B-side "Gabriel's Message" Format 7"
12" Label A&M | Released November 1985 Length 3:58 Writer(s) Sting
Sergei Prokofiev | |
"Russians" is a song by Sting, from his debut solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles, released in July 1985, and released as a single in November. The song is a commentary and plea that criticises the then-dominant Cold War foreign policy and doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD) by the United States and the Soviet Union.
Contents
Background
The song speaks to both sides ("there's no monopoly on common sense/On either side of the political fence") as it describes the thoughts of ordinary citizens of both superpowers and their divergence from official U.S. policies in the early 1980s of a limited or 'winnable' nuclear war ("there's no such thing as a winnable war/It's a lie we don't believe anymore"). It then recounts and rejects the views of both US President Reagan ("Mr. Reagan says 'We will protect you'/I don't subscribe to this point of view", a reference to the proposed SDI/'Star Wars' initiative) and Soviet Premier Khrushchev ("Mr. Krushchev said we will bury you/I don't subscribe to this point of view"). Hence he hopes that the "Russians love their children too," since this would apparently be the only thing that would save the world from eventual obliteration by nuclear weapons ("[J. Robert] Oppenheimer's deadly toy").
Historically, the Cold War entered its final years around the time "Russians" was released, when Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1985, and in 1989 Gorbachev and Reagan's successor, George H. W. Bush, declared the Cold War over at the Malta Summit, with the Soviet Union dissolving two years later.
In his 2010 interview with World Entertainment News Network, Sting explained that the song was inspired by watching Soviet TV via inventor Ken Schaffer's satellite receiver at Columbia University:
"I had a friend at university who invented a way to steal the satellite signal from Russian TV. We'd have a few beers and climb this tiny staircase to watch Russian television... At that time of night we'd only get children's Russian television, like their 'Sesame Street'. I was impressed with the care and attention they gave to their children's programmes. I regret our current enemies haven't got the same ethics."Sting performed the song at the 1986 Grammy Awards. His performance of the song was released on the 1994 album Grammy's Greatest Moments Volume I.
Composition
The song uses the Romance theme from the Lieutenant Kijé Suite by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, and its lead-in includes a snippet from the Soviet news program Vremya in which the famed Soviet news broadcaster Igor Kirillov says in Russian: "...The British Prime Minister described the talks with the head of the delegation, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, as a constructive, realistic, practical and friendly exchange of opinions...", referring to the meeting of Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher in 1984. The Soviet leader at the time was Konstantin Chernenko.
Also in the background, communications from the Apollo–Soyuz mission can be heard.
Track listings
- "Russians" – 3:57
- "Gabriel's Message" – 2:15
- "Russians" – 3:57
- "Gabriel's Message" – 2:10
- "I Burn for You" (live) – 4:40