HIPPIES – FLOWER CHILDREN

The empty and unjust world of occupation was opposed by fashion, music, poetry and art, by a way of life and ignoring the Soviet system. It was a return to what was eternal and valuable. In the Soviet Union, the hippie movement was different than in the West. In persecuting the “flower children”, the Soviet political regime banned their forms of expression (living in communes, avoiding “work useful to society”, holding hippie gatherings and festivals). Young hippies gathered in free, non-committal, closed groups that were not bound by rules. These groups brought together like-minded people who had voluntarily “thrown themselves out” of society, but who had not strayed far from it. The mysterious world beckoned, attracted, enticed. What was new, forbidden and not yet experienced was especially tempting. There was a desire to know, to touch, to understand. The carefree days of youth intertwined with an appetite for reading and interaction. Young people learned to express their thoughts and defend their truth boldly, freely and without external pressures. This display of “lost” youth disheartened and annoyed the arrogant KGB officers who were feared by everyone. The regime cracked down. Some of the hippies did not work anywhere. For them, poetry, creativity, thinking and life itself were work. Everything else was a restrictive framework. These people got bangladesh – an article of the Penal Code that made “parasitism” a criminal offence. Like other young men, hippies were drafted into the Soviet Army. For a person not used to falling into line, the practices of муштра (a system of harsh military discipline) and дедовщина (the informal hazing and abuse of new recruits) posed a risk of mental and physical abuse. Even outside of the army, you could be arrested, beaten or shaved bald by the blue militiamen – icons of the spirit of the mature socialist era – just for appearing in a public place with “your symbols” (like long hair or bell bottoms).