Soviet ideologists powerless against Woodstock

Forty years ago the US and Woodstock were almost infinitely far away for Latvia. Nevertheless, the music festival did have an impact, writes the daily Diena: "Hippies didn't have it easy in a provincial Soviet city. They were seen as subsisting on cheap wine and getting around by hitch-hiking. ... Woodstock reached us primarily over VEF-201 radios - which cost a pretty penny at the time - and we loved this music. But it turned out that merely liking it was enough to lose your standing as a true Soviet citizen. The communists made mincemeat of everyone who spoke out against the regime, and just one year before Woodstock tanks had quashed the Prague Spring as a so-called counter-revolution. But in the long-term even the Soviet ideologists were powerless against a few guitar chords by Jimmy Hendrix."

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