Our recent trendy hit parade of the Soviet deficit did not include gramophone records - because they are not the most valuable food product, like stew, not “the last hope of a girl to get married”, like jeans, and not a status interior detail, like the roots of waste Dumas.
But there was a deficit, and a certain subculture formed around it ..
Music in the USSR was the subject of vigilant guardianship of the ideologists of the party. Starting with the repertoire plan of artists and concert organizations, and ending with especially tricky "mastering", i.e. the final sound processing of those recordings of Western artists that leaked drop by drop into the catalog of the All-Union Recording Company Melodiya. But even with the lower frequencies cut off, the records of the "firms" released by Melodiya were snapped up instantly, left the counter, and ended up on the black market - to the "plastomaniacs".
Objectively, the “plastomaniacs” were mostly not stupid swindlers, like those who pushed the More blocks.
It was still, with some exceptions, a subculture of people in love with music, music lovers and collectors.
But, since the price of everything is dictated by the market, then in conditions of shortage, the record of the Osmonds family, obtained from under the counter of the record store, in the hands of the “plastoman” was “valued” at 10 rubles, the disc of the “democrat” Cheslav Nemen - at 15-20, the Yugoslav "Reprint" live Deep Purple - 40, fresh ELO - 70, and the newest "sealed" album Space reached 120 rubles, ie. up to the monthly salary of a university graduate.
"Plastomaniac Activities"
So what did the “plastomaniacs” do anyway? These parasitic citizens spent hours huddled around a few specialty record stores, with a bag on their shoulder, in which there were packs of records. They exchanged these very records, and when the exchange was clearly unequal, an additional payment in money was used. Actually, goods-money operations were also performed by them.
And here sharp-eyed citizens from the OBKhSS - Departments for Combating theft of Socialist Property appeared on the scene. Under white hands, the plastomaniac was escorted to the nearest police station, where interrogators tortured him with questions, leading him to the line beyond which criminally punishable speculation began, i.e. buying and selling for the purpose of profit, confiscation of property loomed ahead, and, if not a trip at public expense to a "sanatorium" from Arctic Circle, then "correctional work at the construction sites of the national economy."
Where did all this music get to the “plastomaniacs”? Yes, just like chewing gum, jeans and books - something was imported by the state in small batches and for a limited circle, something was brought on business trips from abroad.
But the time has come, article 154 for speculation has gone into oblivion, soon after it the Soviet Union also went down in history, and the “plastomaniacs” turned into ordinary music lovers who collect records. Although, the most cunning of them have turned their passion into a serious business, but that's a completely different story.
Today we will talk about the factories that produced Melodiya records in the USSR.
A little background: Melodiya is a Soviet and Russian recording company, the oldest sound industry company in Russia. Founded in 1964 as the All-Union Gramophone Company. Merged major record factories and recording studios that existed at that time in the USSR, and became a state organization for the production, storage and distribution of sound
Let's start with the most important plant "Moscow Pilot Plant Gramzapis" - this plant produced lacquer (until 1986), then copper discs of phonograms sent from the "All-Union Recording Studio" or sound recording studios located in large cities of the USSR. The enterprise printed records from the third negative of phonograms, the first two copies were intended to reveal defects. "BRAIN" also made matrices for other factories, which will be discussed later. At this plant, records were produced in very small quantities, the quality of these records was at their best, then the matrices were sent to the "Aprelevka Order of Lenin Records Plant" since there were large capacities for the production of vinyl.
The Aprelevsky Order of Lenin Gramophone Record Plant is the oldest plant in Russia. Its history begins in 1910. Gottlieb Moll created the Metropol Record company. In the early 1950s, the plant began mastering the production of vinyl records, in 1952 the first batches of long-playing phonograph records were made in the country, and in 1961 the first stereo records. This plant produced at that time all known formats of records: minions, grandees, giants, as well as color and flexible ones; for 78, 33 and 45 rpm, including minions for 45 rpm for export and by order of the Soyuzinventarium office for Meloman jukeboxes. The Aprelevka plant produced gramophone records at 78 rpm until 1971. The quality of the records varied from excellent to average, as the production large circulation the matrix was worn out and this affected the quality of the recording as a whole.
