Controversy about jazz in Soviet military periodicals (1941–1945)

Abstract

The controversy about jazz in the Soviet press is part of a large–scale scientific topic related to the perception of musical culture by Soviet society. The analysis of this controversy is important both for the history of the domestic media and for the analysis of public sentiment in the USSR. This article examines the reflection of jazz as a cultural phenomenon in the Soviet periodicals of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945. The object of the analysis was the performances of jazz orchestras at the front and in the rear and the reaction to these performances from the press. On the basis of military publications in the specially-art media, the author tries to identify the role of jazz music in the culture of wartime.