I don't know how widely available, but I suspect they're not very  
hard to find in Russia and in other former USSR countries.  A friend  
who spends a good deal of time in Russia and the Ukraine told me he's  
even seen Grazhdanskaya Oborona mp3 CDs in kiosk machines!

No shortage of them on Ebay, either.

On Feb 3, 2011, at 10:56 PM, Roger Kulp wrote:

> Are their CDs widely available in Russia?
>
> Roger
>
>
>
>
> --- On Sun, 1/30/11, Timothy Wisniewski  
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> From: Timothy Wisniewski <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Soviet or Russian Rock Records by Russian  
> Artists
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Sunday, January 30, 2011, 11:22 PM
>
> Hi Roger,
>
> If you are interested exploring Russian punk, you really need to  
> check out Grazhdanskaya Oborona:
>
> One of the finest mid-late 80s punk bands from any country.  The  
> best stuff is the 87-89 era, but they were active right up until  
> Yegor Letov's death (at age 43) just a few years ago.  I don't  
> think they ever released anything on vinyl (maybe a 7"), but I  
> could be wrong about that.  A lot of their stuff recorded during  
> the USSR was distributed through unofficial DIY cassettes, but  
> later they made a lot of CD releases and reissues on their own label.
>
> wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grazhdanskaya_Oborona
> Also lots of stuff to download here: http://www.gr-oborona.info/
>
> Tim
>
> On Jan 30, 2011, at 10:17 PM, Roger Kulp wrote:
>
>> I have a couple of questions,that Mike Biel would probably be best  
>> suited to answer.
>>
>> I assume most of you are familiar with the Russian/Soviet rock  
>> band,DDT,one of the great band names of all time.I just bought an  
>> original vinyl copy online of their record "Thaw", Cyrillic title  
>> Оттепель .I assume this is a late Melodiya pressing,as it  
>> dates from 1990.I had been after any of their original vinyl for  
>> years.I have bought a lot of very rare,and unusual,classical vinyl  
>> from Russian sellers on eBay,over the last 10-11 years or so,but I  
>> had never been able to find any records,by DDT,or any Russian or  
>> Soviet rock.I have only now just looked at the Wikipedia entry on  
>> them
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT_%28band%29
>>
>> ,and I see they have quite a discography.
>>
>> I would be very curious about other Soviet or Russian rock  
>> bands,especially from the 80s and 90s.Are there many others that  
>> recorded,say in the early 90s,after the fall of The Soviet   
>> Union,who are worth knowing about?The only other one I know  
>> about,is the lame metal band "Black Coffee".Are there any good  
>> books or web sites about this music?
>>
>> I know a little more about Russian record labels than I did when I  
>> posted my questions here in 2007.Pages like this
>> http://www.pinkfloydarchives.com/DRusLPPF.htm#Antrop
>>
>> were a big help.
>>
>> This got me wondering,when Antrop,which they do link to  
>> Melodiya,went out of business,as this site implies.
>>
>> AnTrop was named after the legendary Russian underground producer and
>> sound engineer, Andrey Tropillo, who in 1990, on the wave of
>> "perestroika," became the head of the St. Petersburg branch of  
>> Melodia.
>>   Since there was much turmoil in Russia at the time, he made the St.
>> Petersburg branch independent of central headquarters and started
>> releasing a series of classic Rock albums. These releases were not
>> legitimate. They started with releases by The Beatles, Jesus Christ -
>> Superstar, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and eventually Pink  
>> Floyd. All
>> these records were released using Melodia
>>   facilities, but AnTrop was operating as an independent record  
>> label and
>>   was putting the Antrop logo and their own numbers and copyrights  
>> on the
>>   covers. However, since all the records were printed in Melodia  
>> owned and run facilities, AnTrop had to give its releases  
>> additional Melodia
>>   catalog numbers, which is why there are two catalog numbers on the
>> releases. Antrop is the label that released most of the Pink Floyd
>> albums in Russia. "P" in the AnTrop catalog numbers stands for  
>> Russian
>> letter "P" (that looks like Greek "Pi"). AnTrop records were all  
>> pressed
>>   in Aprelevka.
>>
>> Are there any labels left like this in Russia,that are quasi- 
>> independent from the Universals, EMIs,or Sony-BMG,or have they  
>> absorbed the whole market there too?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> Timothy Wisniewski, M.L.I.S.
>
> Visual Materials Archivist
> Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives
> Johns Hopkins University Medical Institutions
> 5801 Smith Avenue, Suite 235
> Baltimore, MD 21209
>
> http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/
>
>
>
>

Timothy Wisniewski, M.L.I.S.

Visual Materials Archivist
Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives
Johns Hopkins University Medical Institutions
5801 Smith Avenue, Suite 235
Baltimore, MD 21209

http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/