"Leningrad plant of gramophone records" - put into operation in 1948. The equipment of the plant was assembled on the basis of the expropriated German gramophone plant "Tempo".
In the mid-1980s, in addition to the main orders, he printed records for the Polish company "Tonpress". Also in Leningrad there was a recording studio, the main repertoire was classical music. The quality of the records of this enterprise was average, the records were stamped thick, the sleeves for the records were made of ordinary paper and they quickly fell into disrepair, varnished paper was used on others, and the factory itself produced records a year after they appeared at the Moscow Pilot Plant Gramzapis. At the beginning of 1990, they began to release the "Signal Series of Records", the main repertoire of which was the rock music of such groups as: "Auction", "NOM", "Crematorium", "Picnic", "Crisis", etc.
"Riga Order of Honor Record Factory" - "Rīgas skaņu ierakstu studija" was founded in 1958 with branches in Tallinn and Vilnius. The Riga studio was one of the first in Melodiya to switch to stereophony. The studio had high-quality equipment: Swiss microphones, modern consoles and tape recorders. Due to this, the records were of high quality and were even sent for import. Janis Lusens, one of the founders of the Latvian group "Zodiac", recalls the early 1980s:
"The main thing is that we were lucky with the sound engineer Alexander Griva, who actually became the producer of our first record. He had a great feeling for new Western music and understood that there was a lot of good there…"
"Tashkent factory named after M.T.Tashmukhamedov" - Tashkent record factory was founded in 1945 on Gramplastinok street, house 58. The production was assembled on the basis of the equipment of the Noginsk factory evacuated in 1941. Since 1957 he has been releasing long-playing records. In 1964 or 1965 he became part of Melodiya, in 1969 the plant was named after the singer Mulla Tuychi Tashmukhamedov, a pioneer of recording in Turkestan. In 1972, the plant mastered the production of stereo records. The quality of the released records was poor, the culture of production at the enterprise was weak. The records did not cool down properly and they had a characteristic "sand" sound.
"Tbilisi Recording Studio" - Tbilisi Record Factory produced long-playing mono and stereo records, flexible records. At the beginning of 1972, American equipment worth $300,000 was purchased and the production of components for tape cassettes was launched. According to information at the end of 1981, the plant produced components for compact cassettes and had a replication line. The quality of vinyl records was worse than at the "Tashkent Plant", and the "pyataks" of the records in the upper part were printed badly, even on export editions (the photo you see now).
P.S. These factories no longer exist. The last plant was "Aprelevskiy", which released the last record in 1997. By the 50th anniversary, the Melodiya company released several records, the first of which was the 1987 album of the Aria group, Hero of Asphalt. I want to believe that the fashion for vinyl records will return.
Thank you for your attention!
Evgeny Maksimov ©
There are a lot of disputes and legends on this issue, but before drawing conclusions, let's take an interest in this company.
In this article, I used material from Wikipedia, and selected the most significant facts about the great work and excellent quality of Melodiya.
Foreign trade association "Mezhdunarodnaya kniga" became the representative of "Melody" abroad. Through the "International Book" contracts were concluded, exported.
Through mediation in 1965, Melodiya signed a contract with Ariola-Eurodisc, the German company Ariola Records (also known as Ariola, Ariola-Eurodisc), a German record label. 
The Ariola-Eurodisc label was founded in 1958. In the 1980s, Ariola Records established a branch for developing computer programs and video games, Ariolasoft.
By the way, since the late 1980s, Bertelsmann Music Group has been owned, as part of Ariola entered Sony Music Entertainment.
In accordance with the agreement, Ariola received special rights to publish and distribute classical music from the Melodiya record libraries.
