What did the USSR think of Miami Vice, and did it impact them culturally at all?

[BunMVO]

I just heard this great synthpop from 1987 in the USSR called Alliance - At Dawn. Great song. It got me thinking - what did those in the USSR think of the Miami Vice cultural phenomenon, and did they get any exposure to it at all? I know that tensions were quite high between the US and the Soviet Union during the time Miami Vice premiered, maybe not as high as the '50s or '60s but worse than the '70s. Of course, just a couple years after the end of Miami Vice, the USSR was completely disbanded and the Berlin Wall had fallen before that. Anyone know of this?

[pahonu]

1 hour ago, pmconroy said:

I just heard this great synthpop from 1987 in the USSR called Alliance - At Dawn. Great song. It got me thinking - what did those in the USSR think of the Miami Vice cultural phenomenon, and did they get any exposure to it at all? I know that tensions were quite high between the US and the Soviet Union during the time Miami Vice premiered, maybe not as high as the '50s or '60s but worse than the '70s. Of course, just a couple years after the end of Miami Vice, the USSR was completely disbanded and the Berlin Wall had fallen before that. Anyone know of this?

Not until the late 80’s, did the type of programming on TV began to change in the Soviet Union. Some programs from the UK were imported. Game shows and talk shows came first.  They were typically formats copied from the western shows.  A co-worker of mine from Ukraine (physics teacher) told me some of this.  Also a co-worker (German teacher) from the former East Germany.  I doubt Miami Vice was seen by any Soviet citizens.

Edited August 11, 2019 by pahonu

[Robbie C.]

I would agree. I was in West Germany during the early to mid 1980s, and what actually was having a bigger impact behind the Iron Curtain was music and Levi's jeans. Both were easily portable. Television programming was not. VCRs were still new and expensive in the West, let alone the USSR. So no, I doubt if Vice was even a ripple at that time.

[miamijimf]

My guess is no effect at all.  If it was mentioned at all on their TV or in Pravda it was used as an example of capitalistic decadence and American gangsterism.  I had a student a few years ago who immigrated from the Soviet Union before the end of the Cold War (so called).  She still has friends in Russia and I could ask her.  I would bet she never heard of the show before coming to the US.

[James]

I doubt they aired it at all during the original days of running, especially when you have episodes like Bushido where the KGB are the enemies. The Soviet government were Anti-America, you have to remember that there was an actual Cold War going on where both sides feared that the other would "push the button" at any time. They wouldn't have aired anything on TV that went against their own propaganda. 

I would be very surprised if Miami Vice or any American programmes aired in the USSR at all. 

[ViceofEstonia]

I am only 23 years old, but I believe that due to my interest in those times I can provide you gentlemen with some insight. There is a keyword in all of this: Finnish Television. Now in most of USSR this could not be seen. But in Tallinn, capital of Estonia and northern  Estonia people could see it.

In order to see Finnish television you had to have a special device named the “Finnish block” installed to your TV. Even then your signal may have been weak, so antennas were amplified in order to get some picture. That was our big connection to Western world and real information. Entertainment wise we could see shows like Dallas, Vice, Knight Rider and many others from Finnish TV in 80s.

Like Robbie C. said: VCRs were expensive. Some people rented them out with a bunch of home recorded VHS tapes and made profit off it, but 1984 quality of such tapes was nowhere near ideal and episodes of western TV shows were harder to tape than whole movies.

Fun fact about Soviet video tapes: Porn tapes were named Sports in order to keep their real content a secret.

As for how big of an effect Vice had on people. I dare say they liked it as a cool TV show, but to them it must have seen like some big dream. I mean we had nothing that came close to what was shown on Vice. Everyone drove same crappy Soviet cars till late 80s, early 90s. Maybe someone had a speedboat, but they did not go on moody music-in-the-background cruises on em XDXDXD. I have not seen many photos of people dressed Vice either, but I guess some did try at least. Good clothes were hard to come by, unless you had connections or bought them from smugglers.

I hope this info is helpful to you guys.

 

 

Edited August 13, 2019 by ViceofEstonia

[BunMVO]

Interesting input, everyone. I guess even Miami Vice couldn't penetrate the Iron Curtain. Lol

[Robbie C.]

They had to have TVs first, then broadcast media that wasn't state-controlled. TVs weren't exactly common in the USSR.

[Voodoo Vice Dealer]

Miami Vice came to Russia during the early to mid 1990s, as far as I know the TV runs of the series started around 1993. I would say that with the arrival of Perestroika (1985 onwards) Soviet people and the country in general got a huge, fresh, brand new change in each aspect of the life. Aside from the changes in the politics there was a very big change in the culture. Soviet films started showing the real problems of the Soviet Union which were kept silent by the government during decades. Films about prostitution, drugs, criminal organizations and other social issues of that periode came by 1987-1988.

Adidas sneakers, Pepsi, acid washed jeans from Eastern Europe, Rock and Synthpop music bands became popular. Honestly I doubt there was ever any chance for an average Soviet citizen to see Miami Vice in the USSR, but some clothing and music styles were definitely present. Soviet teenagers even danced Breakdance to Herbie Hancock music, from Moscow to the most westernized region, the current Baltic states. And private Western film screenings called ''video salons'' were quite spread among rich families who had videocassette recorders.

Below I attach pictures from some Soviet films of that era, if anything similar to Miami Vice was ever created in the USSR, it would probably look like this:

[vicegirl85]

How interesting!  I can definitely see a few signs of 80s style influence!

[jpaul1]

Cuba wasn't part of USSR officially, but it was part of it however. no one can deny that the mariel boat lift didn't influence Miami cultural shape, and thus MV. so actually, i think the USSR influenced MV

[miamijimf]

4 hours ago, jpaul1 said:

Cuba wasn't part of USSR officially, but it was part of it however. no one can deny that the mariel boat lift didn't influence Miami cultural shape, and thus MV. so actually, i think the USSR influenced MV

Agree, Castro would not have dared to be such a ruthless tyrant so close to the US without the backing of the USSR, so in an indirect way Communism and the USSR did have an impact on Miami and MV.  The criminals that came over on the boat lift caused major problems all over the country and shaped the Miami environment.  On the other side, lots of good hard working people took advantage of the boat lift to escape, so it wasn't all negative.  See the movie The Perez Family with Marisa Tomei.

[Tom]

Vice Never got to the USSR but to Russia in the 90s. And the colorful pictures above are mostly from 90s productions as most Soviet Classic Movies were colorwise dull and years behind avant-garde. Nobody could watch foreign channels and many US brands were only known from the 1980 olympics in Moscow from many international athletes. My wife grew up in the USSR and got in contact with VICE in the early 90s. In the 80s they lined up for hours to get milk/bread and once a year for bananas from Cuba. Nobody had the money or a shop to get vice like clothes.