95-580: XOP Moon Records Misteriya Zvuka Grazhdanskaya Oborona (Russian: Гражданская оборона , [ɡrɐʐˈdanskəjə ɐbɐˈronə] , Russian for Civil Defense , or ГО , often referred to as ГрОб , Russian for coffin ) were a Soviet-Russian rock band formed by Yegor Letov and Konstantin Ryabinov in Omsk , USSR , in 1984. They were one of the earliest Soviet and Russian psychedelic / punk rock bands. They influenced many Soviet and, subsequently, Russian bands. From
190-514: A diminishing returns trend. Contrary to the largely noncommittal approach taken in NATO , with its stops and starts in civil defense depending on the whims of each newly elected government, the military strategy in the comparatively more ideologically consistent USSR held that, amongst other things, a winnable nuclear war was possible. To this effect the Soviets planned to minimize, as far as possible,
285-735: A mental ward , and Ryabinov was forcibly drafted into the army despite having a heart condition. Letov was released from the mental ward in March 1986 and immediately began to write and record music. He often recorded on his own, and while he credited other musicians, his collaborators went under pseudonyms as Letov remained on the outs with the Soviet system and, as he stated in an interview, the original members of GrOb were forced to sign sworn statements saying that they would stay away from Letov. In 1986–87 he recorded several cassette albums, playing all instruments himself, and released them through magnitizdat under
380-524: A GrOb concert at the Ural Palace of Culture in Ekaterinburg , a 19-year-old skinhead bashed a 23-year-old non-Slavic fan to death. The following day, Letov posted a note on the official GrOb website, "Official statement from E. Letov and GrOb regarding the events at Ekaterinburg", stating the band were "patriots, but not Nazis", disavowing any neo-Nazis who claimed to be fans of the group, linking neo-Nazism to
475-570: A case of war) from throughout the USSR to join the Chernobyl task force and formed on the basis of the Kyiv Civil Defense Brigade. The task force performed some high-risk tasks including, with the failure of their robotic machinery, the manual removal of highly- radioactive debris. Many of their personnel were later decorated with medals for their work at containing the release of radiation into
570-445: A country's population is more valuable than all of the land, factories and other assets that it possesses. People rebuild a country after its destruction, and it is therefore important for the economic security of a country that it protect its people. According to psychology , it is important for people to feel as though they are in control of their own destiny, and preparing for uncertainty via civil defense may help to achieve this. In
665-507: A descriptive term, kitsch originated in the art markets of Munich , Germany in the 1860s and the 1870s, describing cheap, popular, and marketable pictures and sketches. In Das Buch vom Kitsch ( The Book of Kitsch ), published in 1936, Hans Reimann defined it as a professional expression "born in a painter's studio". The study of kitsch was done almost exclusively in Germany until the 1970s, with Walter Benjamin being an important scholar in
760-625: A designated area/building and required to monitor the fall of incendiary bombs and pass on news of any fires that had broken out to the NFS. They could deal with an individual magnesium alloy ("Elektron") incendiary bomb by dousing it with buckets of sand or water or by smothering. Additionally, 'Gas Decontamination Teams' kitted out with gas-tight and waterproof protective clothing were to deal with any gas attacks . They were trained to decontaminate buildings, roads, rail and other material that had been contaminated by liquid or jelly gases. Little progress
855-538: A key part of defense in general. For example, total defence refers to the commitment of a wide range of national resources to defense, including the protection of all aspects of civilian life. The advent of civil defense was stimulated by the experience of the bombing of civilian areas during the First World War . The bombing of the United Kingdom began on 19 January 1915 when German zeppelins dropped bombs on
950-551: A model civil defense structure for the U.S. Called the "Blue Book" by civil defense professionals in reference to its solid blue cover, it was the template for legislation and organization for the next 40 years. Perhaps the most memorable aspect of the Cold War civil defense effort was the educational effort made or promoted by the government. In Duck and Cover , Bert the Turtle advocated that children " duck and cover " when they "see
1045-622: A nuclear attack are effects from the blast, fires and radiation. One of the most prepared countries for a nuclear attack is Switzerland . Almost every building in Switzerland has an abri (shelter) against the initial nuclear bomb and explosion followed by the fall-out. Because of this, many people use it as a safe to protect valuables, photos, financial information and so on. Switzerland also has air-raid and nuclear-raid sirens in every village. A "radiologically enhanced weapon", or " dirty bomb ", uses an explosive to spread radioactive material. This
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#17328514924931140-404: A set with his friends Oleg and Evgeny Lischenko (from the local band Pik Klakson) under the deliberately provocative name Адольф Гитлер (Adolf Hitler), which would be released on CD in 2016. When Letov returned home, he found out the authorities were going to put him to a mental ward again. He immediately left the city with his then-partner, the fellow Siberian songwriter Yanka Dyagileva , and spent