The success of sales of Soviet records in Germany was a factor in the signing of an exclusive contract "Melody" with the US company "Capitol" in August 1966.
Capitol Records is a major US record label.
It was founded in 1942. In 1955 it was bought by the British big sound recording company EMI. In 2001, EMI merged Capitol Records with another label, Priority Records. 
According to Capitol President Alan Livingston, most of the material was planned to be recorded in Russia; At the same time, he noted that the high quality of Soviet sound recording is not inferior to American.
By 1970, Capitol planned to release 300 million records of classical music from the Melodiya record library.
For this, the joint company Melodiya-Angel was founded. Moreover, the expectations from sales in America were justified, and later, in connection with the sale of 250,000 records of Soviet records, Melodiya was awarded the Golden Disc from Capitol.
In 1968, a contract was signed with HMV, with HMV Group PLC- inheriting its name from the famous "His Master's Voice" logo, showing a dog, HMV Group PLC is one of the leading 
enterprises retail music, books, and entertainment media of the United Kingdom, entries from the Melodies catalog were in the UK.
Dog at the gramophone main value HMV Group. The HMV logo, which appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, is one of the legendary ones. It depicts Nipper, a fox terrier listening to the recorded voice of his deceased owner. By the way, the name HMV itself stands for “His Master’s Voice” (“His Master’s Voice”), but the company was originally called The Gramophone Company.
At one time, for this right to portray Nipper, she was paid £100.
(1884-1895) was a dog who served as the model for a painting called His Voice 
Host of His Master's Voice. This image was the basis for the logo used by several audio brands: Victor Talking Machine Company, HMV, EMI, RCA, RCA Victor, Victrola, Electrola, Bluebird, Zonophone, JVC and Deutsche Gramophone.
As of 1970, Soviet records were exported to more than 65 countries world, including including France, the Netherlands, and even Japan; moreover, contacts were established with the countries of Eastern Europe.
Since 1973, after the USSR joined the Universal Copyright Convention, licensing agreements began to develop.
The desire to expand production and improve the products of "Melody" was indicated with the launch of a new enterprise - the Moscow Pilot Plant "Gramzapis" (MOZG), which went into operation in 1978.
In 1986, a contract was signed with Mobile Fidelity.- Founded in 1977 by Brad Miller, MFSL 
specializes in the remastering of music by a major label for the "" market. which became the exclusive distributor of Melodiya records in North America.
By 1991, Firma Melodiya owned 21 enterprises, including factories and record stores.
But the circulation of Melodiya products began to gradually decline. This was due to the economic situation in Russia, the reduction in orders.
In the early 1990s, the director of Melodiya, Valery Vasilyevich Suhorado, signed an agreement with the BMG recording concern.
Under the agreement, licenses for phonograms and distribution rights were transferred to BMG for exclusive use, which, according to Troshin, led to the destruction of the entire structure of the Melodiya company. In 2003, the contract with BMG expired. so, what is next????
Of the recording equipment, the studio had, in particular, a Swiss four-track tape recorder Studer J-87 (1971).
From the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Sound engineer" Anatoly Veizenfeld.
- The microphones were really tube Neumann 47, 87, etc.
- Both Leningrad and "Ekran" were used, now "Nevaton"
- Consoles - Amek, Neve, Siemens, Valley People
- There was very little processing in the main: Valley People compressors, Klark teknik, Sony, Trace Elliot EQs.
- sheet reverbs AKG, Tesla.
- Tape recorders - Studer, Sony, Otari, as well as Telefunken.
The master disc was cut on an Ortofon device from the so-called “corrected take”; the equipment in the studios was the best that existed then, but not all operators were allowed to use such high-quality equipment and not everyone knew how to work - moreover, the quality of the Melody records is on sale differed greatly. Hence a lot of questions about the differences between records on labels, factories -.
