; however, these same TV shows glorified conflict and the advancement of technology. During a time of growing tensions between Communist countries and Capitalist ones, the Soviet state acted against the Finnish TV channels, under the guise of “protecting” the Estonian people from Western, bourgeois ideals. The state did so by physically removing Finnish TV antennas, even in hospitals, and by installing chips. By depriving the Estonian citizens of their entertainment, the state's plan of censorship essentially backfired.
ReplyDeleteElectrical engineers such as one of the child's fathers in the movie, were able to make television converters that enabled televisions in Estonia to receive the channels from Finland. It was pretty interesting to see how much underground and secret business went on in the country. I couldn't believe that the child was in on the whole business and actually had to go and pick up packages and help with copying down the TV guide.
ReplyDeleteThe Soviets' repeated attempts to prevent Estonians from receiving Finnish television spurs the engineer to ingeniously create devices to enable local television sets to receive Finnish television, which he ends up producing in numbers and selling them for a handsome profit. Communism has inadvertently allowed Capitalism to flourish, revealing that humans are intrinsically capitalistic creatures.
ReplyDeleteThe illegal commodity of Finnish converters and high powered television antennae demonstrate that technology is the forefront of change in a multitude of dimensions. If the estonians never had those illegal converters to watch western programming from Finland, they would have never been exposed to disco, and Night Rider which were seen affecting the new generations in estonia, from the dance craze to talking to cars. The advent of television created a new battleground in the cold war, propaganda and programming and intellectual warfare. It is analogous to how the internet has changed the way we live and carry out our lives now, or how airplanes brought people together.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that the estonian birth rate briefly skyrocketed nine months later. How does this sudden increase in population display the effect of western way of life versus the communist regime and why was this significant?
ReplyDeletethe film shows the impact and might of soft power in the struggle between USA and USSR during the Cold War. The Eastern Bloc's cultural life was so obsolete under communist manipulation that people in Estonia just find all kinds of nifty ways embrace western media despite the Communist state's frenzied blockage. Hold made antennas, modified television sets, thermometer antennas are invented by the people as result. An interesting and detailed fact would be that 9 months after the premiering of that erotic movie (Rosanna?), birth rate jumped by 37%.
ReplyDeleteComment from Rebecca Sai: When I was watching the film, I found it interesting that Finnish TV was considered some sort of a taboo and people were not allowed to watch it. It was something that young people loved to watch, although Finnish TV was accused of spreading lies. This truly showed how certain powers tried to control the type of information that constituents were taking in. This could even be related to other nations like South Africa, when during apartheid certain books and programs were off limits to south Africans. However one of the most interesting things by far was the mere fact that finnish TV showed star wars when, according to the movie, the superpowers of the world were playing their own star wars.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that FInland didn't have a television programming system. It's was the 20th century.... However, it was a very smart move on the Russians part to broadcast communist propaganda from Estonia because it was an idea just far enough out side the box that it might actually work in their plan to spread communism. I also found it interesting that the Estonia community found ways to sort have a mini technological rebellion against communist ideals in the form of western media technologies such as TV. Not to sure why or how that correlates to the rise in birth rate amongst the Estonia population, but it seemed to be positive!
ReplyDeleteI found the fact that the Esotonian community built TV antennae to be interesting, especially since this showed that the Soviet method of blocking social interaction was a failed endeavor. It also shows that media and human interaction causes technological advancement.
ReplyDeleteI think that the film did a great job of showing how the struggle between the Soviet Union and Estonia went beyond the political sphere, but infiltrated the daily lives of every citizen. If the citizens couldn't physically fight the Soviets out of their streets, they were willing to use pop culture as a weapon, just as the Soviets were willing to use propaganda to try to change the mentality of the Estonians. However the Estonians became more engaged in topics such as "who shot JR?" than communist ideals.
ReplyDeleteHow did the film represent the importance of the American entertainment industry, especially television, in showing other countries the way of life outside of Soviet control? in the modern time, with televisions and programs being much more common, can television ever have such a drastic effect on society again?
ReplyDeleteOne of the interesting things about the movie was the scene in which the Soviet government was talking about U.S. propaganda. They mentioned sexual "looseless" when talking about women as though it was an infectious disease. Also, the engineer/inventor in the movie saved the day by created antennas and unblocking U.S. channels. How would the Soviet Union have been different if the channels were completely blocked successfully?
ReplyDelete