1235-617: A significant investment in civil and military defense, British civilian losses during the Blitz were higher than in most strategic bombing campaigns throughout the war. For example, there were 14,000-20,000 UK civilian fatalities during the Battle of Britain, a relatively high number considering that the Luftwaffe dropped only an estimated 30,000 tons of ordinance during the battle. Granted, this resulting 0.47-0.67 civilian fatalities per ton of bombs dropped
1330-476: A state (generally non-combatants ) from human-made and natural disasters . It uses the principles of emergency management : prevention , mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation and recovery. Programs of this sort were initially discussed at least as early as the 1920s and were implemented in some countries during the 1930s as the threat of war and aerial bombardment grew. Civil-defense structures became widespread after authorities recognised
1425-413: A stroke several weeks later on 16 March, aged 55. The tour caused controversy as Natalia Chumakova did not want to participate and strongly denounced it on her social media platforms. While their earlier work (1984–1988) can be described as minimalist lo-fi punk rock / post-punk with dirty, garage sound (although there also was significant number of reggae songs on 1987/88 albums), in the late 1980s
1520-495: A theory of kitsch that situates its emergence as a specifically nineteenth-century phenomenon, relating it to the feelings of loss elicited by a world transformed by science and industry. Focusing on examples such as paperweights , aquariums , mermaids and the Crystal Palace , Olalquiaga uses Benjamin's concept of the "dialectical image" to argue for the utopian potential of "melancholic kitsch", which she differentiates from
1615-522: A wide brief for assisting in large scale civil emergencies such as flood, earthquake, invasion, or civil disorder. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, in the United States the concept of civil defense has been revisited under the umbrella term of homeland security and all-hazards emergency management. In Europe , the triangle CD logo continues to be widely used. Created in 1939 by Charles Coiner of
1710-490: Is "the memory of the unconscious", which "sacrific[es] the continuity of time for the intensity of the experience". Far from denying death, melancholic kitsch can only function through a recognition of its multiple "deaths" as a fragmentary remembrance that is subsequently commodified and reproduced. It "glorifies the perishable aspect of events, seeking in their partial and decaying memory the confirmation of its own temporal dislocation". Thus, for Olalquiaga, melancholic kitsch
1805-430: Is a theoretical risk, and such weapons have not been used by terrorists. Depending on the quantity of the radioactive material, the dangers may be mainly psychological. Toxic effects can be managed by standard hazmat techniques. The threat here is primarily from disease-causing microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses. Various chemical agents are a threat, such as nerve gas ( VX , Sarin , and so on.). Mitigation
1900-532: Is able to function as a Benjaminian dialectical image: "an object whose decayed state exposes and reflects its utopian possibilities, a remnant constantly reliving its own death, a ruin". Jewish-American author Art Spiegelman coined the term " Holo-kitsch " to describe mass-market, overly sentimental depictions of the Holocaust from the end of the Cold War onwards, including works inspired by his own graphic novel on
1995-581: Is currently widely used within the European Union to refer to government-approved systems and resources tasked with protecting the non-combat population, primarily in the event of natural and technological disasters. For example, the EU's humanitarian aid policy director on the Ebola Crisis, Florika Fink-Hooijer , said that civil protection requires "not just more resources, but first and foremost better governance of
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#17328514924932090-562: Is fake art, expressing fake emotions, whose purpose is to deceive the consumer into thinking he feels something deep and serious." Tomáš Kulka, in Kitsch and Art , starts from two basic facts that kitsch "has an undeniable mass-appeal" and "considered (by the art-educated elite) bad", and then proposes three essential conditions: The concept of kitsch is a central motif in Milan Kundera's 1984 novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being . Towards
2185-435: Is frozen as an emblem of itself, becoming a cultural fossil. In contrast, melancholic kitsch functions through "remembrance", a form of memory that Olalquiaga links to the " souvenir ", which attempts "to repossess the experience of intensity and immediacy through an object". While reminiscence translates a remembered event to the realm of the symbolic ("deprived of immediacy in favour of representational meaning"), remembrance
2280-549: Is often still pejorative , though not exclusively. Art deemed kitsch may be enjoyed in an entirely positive and sincere manner. For example, it carries the ability to be quaint or "quirky" without being offensive on the surface, as in the Dogs Playing Poker paintings. Along with visual art, the quality of kitsch can be used to describe works of music , literature or any other creative medium. Kitsch relates to camp , as they both incorporate irony and extravagance. As