Rafik Ragimov, the sound engineer of the studio, spoke about the work on the 1st albums of the Pesnyary group in 1979-1980, mentions the 24-track Studer and Otari, the English console Amec, the German Neumann U47 microphones. From the beginning of the 1960s, all VSG recordings were made only in, in the 1970s, the development of quadraphonic recording began. In 1966-1976, the WSG received about 50 international awards. not sickly, for those times !!!
Also in operation in the 1980s was the traveling studio "Tonwagen", also known as "MCI", manufactured in London and 
demonstrated at the Moscow exhibition "Communication-80". There are some underground groups on it: they went after the studio and worked in it at night.
So in 1983, the Aquarium and Strange Games groups recorded their albums, and in the period from 1987 to 1989, the albums "Block of Hell" and "The Sixth Forester" of the Alisa group were recorded. Of the discs officially recorded at the studio, the first studio album group "Master".
The All-Union Recording Studio (VSG) was organized on November 5, 1957, the recordings took place in a specially equipped building of the former Anglican Church, with a large (on the first floor) and a small (on the second floor) studio halls.
There were also special equipment rooms for editing recordings and removing duplicates, which were equipped with numerous devices for recording on magnetic tape and census on tondisks, a restoration equipment room for restoring especially old records from archives, as well as private collections. Available for recording from the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and the Bolshoi Theatre. The editorial office and management of the VSG was located in the pastor's house at the church.
The Leningrad recording studio was opened on April 29, 1959. In 1964, the studio became part of Melodiya as an independent structure.
All recordings took place in the building of the Academic Chapel, and since 1988 in the premises of the Lutheran Church on Bolshoy Prospekt of Vasilyevsky Island. Initially, the studio was equipped with equipment developed by the Leningrad Optical and Mechanical Association, then with Czech equipment from Tesla - I have such layers-very good. good ones. And again )))
In 1964, together with the Riga plant, she became part of Melodiya. From the first days of its foundation, the permanent editor-in-chief Joan Yushchuk (Est. Joann Juštšuk) worked in the studio. In 1967, there were already 8 people in the studio staff. The sound engineer and music researcher Heino Pedusaar improved the high quality of the recordings.
main part cultural heritage Studio Melodiya began work on a series of recordings of organ music. I myself this series)))
In 1978-1986, the musicologist Ruta Skudienė, a compiler of Lithuanian jazz collections, worked as an editor at the studio.
Over time, the studio was equipped with the most modern equipment, stereo and multi-channel recording methods were mastered: in 1987, the studio had an 8-channel Studer mixing console, 2-channel Studer A-80 and C37 tape recorders and an 8-channel Ampex 440V, sound speakers.
Leningrad plant gramophone records commissioned under the leadership of the director and innovator Yu. Kh. Tsomaev in 1948 at 11 Tsvetochnaya Street. The equipment of this plant was assembled on the basis of the expropriated German gramophone plant Tempo.
In 1956, the release of long-playing records began, in 1962 - stereophonic records. Since August 1957, it became known as "Accord" and became subordinate to the management chemical industry Lensovnarkhoz.
On July 11, 1964, the plant was included in the Melodiya company under the name Leningrad Record Plant of the All-Union Record Company Melodiya. He released records at 78 (grands) and 33 rpm. (flexible, minions, grandees, giants). In 1972, the plant mastered the production of color records. In the mid-1980s, in addition to the main ones, he printed records for the Polish company Tonpress.
Of course, the conclusions are up to you, gentlemen, but based on this material, it can be judged that the Melodiya company was equipped with excellent imported equipment, and could compete well with the well-known record labels of those years.
So I decided to create an excursion into the past, rummaging through the Foreign Stage published by the Melodiya company in the period from 1964 (the year the factories were merged into a “firm”) to 1991 (the year the country collapsed). Personally, after many years it was interesting for me to learn about the publications themselves (I didn’t know about some of them at all) and to see the original covers (I didn’t see most of them, because “the music is not mine”, I wasn’t interested until now). Don’t blame me, I ignored the “democrats” published on Melodiya, they were not interesting to me, but about them really good music I learned from their own “democratically-branded” gr.plates, whoever wants to remember, nostalgic, I advise you to visit this site: Eastalgia, in the catalogs there, all the released gramophone records of the "fraternal socialist countries" are listed!
