 Radio MoscowQSL card of 1969 | |
| Type | Radio network |
|---|---|
| Country | |
| History | |
| Launch date | 29 October 1929; 96 years ago (1929-10-29) |
| Closed | 22 December 1993; 31 years ago (1993-12-22) |
| Replaced by | Voice of Russia |
| Coverage | |
| Availability | International |
Radio Moscow (Russian:Pадио Москва,romanized: Radio Moskva), also known asRadio Moscow World Service, was the officialinternational broadcasting station of theUnion of Soviet Socialist Republics until 1993, when it was reorganized intoVoice of Russia,[1] which was subsequently reorganized and renamed intoRadio Sputnik in 2014.[2] At its peak, Radio Moscow broadcast in over 70languages using transmitters in the Soviet Union,Eastern Europe, andCuba.
Radio Moscow'sinterval signal was "Wide Is My Motherland" (Russian:Широка страна моя родная,romanized: Shiroka strana moya rodnaya).Moscow Nights was the station'ssignature tune since its relaunch as the Radio Moscow World Service in 1978.
Radio Moscow's first foreign language broadcast was inGerman on 29 October 1929;English andFrench services soon followed.[3] Previously, Radio Moscow broadcast in 1922 with a transmitter station RV-1 in theMoscow region, and a second broadcasting centre came on air atLeningrad in 1925.[3] By 1939, Radio Moscow was broadcasting (onmediumwave andshortwave) in English, French,Indonesian, German,Italian andArabic. During the 1930s, Radio Moscow expressed concern aboutNazi Germany and its dictatorAdolf Hitler, while its Italian mediumwave service wasjammed under the orders of Italy's Fascist dictatorBenito Mussolini during the late 1930s.
During World War II, Radio Moscow operated an effective international service to Germany and occupied Europe.[4]
The United States was first targeted by Radio Moscow during the early 1950s, with transmitters in the Moscow region. Later Western North America was targeted by the newly constructedVladivostok andMagadan relay stations.
The first broadcasts toAfrica went on the air in the late 1950s in English and French.
In 1961, Radio Moscow for the first time began to transmit broadcasts in three African languages:Amharic,Swahili andHausa. Over time, speakers of another eight African languages were able to listen to services from Radio Moscow.
The first centralized news bulletin went on the air in August 1963 and reached out to listeners all over the world. In the years of theCold War, most news reports and commentaries focused on the relations between the United States and Soviet Union.
In the 1970s, Radio Moscow's commentators broadcast in the "News and Views" program. The participants were Viktor Glazunov, Leonid Rassadin, Yuri Shalygin, Alexander Kushnir, Yuri Solton and Vladislav Chernukha.
In the late 1970s, the English language service was renamed Radio Moscow World Service. The project was launched and supervised by a long-time Radio Moscow journalist and manager Alexander Evstafiev. Later, North American, African and British Isles services (all in English) operated for a few hours per day alongside the regular (24 Hour) English World Service.
At one time in 1980, Radio Moscow had transmissions on theMedium Wave broadcast on 600 kHz (later 1040 kHz) fromHavana, Cuba which reached the Caribbean islands and US State of Florida.[5]
One programme on air in the 1980s with an informal presentation, in contrast to most other shows, was theListeners' Request Club, hosted by radio presenterVasily Strelnikov. Another feature on Radio Moscow wasMoscow Mailbag, which answered listeners' questions in English about the Soviet Union. From 1957, the programme was presented byJoe Adamov.
On 22 December 1993, theRussian presidentBoris Yeltsin issued a decree which reorganized Radio Moscow with a new name:Voice of Russia.[1]
By 1931, when Radio Moscow came under the control of the newly establishedGosteleradio, the service comprised eight languages:English,French,German,Czech,Hungarian,Italian,Spanish,Swedish.[6]
By the 1970s there were 64 languages:
In 1989Russian,Malay andTagalog were added.
In 10 of the 14 union republics besides theRSFSR there were foreign broadcasting services.
Until 1988, there was no Russian service of Radio Moscow. Instead there were several other services for Russians abroad like the Fifth programme of theAll-Union Radio (since 1960), Radio Motherland (Радиостанция Родина) of the Soviet Committee for Cultural Relations with Fellow-Countrymen Abroad or for fishermen Radio Pacific Ocean (Радиостанция Тихий Океан, 1963–2001) fromVladivostok and Radio Atlantic (Радиостанция Атлантика, 1965–2004) fromMurmansk. The First All-Union Radio Programme andRadio Mayak were also relayed on shortwave.
The USSR pioneered the use ofHRS 8/8/1antennas (horizontal dipole curtain, eight columns, eight rows, with electrically steerable pattern) for highly targeted shortwave broadcasting long before HRS 12/6/1 technology became available in the west. HRS 8/8/1 curtain arrays create a 10-degree beam of shortwave energy, and can provide a highly audible signal to a target area some 7,000 km away.
Media related toRadio Moscow at Wikimedia Commons
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
