Русское зазеркалье (двуязычная версия)

All this was an introduction—a long introduction, I admit—into the subject of songs for children. Today, Russia is a part of global social and economic processes, which means to say that our children face the same problems as children all over the world. They, too, are exposed to the early pressure of the job market; they, too, are not given any real models of responsible behaviour or much space for their creative activities; they, too, are prematurely sexualised, even if school education in Russia takes no part in the process. The situation was substantially different for anyone who was born in the Soviet Union.

Some of you may be familiar with ‘Russians,’ a song dealing with the threats of a nuclear war and political hysteria on both sides ‘of the political fence.’ It was composed by Sting in 1985, and it again becomes unpleasantly contemporary in 2019. What you perhaps do not know is the story of how this song was written. The artist was very impressed by a show for kids broadcast on the Soviet television—‘Good Night, Little Ones’ it was I guess. Let me perhaps quote what Sting himself said on the occasion.

I had a friend at university who invented a way to steal the satellite signal from Russian TV. We’d have a few beers and climb this tiny staircase to watch Russian television... At that time of night we'd only get children’s Russian television, like their ‘Sesame Street’. I was impressed with the care and attention they gave to their children’s programmes. I regret our current enemies haven’t got the same ethics.

It was this care, attention, and tact that inspired him to write that ‘Russians love their children, too,’ the famous line which concludes each of the three verses of the song in question.