I also advise the following sites, about gramophone records and others like them, a lot of interesting information:
"Melody" - a firm or "some fools are sitting?" and this one From the history of Soviet recording, and the site itself is interesting: Music World
All information, of course, is drawn from the Internet, in particular from 1964 to 1970 with Discogs "Melody"(probably not everything published there was uploaded, there is not enough information), most of the photo envelopes were downloaded from there, and from 1971 to 1991 I used the information from Catalog of vinyl records of the USSR and Russia 1971-95(compiled by Alexander "aka Alder, Alder47", I express to him sincere gratitude for the work done!)
I also used the information and pictures from this site Catalog of Soviet Gramophone Records and from this: 45worlds: Vinyl Albums
In search of the missing prowled all over the Internet. Alas, a small part of the pictures of "apples" and "backs" could not be found ...
To begin with, let's remember what formats of phonograph records were published:
17.5 cm vinyl disc (Vinyl, EP, 7", 33 ⅓ RPM, Mono & Stereo)- "Mignon", in the Western classification "Extended Play (EP)", but on Soviet records from 3 to 5 songs, while Western "singles" were published with one or two songs, one on each side and with large center hole for playing on jukeboxes. Recordings on such media will be told for a full-fledged story, because some of the foreign performers were published by Melodiya exclusively on this format and that's all ...
17.5 cm floppy disk (Flexi-disc, 7", 33 ⅓ RPM, Mono)- basically "cheap duplicates" of what was released on 7" "vinyl minions", with poor sound quality (neither "low" nor "high"), but it was recorded on them and never repeated, I will only mention a few such publications. Yes, there was also the "Monthly Socio-Political Literary and Musical Illustrated Sound Magazine" Krugozor "" and we must pay tribute to its creators - in some issues you could read about foreign musicians and even see those musicians on quality photos!
25 cm vinyl disc (Vinyl, Mini LP 10", 33 ⅓ & 45 RPM, Mono & Stereo)- Grand Disc.
Editions on such media will be mentioned only a couple of times.
30 cm vinyl disc (Vinyl, LP 12", 33 ⅓ RPM & 45 Mono & Stereo)- giant disc
aka "Long-Playing (LP)" - the main part of the pro editions on such record formats.
So: the chronology of the 1st pressing of publications is basically observed (for some publications “plus or minus a year”, the “Catalogue” sins with a mismatch with the real years of publication, as well as other sources, confidence was only in the specifically indicated years on the “pyatak” disks (but years were not always written)! If I was sure, I eliminated the chronology errors!) The catalog numbers of one side of the gr.layer are indicated, so as not to litter with numbers. (p.s. because a third of the cat. No. from the "Catalogue" did not make it through the search on discogs.com(mostly - alphabetic Cyrillic (changed to Latin), errors in numbers (unfinished or superfluous), and where it’s right - where it’s wrong - hz ?!), all numbers are listed under the search engine discogs.com, there are a lot of pictures, tracklists and other info, in short for the convenience of searching, if you wish, take a look for the sake of interest).
The “excursion” includes almost all (a couple of dozen publications in the “Catalogue” are missing, supplemented from other sources, found purely by chance, probably something else is missing ...?!), “Foreign Variety of Capitalist Countries”, published on phonograph records by the company “ Melody”, as it was classified - “Foreign Stage” (classification by catalog numbers with the letter “60” (Estrada)), without division into genres “chanson, pop, rock, jazz, etc.”
Year 1964
It’s not “big” at all, just two minions and a grand - all chanson:
Edith Piaf(33D-00014111 / 7” Mono)
Marlene Dietrich(33D-00014217 / 7” Mono)
Renard Collet(33D-13991 / C 000199-200 / 10” Stereo)