2375-439: Is that everything that infringes on kitsch must be banished for life: every display of individualism (because a deviation from the collective is a spit in the eye of the smiling brotherhood); every doubt (because anyone who starts doubting details will end by doubting life itself); all irony (because in the realm of kitsch everything must be taken quite seriously). Kundera's concept of "totalitarian kitsch" has since been invoked in
2470-456: Is the process of actively preventing war or the release of nuclear weapons . It includes policy analysis, diplomacy, political measures, nuclear disarmament and more military responses such as a National Missile Defense and air defense artillery . In the case of counter-terrorism, mitigation would include diplomacy, intelligence gathering and direct action against terrorist groups. Mitigation may also be reflected in long-term planning such as
2565-428: Is the responsibility of the volunteer-based State Emergency Service . In most former Soviet countries civil defense is the responsibility of governmental ministries, such as Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations . Relatively small investments in preparation can speed up recovery by months or years and thereby prevent millions of deaths by hunger, cold and disease. According to human capital theory in economics ,
2660-425: Is to obtain potassium iodide (KI) tablets as a safety measure to protect the human thyroid gland from the uptake of dangerous radioactive iodine . Another measure is to cover the nose, mouth and eyes with a piece of cloth and sunglasses to protect against alpha particles , which are only an internal hazard. To support and supplement efforts at national, regional and local level with regard to disaster prevention,
2755-633: The Air Force . The Coast Guard Auxiliary performs a similar role in support of the U.S. Coast Guard . Like the Civil Air Patrol, the Coast Guard Auxiliary was established in the run up to World War II. Auxiliarists were sometimes armed during the war, and extensively participated in port security operations. After the war, the Auxiliary shifted its focus to promoting boating safety and assisting
2850-576: The Air Raid Precautions Committee (ARP) was established in 1924 to investigate ways for ensuring the protection of civilians from the danger of air-raids . The Committee produced figures estimating that in London there would be 9,000 casualties in the first two days and then a continuing rate of 17,500 casualties a week. These rates were thought conservative. It was believed that there would be "total chaos and panic" and hysterical neurosis as
2945-713: The Civil Defence Service , was established by the Home Office in 1935. Its remit included the pre-existing ARP as well as wardens, firemen (initially the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) and latterly the National Fire Service (NFS)), fire watchers, rescue, first aid post, stretcher party and industry. Over 1.9 million people served within the CD; nearly 2,400 died from enemy action. The organization of civil defense
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3040-537: The Disaster Relief Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-288). In the portions of the civil defense statute incorporated into the Stafford Act, the primary modification was to use the term "Emergency Preparedness" wherever the term "Civil Defence" had previously appeared in the statutory language. An important concept initiated by President Jimmy Carter was the so-called "Crisis Relocation Program" administered as part of
3135-572: The Great Yarmouth area, killing six people. German bombing operations of the First World War were surprisingly effective, especially after the Gotha bombers surpassed the zeppelins. The most devastating raids inflicted 121 casualties for each ton of bombs dropped; this figure was then used as a basis for predictions. After the war, attention was turned toward civil defense in the event of war, and
3230-812: The United States , the Office of Civilian Defense was established in May 1941 to coordinate civilian defense efforts. It coordinated with the Department of the Army and established similar groups to the British ARP. One of these groups that still exists today is the Civil Air Patrol , which was originally created as a civilian auxiliary to the Army . The CAP was created on December 1, 1941, with
3325-495: The United States , the sheer power of nuclear weapons and the perceived likelihood of such an attack precipitated a greater response than had yet been required of civil defense. Civil defense, previously considered an important and commonsense step, became divisive and controversial in the charged atmosphere of the Cold War . In 1950, the National Security Resources Board created a 162-page document outlining
3420-526: The flash ." Booklets such as Survival Under Atomic Attack , Fallout Protection and Nuclear War Survival Skills were also commonplace. The transcribed radio program Stars for Defense combined hit music with civil defense advice. Government institutes created public service announcements including children's songs and distributed them to radio stations to educate the public in case of nuclear attack. The US President Kennedy (1961–63) launched an ambitious effort to install fallout shelters throughout
