ASMR USSR

For many the collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest tragedy of the 20th century, but for me as a nominal resident of the USSR born in 1989 all the news arrived with a delay, as I grew I was able to grasp this information. Already in the late restructuring “perestroika” time of the 90s, the main source of information for me, of course, was the TV. From it I recognized and saw the recordings of Gorbachev, video of the storming of the White House, Yeltsin’s performance and, of course for the first time in the recording I saw that ballet “Swan Lake” during perestroika time. A particularly strong impression on me was made by television programs with Alan Chumak, or rather not the programs themselves, but how people prepared for them, discussed the effect of one or another healing session and tried to guess what the next one would be. 

Millions of people tired for everyday difficulties, having lost their bearings in a rapidly changing world, placed bottles and cans with water in front of the TV, prepared for the session following the Chumak’s instructions smacking his lips and making passes, charged the water and cleaned the space around. It seems to me that these sessions would now be would be called ASMR (Autonomous sensory meridian response). Often, nostalgia and conversations about the times of the USSR became a soothing mantra and are still able to have a therapeutic effect on those nostalgic for their youth and a bygone era, becoming a kind of healing for collective trauma