According to popular legend, the famous group The Beatles came to the USSR and even gave a private concert. Let's find out if this is true.

Several generations of Soviet Beatlemaniacs were sure: the Liverpudlians not only flew to Moscow, but even played a concert. The versions differed only on the issue of the location of this concert. The following options are found in the literature:

— runway of Vnukovo airport;
— runway of Domodedovo airport;
— Kremlin Palace of Congresses;
— Nikolina Gora;
- British Embassy;
- all kinds of provincial clubs.

As for the circumstances of the visit, they vary:

The Beatles were flying on tour to Japan, their flight was delayed, and the guys wasted no time in delighting the people at the airport;
The Beatles received an invitation from the Soviet authorities, but already at Sheremetyevo airport they suddenly learned about the cancellation of the concert, out of frustration they played right on the airfield, and then flew back;
the plane with the Beatles was already preparing to land when the authorities banned the performance and turned the aircraft around;
The Beatles flew in at the invitation of members of the Politburo and played for them with the children;
several similar versions.

The main “proof” of The Beatles’ arrival in the communist camp was the legendary song Back In The USSR (“Back in the USSR”). It tells how the musicians fly to the Soviet Union again and look forward to the trip.

Authors of the book “Back In USSR, or Along the Waves of Our Memory” held a whole investigation, but they could not find a single living witness to the concert. At the same time, Paul McCartney himself told the legend about the concert does not confirm. The authors call the song in the title of the book a parody of Chuck Berry's hit Back In The USA. And indeed, if you compare the texts, the similarity of the plot is striking.

But Beatlemaniac Alexander Medvedev let's go further and finally found a man who, according to him, was at a Beatles concert in the waiting room of Sheremetyevo airport in the winter of 1966. Considering that the history of the musicians is described almost minute by minute, I had to dig a little to the side. And then it turned out that in the same January, the plane of the musicians of the legendary British group The Kinks was refueling at the airport. In the biographies of the group members, however, January of the previous year is mentioned in this context.

One way or another, but, according to Soviet eyewitnesses, the guys were asked to brighten up the boring wait for the flight, and they staged a mini-concert on acoustics. Seeing four hairy British guys in front of them, the audience decided that these were the very same The Beatles. The masterly performance of the musicians dispelled the last suspicions of onlookers. They told their friends, they passed it on, and the legend began to acquire details.

American writer John Steinbeck told, how he, a bearded man, was enthusiastically mistaken by Soviet police for Ernest Hemingway. It seems a similar story happened with The Kinks and The Beatles.

P.S. Influential artists like Nikita Bogoslovsky did not contribute to the fulfillment of the dream of millions of residents of the Land of the Soviets to see their idols live.