3515-428: The human condition and its naturalistic standards of beauty . In the first half of the 20th century, kitsch was used in reference to mass-produced, pop-cultural products that lacked the conceptual depth of fine art . However, since the emergence of Pop Art in the 1950s, kitsch has taken on newfound highbrow appeal, often wielded in knowingly ironic , humorous or earnest manners. To brand visual art as "kitsch"
3610-449: The preparedness of those responsible for civil protection and the intervention in the event of disaster Kitsch Kitsch ( / k ɪ tʃ / KITCH ; loanword from German) is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as naïve imitation, overly eccentric, gratuitous or of banal taste . The modern avant-garde traditionally opposed kitsch for its melodramatic tendencies, its superficial relationship with
3705-435: The 2000s, many Russian groups recorded and performed tributes to GrOb, and in 2005, the group toured the United States. In 2004–05, the group released the critically acclaimed pair of albums Dolgaya Schastlivaya Zhizn' ( Russian : Долгая Счастливая Жизнь , lit. 'Long and Happy Life') (2004) and Reanimatsiya ( Russian : Реанимация , lit. 'Resuscitation') (2005). On 8 February 2004, at
3800-506: The Coast Guard in performing search and rescue and marine safety and environmental protection. In the United States a federal civil defense program existed under Public Law 920 of the 81st Congress, as amended, from 1951 to 1994. That statutory scheme was made so-called all-hazards by Public Law 103–160 in 1993 and largely repealed by Public Law 103–337 in 1994. Parts now appear in Title VI of
3895-502: The February 2007 web interview he said that in the late 80's he "listened only to noise and industrial – such bands as Einstürzende Neubauten , Test Dept. , Throbbing Gristle , SPK , Young Gods ", adding: "Now I still like and 'respect' such music and listen to it from time to time, but not that often". When asked about "newer" bands he liked, he named Japanese psychedelic bands Acid Mothers Temple , Mainliner and Green Milk from
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3990-540: The N. W. Ayer Advertising Agency, it was used throughout World War II and the Cold War era. In the U.S., 2006 saw the retirement of the old triangle logo, to be replaced with a stylised EM (for emergency management ). A reference to the old CD logo (without the red CD letters) can be seen above the eagle's head in the FEMA seal. The name and logo continue to be used by Hawaii State Civil Defense and Guam Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense. The term "civil protection"
4085-567: The Planet Orange , the Swiss feminist cabaret ensemble Les Reines prochaines , the Argentinian experimental band Reynols and the neo- garage band Marshmallow Overcoat . He referred to Mark E. Smith (of The Fall ), Bob Dylan , Arthur Lee and Patti Smith as his favourite rock lyricists. Civil Defense Civil defense or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of
4180-652: The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, Public Law 100-107 [1988 as amended]. The term EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS was largely codified by that repeal and amendment. See 42 USC Sections 5101 and following. In most of the states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization , such as the United States , the United Kingdom and West Germany , as well as the Soviet Bloc , and especially in
4275-488: The United States, the federal civil defense program was authorized by statute and ran from 1951 to 1994. Originally authorized by Public Law 920 of the 81st Congress, it was repealed by Public Law 93–337 in 1994. Small portions of that statutory scheme were incorporated into the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Public Law 100–707) which partly superseded in part, partly amended, and partly supplemented
4370-409: The United States. These shelters would not protect against the blast and heat effects of nuclear weapons, but would provide some protection against the radiation effects that would last for weeks and even affect areas distant from a nuclear explosion. In order for most of these preparations to be effective, there had to be some degree of warning. In 1951, CONELRAD (Control of Electromagnetic Radiation)
4465-456: The anthemic, shoegaze -y Solntsevorot ( Russian : Солнцеворот , lit. 'Solstice') was recorded, followed by Nevynosimaya lyogkost bytiya ( Russian : Невыносимая легкость бытия , lit. 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being') in 1996. Both albums were released in 1997. As the most prominent figure in Siberian rock, Letov was often a source of contradiction. In
4560-513: The band due to personal circumstances. On 28 December of the same year, the group's guitarist Evgeny "Makhno" Pyanov died after falling from the window of his apartment after a long night of drinking. He was 27 years old . Letov recruited a new guitarist (Alexander Chesnakov) and invited his wife Natalia Chumakova, whom he had met the year before, to play the bass. In 2002, Letov produced Zvezdopad ( Russian : Звездопад , lit. 'Starfall'), an album of covers of Soviet-era songs. In
4655-650: The band's sound leaned toward noise rock and industrial , occasionally drawing inspiration from Russian folk tunes . In the 1990s, GrOb's music became brighter and more "anthemic", incorporating shoegaze and psychedelic rock elements, and some late GrOb albums even can be classified as art rock (for example, Zvezdopad ). Letov was a big fan of 60s garage and psychedelic rock and named Arthur Lee 's Love as his favourite band, along with The Seeds , The Monks and others. Other favourites included Butthole Surfers , The Residents , Sonic Youth , CBGB artists such as Ramones and Television , and Psychic TV . In
