The ''Little Blue Light'' () was a popular musical

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp� ...

aired on Soviet television since 1962Секрет бессмертия: как изменился «Голубой огонек»
In Russian during various holidays. The name alludes to the light bluish glare of a

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

cathode ray tube A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms on an oscilloscope, a ...

TV screen as well as some traditional Russian expressions relating to friendly visits: заглянуть на огонек (''zaglyanut na ogonyok'') – "to drop in on a light", i. e. to visit someone after seeing a light in their window; посидеть у огонька (''posidyet' u ogon'ka'') – to have a sit by the fire. The show featured popular artists and various prominent Soviet people: ''

udarnik In the terminology of the Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc, and other communist countries, an udarnik (, plural udarniks or udarniki; rus, уда́рник, p=ʊˈdarnʲɪk), also known in English as a shock worker or strike worker (collectively ...

s'', Heroes of Socialist Labor,

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

actors An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

, etc., as well as guests from the countries of the "socialist camp", who sat by the tables in a "TV cafeteria", singing songs, playing sketches, boasting and celebrating the holiday. The idea of the show was that they "dropped in on a light" to every Soviet family to share the festive table beyond the TV glass. A separate item was the performance of comedians. The apogee of the comedy program has always been

Arkady Raikin Arkady Isaakovich Raikin (; – 17 December 1987) was a Soviet stand-up comedian, stage and film actor, theater director, screenwriter and satirist. He led the school of Soviet and Russian humorists for about half a century. He is the father of ...

's numbers, comic duets were popular — Veronika Mavrikievna and Avdotya Nikitichna (Vadim Tonkov and Boris Vladimirov), Plug and Tarapunka (Yefim Berezin and Yuri Timoshenko), as well as Lev Mirov and Mark Novitsky. The best-known was the ''New Year's Little Blue Light'' (), aired on every

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...

as a part of the late Soviet tradition: the ''Little Blue Light'' followed the New Year's speech by the

General Secretary of the Communist Party The title of General Secretary or First Secretary is commonly used for the leaders of most communist parties. When a communist party is the ruling party of a socialist state—often labeled as communist states by external observers—the general s ...

with congratulations to the

Soviet people The Soviet people () were the citizens and nationals of the Soviet Union. This demonym was presented in the ideology of the country as the "new historical unity of peoples of different nationalities" (). Nationality policy in the Soviet Union ...

followed by the Kremlin midnight chimes and the

State Anthem of the Soviet Union The State Anthem of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was the national anthem of the Soviet Union and the regional anthem of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1944 to 1991, replacing "The Internationale". Its original ...

, which was, in turn, preceded by the 1975 film comedy ''

Irony of Fate ''The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!'',; usually shortened to ''The Irony of Fate'', is a 1976 Soviet romantic comedy television film directed by Eldar Ryazanov and starring Andrey Myagkov, Barbara Brylska, Yury Yakovlev and Lyubov Do ...

''. Writer Andrey Khoroshevsky believed that the phenomenon of the "Blue Light" consisted in the fact that even the most famous guests in the program appeared to be ordinary people with problems and interests understandable to every viewer. In 2003,

Mikhail Shvydkoy Mikhail Yefimovich Shvydkoy (; born September 5, 1948) is a Soviet and Russian theater critic, drama, social and political activist. Laureate of the State Prize of Russia. The artistic director of the Moscow theater musical, supervisor of the Facu ...

, Russian Minister of Culture, stated that ""The Blue Light" turned the Soviet Union into a large communal apartment — it united people at the screens." The ''Little Blue Light'' was devised by film director Aleksey Gabrilovich, and the first show was aired on 6 April 1962 as a weekly Saturday broadcast. After some time it became a monthly show, and later it was only aired on major holidays. During the decline of the Soviet Union, the "trademark" ''Little Blue Light'' began to gradually disappear from the screens and the New Year concert became a matter of experimenting. The last show of ''Little Blue Light'' was in fact a potpourri from older programs.История «Голубого огонька»: когда зажегся, как сиял и почему потух?
/ref> After the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

, the program was revived in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

after a ten-year hiatus in 1998 as a yearly special.The New Year Little Blue Light at Shabolovka – 2007
Thoroughly following the format of its Soviet predecessor, it has become an element of Soviet nostalgia. The trademark "Little Blue Light" is now owned by

Russia 1 Russia-1 () is a state-owned Russian television channel, first aired on 14 February 1956 as Programme Two in the Soviet Union. It was relaunched as RTR on 13 May 1991, and is known today as Russia-1. It is the flagship channel of the All-Russia ...

, the television network, where it is still seen immediately after President's address on the New Year midnight under the title "Голубой огонёк на Шаболовке" "Little Blue Light at Shabolovka" (Here "Shabolovka" refers to the .) In the 1970s the typical New Year's LBL episode lasted an hour and a half, since the late 1980s up till today the telecast begins at 12:05 am MST and lasts for three hours.

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