Kazakh collector preserves recorders that powered Soviet bootlegs

ALMATY:

For two decades, Andrei Klimenko has been amassing a collection of Soviet-era reel-to-reel tape recorders for a small museum he runs in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city.

Western music was officially banned in the Soviet Union but enjoyed widespread popularity, with tape recorders used to make bootlegs of popular foreign acts of the time, from Michael Jackson to Bob Marley.

The Soviet Union, of which Kazakhstan was a part, collapsed in December 1991. Klimenko, 58, said the Soviet-era craze for tape-recorded bootlegs meant that his generation of music lovers was able to spurn the officially-approved acts on TV for more exciting foreign alternatives. "It was impossible to get (Western records) legally anywhere," he said. But nevertheless, this music could be heard from the window