4750-515: The communism the band had grown up with and telling "totalitarians on the left and right and of all colours and stripes" to "fuck off", saying "We kindly request you no longer associate your stink with our activities". Letov's last album, Zachem Snyatsya Sny? ( Russian : Зачем снятся сны? , lit. 'What Are Dreams Dreamt For?') was released in 2007. In an interview in January 2008, Letov said that this album might be his last. This album
4845-402: The councillors had decided that hydrogen bombs meant that there could be no recovery from a nuclear attack. The British government opposed such a move and held a provocative Civil Defence exercise on the streets of Coventry which Labour council members protested against. The government also decided to implement its own committee at the city's cost until the council reinstituted its committee. In
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#17328514924934940-683: The crisis, the British Government decided to make these a permanent feature, with a standard design of precast concrete trench lining. They also decided to issue the Anderson shelter free to poorer households and to provide steel props to create shelters in suitable basements. During the Second World War , the ARP was responsible for the issuing of gas masks , pre-fabricated air-raid shelters (such as Anderson shelters , as well as Morrison shelters ),
5035-426: The design of the interstate highway system and the placement of military bases further away from populated areas. Preparation consists of building blast shelters and pre-positioning information, supplies, and emergency infrastructure. For example, most larger cities in the U.S. now have underground emergency operations centers that can perform civil defense coordination. FEMA also has many underground facilities for
5130-608: The early 1990s, he became one of the founders of the National Bolshevik Party , despite his formerly strong opposition to despotism and nationalism. He ceased contact with the party around 1999 and distanced himself from politics. In his 2007 interview with Rolling Stone Russia , Letov stated: "In fact, I have always been an anarchist – and I still am. But now I'm more into ecological aspects of contemporary anarchism, eco-anarchism , that's what I've been moving toward recently". In 1999, after their first US tour, Kuzya left
5225-421: The early 1990s, the band's music began to evolve in the direction of psychedelic rock and shoegaze , and band leader Yegor Letov 's lyrics became more metaphysical than political. In 1982 the 18-year-old poet and musician Yegor Letov formed the band Posev ( The Sowing , named after the official NTS magazine) with his friend Konstantin "Kuzya UO" Ryabinov. In 1984 Posev became Grazhdanskaya Oborona. The band
5320-443: The effects of nuclear weapon strikes on its territory, and therefore spent considerably more thought on civil defense preparations than in U.S., with defense plans that have been assessed to be far more effective than those in the U.S. Soviet Civil Defense Troops played the main role in the massive disaster relief operation following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident . Defense Troop reservists were officially mobilized (as in
5415-415: The end of the novel, the book's narrator posits that the act of defecation (and specifically, the shame that surrounds it) poses a metaphysical challenge to the theory of divine creation: "Either/or: either shit is acceptable (in which case don't lock yourself in the bathroom!) or we are created in an unacceptable manner". Thus, in order for us to continue to believe in the essential propriety and rightness of
5510-993: The entire year in hiding, hitch-hiking across the country until the prosecution was stopped in December 1987 with the help of Letov's relatives. In winter 1988 Letov returned home and recorded three more albums (also released under the name of Grazhdanskaya Oborona) in his home "studio", known as "GrOb Records". In the same year the reunited band started touring across the USSR. In 1989 Grazhdanskaya Oborona released four noise rock / industrial -influenced albums ( Война, Армагеддон-Попс, Здорово и вечно and Русское поле экспериментов ), often considered their best. Letov's lyrics became darker and more elaborate, inspired by Existentialist philosophy and literature (the Soviet proto-Existentialist writer Andrei Platonov in particular). Some songs (e.g. "Насекомые" ( Insects ) from Армагеддон-Попс , "Заговор" ( Spell ) from Здорово и вечно ) also show his interest in Siberian folklore and pre-Christian beliefs. In
5605-400: The environment , with a number of the 56 deaths from the accident being Civil defense troops. In Western countries, strong civil defense policies were never properly implemented, because it was fundamentally at odds with the doctrine of " mutual assured destruction " (MAD) by making provisions for survivors. It was also considered that a full-fledged total defense would have not been worth
5700-438: The essence of kitsch is imitation: kitsch mimics its immediate predecessor with no regard to ethics—it aims to copy the beautiful, not the good. According to Walter Benjamin, kitsch, unlike art, is a utilitarian object lacking all critical distance between object and observer. According to critic Winfried Menninghaus, Benjamin's stance was that kitsch "offers instantaneous emotional gratification without intellectual effort, without
