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The Intervision Song Contest (Интервидение), a second world alternative to Eurovision[1], ran the voting by telling people to turn off or on their lights, during specific time slots for each candidate. Supposedly they could tell by the electrical load on the grid who got the popular vote.

[1] for the yanks, this show gave us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FsVeMz1F5c&t=60

[anonymfus]

I thought that it was a joke that became urban legend. Do you have a source on it?

[082349872349872]

Good point. Nothing primary, and I only googled in english. Didn't try russian or yandex. It's plausible to me because Modi's Covid light stunt was distinctly visible on the indian grid, but it would be better if someone who actually watched Intervision (or at least knows how expensive long-distance calls were in the USSR?) could say something here.

(In a 1975 movie, Zhenya Lukashin offers to repay Nadya Shevelova for making a long distance call from her apartment, so I gather that, as in the west, non-local rates weren't trivial.)

Edit: https://rus.azattyq.org/a/intervidenie-konkurent-evrovidenia...

> "В социалистических странах, где установки телефона надо было ждать годами или давать для ускорения взятку, зрители прибегали к интересной сигнализации о своих предпочтениях. Они включали свет, если песня понравилась, и выключали его, если не нравилась. Итоги присуждения баллов участникам подводились на основании данных об изменении нагрузки в электрической сети."

But note that from the logo, this appears to be a "Radio Liberty", i.e. US propaganda, article.

Edit1,5: same story from RT.

https://russian.rt.com/inotv/2014-08-04/Na-Intervidenii-ne-b...

> "Из-за того, что телефонные сети не были достаточно развиты, чтобы обеспечить голосование, зрителей просили голосовать с помощью электричества. Включенный свет – за понравившиеся номера, выключенный – за непонравившиеся; затем отмечали показатели электрических сетей."

Still no primary source, but if russian and US state owned media agree, and absent any personal recollections, I'm inclined to accept the story. (Unless our alien lizard overlords are behind the whole thing?)

Edit2: interesting, according to a documentary referred to in the google cache of http://www.alla-superstar.ru/component/alla/songs/song/91.ht... it took RUB 25 and a bottle of vodka to get Все Могут Короли past the censors in the mid-70s. (roughly between 1 and 2 benjamins in 2020 USD? From this point of view BTC makes a poor substitute currency, as one can't toast with it...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5nn7KxYUXs

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Can anyone explain to this confused westerner why "Все Могут Короли" would even need to be snuck past the censors via a "mistaken" airing?

The theme doesn't seem to be very different from other pop music, such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw-9qu4gcWI .

A mid-80's western report on the "vodka economy" suggests that in this case the bottle itself was meant more as a traditional component of a bribe/tip, and probably didn't contribute much to the pecuniary value. (Indeed, one suggestion in the paper is that, just as the dollar lost its gold standard, during the seventies the ruble also lost its vodka standard of 3 RUB = 1 L.)

https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1985-Berk-Duke-Treml.pdf

> "30. Krokodil [No. 14, 1970, 5] carried a cartoon showing a living room where every inch of space -- floor, window sills, furniture -- was filled with vodka bottles . The woman pictured amid these hundreds of bottles explained her predicament : "My husband is an excellent plumber, but he does not drink ...."

> "38. Increases in vodka prices are important in yet another respect. Interest rates on savings accounts in the USSR are, on the average, about 2.5% per annum, and increases in vodka prices since the late 1950s have more than compensated the consumer who has kept his wealth in vodka rather than in savings accounts."