Pop Music, Western Culture and Hare Krishna

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3 mins September, 2026
Pop Music, Western Culture and Hare Krishna
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The Three Threats to the Russian Government in the 1970s


On behalf of the entire team of Back to Godhead magazine’s India office I wish all our readers and their families and loved ones a very happy new year of 2026. At the same time, following in the footsteps of our beloved founder-Acharya Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, we also wish to convey the blessings of Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.


We at the BTG office in India are overjoyed to see the Russian President Vladimir Putin accepting a Russian translation of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is from the Indian Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi. Why is this a historic moment? you may ask. Well, there is a fascinating history behind it. First, here is a description in Srila Prabhupada’s own words about his one and only five-day visit to Moscow: “They… Just like the Communist class men, they say, “The religion is the cause of all fall down of the human society. Religion.” Therefore, they are very much against religion. When I was in Moscow, in the airport, my custom checking was being done. So, they found out one Bhagavad-Gita. So immediately the custom officer called police. So, I thought, “Now my destiny is finished, because… [laughter] Because I know that these people send anyone to some unknown place. You cannot question.” In our country that is also coming very soon. Anyone government can send anywhere. So the policeman, two policemen came. So they saw the Bhagavad-Gita. Of course, by Krishna’s grace, they said, “Oh, no, there is nothing dangerous. They can go.” This is the country, Moscow. I have got practical experience in going there. And always suspicious. And the people in general, they are very unhappy, very unhappy, because they have no freedom. A young man cannot go out of the country. So, they may advertise so much, but so far I have got experience: the most wretched country. Everyone is fearful.” (Lecture by Srila Prabhupada on December 18, 1974 in Mumbai)


How did it happen that thousands of Soviet citizens have become dedicated followers of the Krishna consciousness movement?


The story begins in the early summer of 1971. One day a young Muscovite named Anatoly Pinyayev, a lab technician at Moscow University, and his friend, the son of an Indian diplomat, encountered a strange sight near Red Square—a handsome white foreigner with the shaved head and robes of an Indian priest. Stopping to talk with him, they learned that his name was Shyamasundara and that he was accompanying his spiritual master, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who was visiting the Soviet capital at the invitation of Professor C. G. Kotovsky, head of the department of Indian and South Asian studies at Moscow’s USSR Academy of Sciences.


At Shyamasundara’s invitation, Anatoly and his friend eagerly returned with him to the Hotel National to meet Srila Prabhupada. Anatoly was immediately attracted to Srila Prabhupada and the philosophy of Krishna consciousness. He spent much of the next few days with Srila Prabhupada, asking questions and learning everything he could about how to practice Krishna consciousness.


Prabhupada saw in this young man an indication that millions of Russian people would be receptive to Krishna consciousnesses. He hoped that giving knowledge to this boy would spark a major spiritual revolution.


Srila Prabhupada’s hopes did not go unfulfilled. Anatoly soon became his initiated disciple, receiving the name Ananta-Shanti das. Over the next several years, he travelled throughout the Soviet Union, and by his influence hundreds of Russians—including engineers, physicists, artists, and musicians—became dedicated practitioners of Krishna consciousness.


But things rapidly deteriorated for the budding followers of the Hare Krishna movement in Russia. By the mid-1980s Yuri Andropov was in power, and he intensified the campaign already underway against the Hare Krishna movement. He saw devotees as representing all things religious and was determined to wipe them out. Because of Ananta-Santi’s contagious enthusiasm and the staggering results of the book fairs, Semyon Tsvigun, the deputy chief of the KGB under Andropov, said that the three main threats to the Soviet Union were “pop music, Western culture, and Hare Krishna.”


However later the KGB imprisoned Ananta Shanti who was then later tortured in prison and also subjected to severe mind-altering drugs to make him give up his Krishna Bhakti. But he never gave up.


Today it is certainly heartening to see an erstwhile officer in the dreaded KGB (who is now the President of Russia) gratefully accepting a Bhagavad-gita.