5795-950: The federal civil defense program. That effort largely lapsed under President Ronald Reagan, who discontinued the Carter initiative because of opposition from areas potentially hosting the relocated population. Threats to civilians and civilian life include NBC ( Nuclear , Biological , and Chemical warfare ) and others, like the more modern term CBRN (Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear). Threat assessment involves studying each threat so that preventative measures can be built into civilian life. Refers to conventional explosives. A blast shelter designed to protect only from radiation and fallout would be much more vulnerable to conventional explosives. See also fallout shelter . Shelter intended to protect against nuclear blast effects would include thick concrete and other sturdy elements which are resistant to conventional explosives. The biggest threats from
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#17328514924935890-518: The field. Kitsch is regarded as a modern phenomenon, coinciding with social changes in recent centuries such as the Industrial Revolution , urbanization , mass production, modern materials and media such as plastics , radio and television , the rise of the middle class and public education —all of which have factored into a perception of oversaturation of art produced for the popular taste. Modernist writer Hermann Broch argues that
5985-532: The financial crisis of the mid-1960s. Its neighbors, however, remained committed to Civil Defence, namely the Isle of Man Civil Defence Corps and Civil Defence Ireland (Republic of Ireland). In the United States, the various civil defense agencies were replaced with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 1979. In 2002 this became part of the Department of Homeland Security . The focus
6080-432: The grass! The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass! It is the second tear that makes kitsch kitsch. According to the narrator, kitsch is "the aesthetic ideal of all politicians and all political parties and movements"; however, where a society is dominated by a single political movement, the result is "totalitarian kitsch": When I say "totalitarian," what I mean
6175-429: The late 1950s early 1960s, it was estimated that approximately 27 million US citizens would have been saved with civil defense education. At the time, however, the cost of a full-scale civil defense program was regarded as less effective in cost-benefit analysis than a ballistic missile defense ( Nike Zeus ) system, and as the Soviet adversary was increasing their nuclear stockpile , the efficacy of both would follow
6270-412: The main civil defense mission of search and rescue. The CAP also sank two Axis submarines and provided aerial reconnaissance for Allied and neutral merchant ships. In 1946, the Civil Air Patrol was barred from combat by Public Law 79-476 . The CAP then received its current mission: search and rescue for downed aircraft. When the Air Force was created, in 1947, the Civil Air Patrol became the auxiliary of
6365-462: The more commonly discussed "nostalgic kitsch". These two types of kitsch correspond to two different forms of memory. Nostalgic kitsch functions through "reminiscence", which "sacrifices the intensity of experience for a conscious or fabricated sense of continuity": Incapable of tolerating the intensity of the moment, reminiscence selects and consolidates an event's acceptable parts into a memory perceived as complete. […] This reconstructed experience
6460-475: The name of Grazhdanskaya Oborona. It was lo-fi , straightforward garage punk rock / post-punk with slight reggae influences and exquisite, irrational lyrics, inspired mainly by Russian Futurist poetry. In 1987 Letov was invited to perform at the Novosibirsk rock festival. "We weren't even going to play", Letov said, "but Zvuki Mu didn’t come and Murzin suggested that we play instead.". After all, he played
6555-449: The neutral countries, such as Switzerland and in Sweden during the 1950s and 1960s, many civil defense practices took place to prepare for the aftermath of a nuclear war , which seemed quite likely at that time. In the United Kingdom , the Civil Defence Service was disbanded in 1945, followed by the ARP in 1946. With the onset of the growing tensions between East and West , the service
6650-620: The novel's setting in Prague around the time of the 1968 invasion by the Soviet Union —to communism and totalitarianism . He gives the example of the Communist May Day ceremony, and of the sight of children running on the grass and the feeling this is supposed to provoke. This emphasis on feeling is fundamental to how kitsch operates: Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession. The first tear says: How nice to see children running on
6745-400: The people of London would try to flee the city. To control the population harsh measures were proposed: bringing London under almost military control, and physically cordoning off the city with 120,000 troops to force people back to work. A different government department proposed setting up camps for refugees for a few days before sending them back to London. A special government department,
