BBC News Russian (russian: BBC News Ру́сская слу́жба) – formerly BBC Russian Service (russian: Ру́сская слу́жба Би-би-си́) – is part of the
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...
's foreign language output, one of nearly 40 languages it provides.
History
The BBC's first Russian-language broadcast was a translation of a speech by British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
on 23 June 1941.
The first programme of the Russian section of the BBC was hosted by Sonya (Betty) Horsfall on 24 March 1946.
However, during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
there were sporadic broadcasts to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in Russian only. Most of these broadcasts were after 1942.
These were mainly short news bulletins or announcements relating to UK
Foreign Office
Foreign may refer to:
Government
* Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries
** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government
** Foreign office and foreign minister
* Unit ...
policy in
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
from 1943 onwards but often weeks or months apart.
In the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
-era broadcasts were severely
jammed. Despite this, it tried to bring to listeners in Soviet Union information they were deprived of, including works of writers and dissidents who could not publish their work at home, such as
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...
. Jamming finally stopped in the late 1980s, as
perestroika
''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
took hold.
On 26 March 2011 the service stopped broadcasting on medium and shortwave, and now publishes and broadcasts on the internet only.
Broadcasting
The BBC Russian Service has moved all its operation to the Internet, halting radio broadcasting after 65 years on air.
Before the final decision to concentrate on online production the Russian Service radio was available only on AM.
The BBC Russian Service partnered with ''Bol'shoe Radio'' (russian: Большое радио), an FM broadcaster in Moscow between
April and August 2007. Daily broadcasts alternated between the Russian Service and Radio Moscow. On 17 August 2007 ''Bol'shoe Radio'' notified the BBC World Service that it planned to stop transmission of BBC programming in Russian as of that afternoon. BBC content was not aired as usual at 1700 (Moscow time); the station was ordered by its owner, the financial group Finam, to pull the shows or risk being taken off air altogether. The BBC planned to appeal against the decision. In its 2007 Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report the House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee concluded that "the development of a partnership with the international arm of a Russian state broadcasting network puts the BBC World Service's reputation for editorial independence at risk".
Masha Karp, Martin Dewhirst,
Victor Suvorov
Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun (russian: link=no, Владимир Богданович Резун; born 20 April 1947), known by his pseudonym of Viktor Suvorov () is a former Soviet GRU officer who is the author of non-fiction books about World ...
,
Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Константи́нович Буко́вский; 30 December 1942 – 27 October 2019) was a Russian-born British human rights activist and writer. From the late 1950 ...
,
Oleg Gordievsky
Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky, CMG (; born 10 October 1938) is a former colonel of the KGB who became KGB resident-designate (''rezident'') and bureau chief in London, and was a double agent, providing information to the British Secret Intelli ...
criticized the BBC Russian service for giving less coverage to viewpoints outside of those approved by the Russian government.
A BBC spokesman said:
An article in ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
'' suggested that the BBC's desire to continue using local transmitters in Russia may conflict with its neutrality. The BBC World Service denied it and said the problems it faced in acquiring carriage on FM in Russia emanated from the growing impact its distinctive programmes were having with audiences rather than weakening the quality of its output. They said it was the awkward journalistic questions the BBC had asked that inspired the authorities to bring persistent pressure to bear upon its FM partners to drop its programmes until the threat of losing their licences altogether became too strong. In November 2008 the BBC World Service announced a far-reaching strategy rethink, seeing most of the Russian Service's standalone news bulletins end and two blocks of current affairs programming widened. The strategy envisioned closure of longer, lighter feature programmes and aggregating some of their elements such as insights on British culture into a new weekend programme.
The news drew sharp criticism from British experts on Russia who argued that the BBC World Service had weakened its editorial line under pressure from Kremlin and that it lost crucial links with British culture and political thought.
On 21 April 2009 the BBC Russian Service relaunched their website in a new wider template that corresponded with other language services such as Portuguese, Spanish, Persian, Urdu and Vietnamese.
In March 2012 the service began its first TV broadcasts with regular transmissions on TV
Dozhd
TV Rain ( rus, Дождь, Dozhd, p=ˈdoʂtʲ, a=Ru-дождь (doʂtʲ).ogg; stylized ДОДЬ) is an independent Russian television channel. It was launched in 2010 in Russia, and since 2022 was based in Latvia. It focuses on news, discussio ...
– the service was the first to broadcast live TV from the BBC's new building in central London (Broadcasting House). The bulletin is also available via bbcrussian.com.
Presentation
The ''
Prince of Denmark's March
The ''Prince of Denmark's March'' ( da, Prins Prince George of Denmark, Jørgens March), commonly called the ''Trumpet Voluntary'', was written around 1700 by the English composer Jeremiah Clarke, the first organist of the then newly-rebuilt St ...
'', commonly known as the ''Trumpet Voluntary'', was the signature tune of the shortwave BBC Russian Service (as well as the other brachnes of the BBC European Service). This musical composition by
Jeremiah Clarke
Jeremiah Clarke (c. 1674 – 1 December 1707) was an English baroque composer and organist, best known for his ''Trumpet Voluntary,'' a popular piece often played at wedding ceremonies or commencement ceremonies.
Biography
The exact date of Cla ...
in an arrangement for trumpet, string orchestra and organ by
Sir Henry Wood became widely known to the audience in the USSR thanks to the BBC broadcasting. The arrangement, as aired on the BBC radio, was perceived in particular as a genuine example of the
British "imperial" style and was used as such by the Russian composer
Vladimir Dashkevich
Vladimir Sergeevich Dashkevich (russian: Владимир Серге́евич Дашкевич) (born 20 January 1934) is a Russian composer, known mainly for his film music. Originally, he studied chemical technology at Moscow State University o ...
while writing the main music theme for the popular series of television films ''
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson'' (russian: link=no, italics=yes, Приключения Шерлока Холмса и доктора Ватсона) is a series of Soviet television films portraying Arthur Conan Doyle's ficti ...
''.
See also
*
Anatol Goldberg
Anatoly "Anatol" Maksimovich Goldberg (russian: link=no, Анатолий Максимович Гольдберг; 7 May 1910 in St Petersburg – 5 March 1982 in London) was a broadcaster and writer who became head of the BBC Russian Ser ...
*
Seva Novgorodsev
Seva Novgorodsev MBE (Russian: Се́ва Новгоро́дцев, which is a pseudonym, his real name being Vsevolod Borisovich Levenstein (Всеволод Борисович Левенштейн); born 9 July 1940) is a former radio present ...
References
External links
Link to BBC Russia Service`s review of the 1985 production of Gorky` `Enemies` directed by Ann Elizabeth Pennington in association with Internationalist Theatre LondonBBC Russian Gorky Enemies 001
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bbc Russian Service
Russian-language radio stations
Russian Service
Radio stations established in 1946
Radio stations disestablished in 2011
1946 establishments in the United Kingdom
Russia–United Kingdom relations
Russian-language websites