Kazakh collector preserves recorders that powered Soviet bootlegs

Kazakh collector preserves recorders that powered Soviet bootlegs

For two decades, Andrei Klimenko has been amassing a collection of Soviet-era reel-to-reel tape recorders for a small museum he runs in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city. Western music was officially banned in the Soviet Union but enjoyed widespread popularity, with tape recorders used to make bootlegs of popular foreign acts of the time, from Michael Jackson to Bob Marley. The Soviet Union, of which Kazakhstan was a part, collapsed in December …