6840-430: The requirement of distance, without sublimation". In a short essay from 1927, Benjamin observed that an artist who engages in kitschy reproductions of things and ideas from a bygone age deserved to be called a "furnished man" (in the way that someone rents a " furnished apartment " where everything is already supplied). Kitsch is less about the thing observed than about the observer. According to Roger Scruton , "Kitsch
6935-423: The resources that are available including better synergies between humanitarian aid and civil protection". In recent years there has been emphasis on preparedness for technological disasters resulting from terrorist attack. Within EU countries the term "crisis-management" emphasizes the political and security dimension rather than measures to satisfy the immediate needs of the population. In Australia, civil defense
7030-881: The same purpose located near major railheads such as the ones in Denton, Texas and Mount Weather , Virginia. Other measures would include continual government inventories of grain silos, the Strategic National Stockpile , the uncapping of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve , the dispersal of lorry-transportable bridges, water purification, mobile refineries, mobile de-contamination facilities, mobile general and special purpose disaster mortuary facilities such as Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team (DMORT) and DMORT-WMD , and other aids such as temporary housing to speed civil recovery. On an individual scale, one means of preparation for exposure to nuclear fallout
7125-510: The same year Letov, Kuzya and Oleg "Manager" Sudakov started a conceptual, Sots Art -like side project Коммунизм (Communism), where they combined kitschy Soviet art and Stalinist poetry with noise experimentation. GrOb also collaborated with Yanka Dyagileva, who recorded with them two albums ( Ангедония and Домой! , both released in 1989). In 1990, Grazhdanskaya Oborona broke up after playing their final concert in Tallinn: Letov stated he
7220-477: The spot medical assistance. The expected stream of information that would be generated during an attack was handled by 'Report and Control' teams. A local headquarters would have an ARP controller who would direct rescue, first aid and decontamination teams to the scenes of reported bombing. If local services were deemed insufficient to deal with the incident then the controller could request assistance from surrounding boroughs . Fire Guards were responsible for
7315-505: The study of the art and culture of regimes such as Stalin's Soviet Union , Nazi Germany , Fascist Italy and Iraq under Saddam Hussein . Kundera's narrator ends up condemning kitsch for its "true function" as an ideological tool under such regimes, calling it "a folding screen set up to curtain off death". In her 1999 book The Artificial Kingdom: A Treasury of the Kitsch Experience , cultural historian Celeste Olalquiaga develops
7410-487: The subject, Maus . The term is usually used to criticize works seen as relying on melodrama and mass recognition to commercialize the experiences of Holocaust survivors , such as Life Is Beautiful or The Boy in the Striped Pajamas , but also includes more positively received works like Polanski's The Pianist . The Kitsch movement is an international movement of classical painters, founded in 1998 upon
7505-524: The threats posed by nuclear weapons . Since the end of the Cold War , the focus of civil defense has largely shifted from responding to military attack to dealing with emergencies and disasters in general. The new concept is characterised by a number of terms, each of which has its own specific shade of meaning, such as crisis management , emergency management , emergency preparedness , contingency planning , civil contingency , civil aid and civil protection . Some countries treat civil defense as
7600-439: The universe (what the narrator calls "the categorical agreement with being"), we live in a world "in which shit is denied and everyone acts as though it did not exist". For Kundera's narrator, this is the definition of kitsch: an "aesthetic ideal" which "excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence". The novel goes on to relate this definition of kitsch to politics, and specifically—given
7695-445: The upkeep of local public shelters, and the maintenance of the blackout . The ARP also helped rescue people after air raids and other attacks, and some women became ARP Ambulance Attendants whose job was to help administer first aid to casualties, search for survivors, and in many grim instances, help recover bodies, sometimes those of their own colleagues. As the war progressed, the military effectiveness of Germany's aerial bombardment
7790-481: The very large expense. For whatever reason, the public saw efforts at civil defense as fundamentally ineffective against the powerful destructive forces of nuclear weapons, and therefore a waste of time and money, although detailed scientific research programs did underlie the much-mocked government civil defense pamphlets of the 1950s and 1960s. The Civil Defence Corps was stood down in Great Britain in 1968 due to
7885-606: Was 43 years old. In 2019, the group reformed and announced a tour to celebrate its 35th anniversary, with Letov replaced by various collaborators, such as Igor Zhevtun (who substituted for Letov on some songs on Instruktsiya po vyzhivaniyu due to Letov having lost his voice), Oleg Sudakov (who managed Kommunizm) and Ryabinov. The final concert of the tour took place on 23 February 2020 at the Glastonberry club in Moscow. This also proved to be Ryabinov's final public appearance – he died of
