The only ones who were allowed to watch foreign films at the end of the 1970s and the early 1980s were Soviet diplomats, high government officials and actors that worked abroad. They were the ones who became the "conductors" of Western culture, bringing back contraband videotapes with films for themselves and their friends.





Therefore at the dachas of high communist apparatchiks people were able to watch Star Wars almost immediately after the premiere. According to an individual close to the film industry, the Soviet government secretly hired dubbing professionals to translate the Star Wars videotapes brought from abroad. The translations were recorded onto audiotapes and were played simultaneously with the video track. In the 1990s dubbing became one of the main pirate sectors in the exploding multimedia black market.

