Russian propaganda is silent about such artists - patriots, friends of the Soviet Union, as Viktor Khara, Dean Reed, etc., because their songs are called to fight against capitalism. Their songs, their lives are a struggle for communist ideals.
On September 22, 1938, Dean Reed was born - an American singer, artist, friend of the Soviet Union. This year he would be 80 years old. Here are some stages of his life. In 1970, in Moscow, he participated in the session of the Soviet Peace Committee, dedicated to the centenary of the birth of V.I. Lenin (later this committee awarded him a medal). In August 1970, he helped Salvador Allende in his presidential campaign in Chile. In September 1970, Dean Reed in Chile, the US embassy washed from the American flag the symbolic mud and blood stained with American capitalism, including the Vietnam War. His admirer was Yasser Arafat, who invited him to Palestine and met him. Dean Reed participated in world festivals of youth and students: the 10th - in 1973 in Berlin (GDR), 11th - in 1978 in Cuba, 12th - 1985 in Moscow (USSR). In 1977, in Bulgaria, he starred in the feature film "El Santor" (singer), where he played the role of Victor Hara, his Chilean friend tortured by Pinochet's junta. In 1978, Dean Reed participated in the XVIII Congress of the Komsomol in Moscow, at which it was decided to create a Komsomol-youth railway construction project BAM. Dean Reed toured the BAM in 1979. There it should be well remembered. In the same place was filmed a documentary-musical film "I wish you happiness." In 1979, on October 29, he was awarded the Lenin Komsomol Prize for songs dedicated to anti-imperialist solidarity, peace and friendship of peoples.
Dean Reed was repeatedly arrested in the United States, Chile, Argentina, Italy for his anti-imperialist statements and songs. This did not break him, but, on the contrary, tempered him. Always on his defense rose the progressive forces of the world and he was released. In April 1986, he spoke in the American program "60 Minutes", where he criticized R. Reagan and defended the need for the Berlin Wall. For this he was then pursued. In his last years he lived in the GDR with his German wife, actress Renata Blume. June 13, 1986 in Berlin on Lake Zentener See, near his house Dean Reed was found drowned. Quite a strange death, still not really investigated. It was officially announced that this was an "accident", but the real reason for Dean Reed's death is Gorbachev's perestroika, with which the open smearing of communist idols and ideals began, not only in the USSR and the GDR, but also in other socialist countries. He was very popular in these countries, he was called "Red Elvis". He was a man - a legend of the times of the Cold War. The memory of him will remain in our hearts.
In conclusion, I would like to recall Dean Reed's statement: "No one is born a revolutionary, no one is born a Marxist. For a man who grew up in a capitalist country, the road to truth is long and thorny. The truth comes to us drop by drop, we gain knowledge, become wiser. When I came to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1975, I was a pacifist who was frightened at the words "Communist, Socialist". It was you who helped me to become a convinced Marxist, a revolutionary, a man."
L.S. Kuznetsov, AUCPB
