An excerpt from the famous episode of the TV show Piatoe koleso in which the experimental musician and performer Sergey Kuryokhin argued and almost convinced Soviet audiences that "Lenin was a mushroom."
Perestroika
1991
In May 1991, only a few months before the end of the Soviet Union, the artist, performer, and experimental musician Sergey Kuryokhin famously argued on Russian TV, in the course of a one-hour episode of the show Piatoe Koleso, hosted by Sergey Sholokhov, that by ingesting enormous quantities of psychedelic mushrooms Lenin had himself turned into a mushroom and, as a consequence, into a radio wave. This is generally considered one of the most classical examples of styob, what Aleksei Yurchak describes as a parody based on “overidentification” with the object of parody itself—or, in other words, a parody or performance based on continuous “shimmering” or oscillating between sincere belief and ironic distance. Kuryokhin was arguably so convincing that many of the show’s viewers truly believed him, and he did so by imitating various forms and symbols of Soviet “authoritative discourse.” He referred to long, serious research and “scientific” findings, while sitting in front of large overflowing bookshelves with, visible at the center, a portrait of the Nobel laureate poet Boris Pasternak (a figure of authority among the Russian intelligentsia more specifically) and his exposition was alternated with interviews with biologists explaining the properties of mushrooms and historical images deceivingly presented to give the impression of a sequence of logically connected pieces of evidence. The prank was particularly effective because it came as an ironic culmination to Perestroika, which was saturated with sensational revelations of deep, hidden truths and incredible revelations. At this time, fundamental beliefs had been so deeply challenged that even the most outlandish claims could pass as credible: this is what Kuryokhin was allegedly interested in testing, which also in part explains why the prank was so successful. At the same time, the “Lenin-Mushroom” episode is indicative of a time in which the boundaries between underground culture and mainstream media became increasingly blurred, both in the sense that some of the leaders of the late Soviet underground scene became involved in mainstream media or politics, and that some of the strategies of underground art were assimilated into the mainstream. Examples of this include for instance, the New Artists’ Pirate TV, which Timur Novikov saw as an early attempt at “infiltrating” mainstream television, as well as, later, Igor Dudinsky’s involvement in the creation of one of the most popular post-Soviet tabloids (see artifacts 207, 203). Styob is generally associated with underground art and discourses of resistance to the emptiness and hypocrisy of late Soviet official culture. Starting in the 1990s, it has also gradually become a largely dominant style within post-Soviet politics and media culture and in this form has also served as a tool of reaction, repression, or conservation of the status quo. Before dying prematurely, Kuryokhin himself embraced, at least in words, fascism and political violence as part of an artistic approach to politics (see artifacts 193, 194, 195). Since then, various forms of styob and political irony have become fundamental ingredients of post-Soviet public life in the activity of more or less systemic figures like Limonov, Dugin, or Zhirinovsky, among others. More recently, styob and trolling have become tools commonly used within establishment media and power structures as part of a new form of authoritarianism and mass disinformation, from the activity and public statements of TV hosts and journalists like Margarita Simonyan and Dmitry Kiselyov, to those of Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, and of Putin himself. This fundamental ambiguity begs the question of, and as a consequence has been at the center of debates about, whether styob and irony—by virtue of being co-opted by the political system as instrument of repression, coercion, and manipulation—may have lost their effectiveness as strategies of subversion and artistic expression.
Saint Petersburg
Kuryokhin (Kurekhin), Sergei, Novikov, Timur, and Bugaev, Sergei (Afrika)
Russia and former Soviet Union
“Lenin-grib.” Piatoe koleso. Piatyi kanal. January, 1991; May 17 1991.
YouTube (file versions in folder):
2 mins./BBC, subtitled: "Lenin Was A Mushroom" Sergey Kuryokhin
Full version, 60 mins.: Ленин-Гриб (полная версия)
Full version, high quality, 30 mins, 1-yi kanal kultura: Ленин - гриб (1991)