7980-599: Was a Corps Authority, as were most county boroughs in England and Wales and large burghs in Scotland . Each division was divided into several sections, including the Headquarters, Intelligence and Operations, Scientific and Reconnaissance, Warden & Rescue, Ambulance and First Aid and Welfare. In 1954 Coventry City Council caused international controversy when it announced plans to disband its Civil Defence committee because
8075-425: Was afraid they would turn into a "commercial pseudo-counterculture project" and decided to put the band on hiatus. After that he started the psychedelic rock project Egor i Opizdenevshie with Kuzya and Igor Zhevtun. They recorded and released two albums, Прыг-Скок (Pryg-Skok, Hop-Hop ) and Сто лет одиночества (Sto Let Odinochestva, One Hundred Years of Solitude ) (an outtakes compilation, Психоделия Tomorrow ,
8170-412: Was established. Under the system, a few primary stations would be alerted of an emergency and would broadcast an alert. All broadcast stations throughout the country would be constantly listening to an upstream station and repeat the message, thus passing it from station to station. In a once classified US war game analysis, looking at varying levels of war escalation, warning and pre-emptive attacks in
8265-476: Was lower than the earlier 121 casualties per ton prediction. However, in comparison, Allied strategic bombing of Germany during the war proved slightly less lethal than what was observed in the UK, with an estimated 400,000-600,000 German civilian fatalities for approximately 1.35 million tons of bombs dropped on Germany, an estimated resulting rate therefore of 0.30-0.44 civilian fatalities per ton of bombs dropped. In
8360-537: Was made over the issue of air-raid shelters , because of the apparently irreconcilable conflict between the need to send the public underground for shelter and the need to keep them above ground for protection against gas attacks. In February 1936 the Home Secretary appointed a technical Committee on Structural Precautions against Air Attack. During the Munich crisis , local authorities dug trenches to provide shelter. After
8455-499: Was preparing to record an album, but their defiantly anti-authoritarian stance and overtly political lyrics made them an easy target for the KGB . "The mother of our [second guitarist] Babenko, she was a sort of a party official, she listened to our records and went to the KGB and said, "Comrades, my son is involved in an anti-Soviet organization", Letov recalled. In autumn 1985 Letov was committed to
8550-475: Was recorded as usual in the "GrOb studio", but is not typical of the band's earlier output. It is much brighter – Letov described it as "shining". There are fewer songs with themes of tragedy, rage and turmoil on this album than in previous ones; there are no coarse words in it, and Letov's voice sounds natural and calm. Letov died on 19 February 2008 in his sleep at his home in Omsk from heart and respiratory failure. He
8645-445: Was released in 2001). In 1990, Letov ranked Русское поле экспериментов and Прыг-Скок as his best works. In 1993, Grazhdanskaya Oborona reformed and began playing live again, but no new material was released until 1997. In 1996, their entire discography was remastered and given an official cassette issue for the first time on the fledgling XOP label, which was a sublabel of Moroz Records used to release Letov-related material. In 1995,
8740-468: Was revived in 1949 as the Civil Defence Corps . As a civilian volunteer organization, it was tasked to take control in the aftermath of a major national emergency, principally envisaged as being a Cold War nuclear attack . Although under the authority of the Home Office , with a centralized administrative establishment, the corps was administered locally by Corps Authorities. In general every county
8835-413: Was shifted from nuclear war to an "all-hazards" approach of comprehensive emergency management . Natural disasters and the emergence of new threats such as terrorism have caused attention to be focused away from traditional civil defense and into new forms of civil protection such as emergency management and homeland security . Many countries maintain a national Civil Defence Corps, usually having
8930-740: Was the responsibility of the local authority. Volunteers were ascribed to different units depending on experience or training. Each local civil defense service was divided into several sections. Wardens were responsible for local reconnaissance and reporting, and leadership, organization, guidance and control of the general public. Wardens would also advise survivors of the locations of rest and food centers, and other welfare facilities. Rescue Parties were required to assess and then access bombed-out buildings and retrieve injured or dead people. In addition they would turn off gas , electricity and water supplies , and repair or pull down unsteady buildings. Medical services, including First Aid Parties, provided on
9025-696: Was very limited. Thanks to the Luftwaffe's shifting aims, the strength of British air defenses, the use of early warning radar in combination with the Royal Observer Corps , and the life-saving actions of local civil defense units, the aerial "Blitz" during the Battle of Britain failed to break the morale of the British people, destroy the Royal Air Force or significantly hinder British industrial production. Despite
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