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Pop Music, Western Culture and Hare Krishna

Pop Music, Western Culture and Hare Krishna
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The Three Threats to the Russian Government in the 1970s


On behalf of the entire team of Back to Godhead magazine’s India office I wish all our readers and their families and loved ones a very happy new year of 2026. At the same time, following in the footsteps of our beloved founder-Acharya Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, we also wish to convey the blessings of Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.


We at the BTG office in India are overjoyed to see the Russian President Vladimir Putin accepting a Russian translation of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is from the Indian Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi. Why is this a historic moment? you may ask. Well, there is a fascinating history behind it. First, here is a description in Srila Prabhupada’s own words about his one and only five-day visit to Moscow: “They… Just like the Communist class men, they say, “The religion is the cause of all fall down of the human society. Religion.” Therefore, they are very much against religion. When I was in Moscow, in the airport, my custom checking was being done. So, they found out one Bhagavad-Gita. So immediately the custom officer called police. So, I thought, “Now my destiny is finished, because… [laughter] Because I know that these people send anyone to some unknown place. You cannot question.” In our country that is also coming very soon. Anyone government can send anywhere. So the policeman, two policemen came. So they saw the Bhagavad-Gita. Of course, by Krishna’s grace, they said, “Oh, no, there is nothing dangerous. They can go.” This is the country, Moscow. I have got practical experience in going there. And always suspicious. And the people in general, they are very unhappy, very unhappy, because they have no freedom. A young man cannot go out of the country. So, they may advertise so much, but so far I have got experience: the most wretched country. Everyone is fearful.” (Lecture by Srila Prabhupada on December 18, 1974 in Mumbai)


How did it happen that thousands of Soviet citizens have become dedicated followers of the Krishna consciousness movement?


The story begins in the early summer of 1971. One day a young Muscovite named Anatoly Pinyayev, a lab technician at Moscow University, and his friend, the son of an Indian diplomat, encountered a strange sight near Red Square—a handsome white foreigner with the shaved head and robes of an Indian priest. Stopping to talk with him, they learned that his name was Shyamasundara and that he was accompanying his spiritual master, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who was visiting the Soviet capital at the invitation of Professor C. G. Kotovsky, head of the department of Indian and South Asian studies at Moscow’s USSR Academy of Sciences.


At Shyamasundara’s invitation, Anatoly and his friend eagerly returned with him to the Hotel National to meet Srila Prabhupada. Anatoly was immediately attracted to Srila Prabhupada and the philosophy of Krishna consciousness. He spent much of the next few days with Srila Prabhupada, asking questions and learning everything he could about how to practice Krishna consciousness.


Prabhupada saw in this young man an indication that millions of Russian people would be receptive to Krishna consciousnesses. He hoped that giving knowledge to this boy would spark a major spiritual revolution.


Srila Prabhupada’s hopes did not go unfulfilled. Anatoly soon became his initiated disciple, receiving the name Ananta-Shanti das. Over the next several years, he travelled throughout the Soviet Union, and by his influence hundreds of Russians—including engineers, physicists, artists, and musicians—became dedicated practitioners of Krishna consciousness.


But things rapidly deteriorated for the budding followers of the Hare Krishna movement in Russia. By the mid-1980s Yuri Andropov was in power, and he intensified the campaign already underway against the Hare Krishna movement. He saw devotees as representing all things religious and was determined to wipe them out. Because of Ananta-Santi’s contagious enthusiasm and the staggering results of the book fairs, Semyon Tsvigun, the deputy chief of the KGB under Andropov, said that the three main threats to the Soviet Union were “pop music, Western culture, and Hare Krishna.”


However later the KGB imprisoned Ananta Shanti who was then later tortured in prison and also subjected to severe mind-altering drugs to make him give up his Krishna Bhakti. But he never gave up.


Today it is certainly heartening to see an erstwhile officer in the dreaded KGB (who is now the President of Russia) gratefully accepting a Bhagavad-gita.