Kontsert Kontsert Kontsert () (Russian: Концерт, commonly changed to Kohuept, ) is the second live album by Billy Joel, released in 1987. The album was recorded during the Soviet leg of Joel's 1987 "The Bridge" tour. This album was co-produced by Jim Boyer and Brian Ruggles; mixed by Jim Boyer as well. During the Cold War, rock music was not allowed in the U.S.S.R. because it was not seen as part of Soviet culture. In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev implemented glasnost—the Soviet policy of managed openness—and the Kremlin invited Billy Joel to perform in the Soviet Union in 1986. Joel, being a
Communist Party of the Soviet Union The freedoms of thought and organization, which were allowed by Gorbachev, led to a rise in nationalism in the Soviet republics, indirectly weakening the central authorities. In response to this, a referendum was held in 1991, in which most of the union republics voted to preserve the union in a different form. In reaction to this, conservative elements within the CPSU launched the August 1991 coup, which overthrew Gorbachev but failed to preserve the Soviet Union. When Gorbachev returned after the coup's collapse, he resigned from the CPSU and operations were handed over to Ivashko. The CPSU was outlawed on