Russian Soviet song from the moment of its emergence bore no ethnic character, but that of an imperial one, it was a means of relaying certain ideas and images throughout the Soviet Union. Simultaneously it bore the imprint of the events that were taking place in the country and formed the image of them among the general public. Originating initially as a revolutionary song, it called people to fi ght fi rst against exploiters and then against counter-revolutionary elements. In the 1930-ies the song formed a positive image of the present, with little reference to either the past or the future. From the second half of the 1950-ies the image of the future becomes more distinct, it is connected with the exploration of space and hard-to-reach places on Earth, the efforts made in the present will bear fruit in the lifetime of the next generations. But from the mid-1970-ies, Soviet pop began to lose the battle for the hearts of people to Russian rock, representatives of which called for escape from reality rather than building a new world. By the mid-1980-ies, the call for changes becomes the key motive, but there is no image of the future that should follow those changes