The history of the Soviet Union, told through Tetris



I am the man who arranges the blocks

Tetris and Communism: not an obvious combination. They make for a glorious song, though, in the form of

A Complete History of the Soviet Union, Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris

. Take revolutions, breadlines, broken ideals and dreams of brotherhood, and turn them into…blocks. Falling endlessly from the sky:

What gets to me, I think, is the worker’s face. Sometimes he’s downtrodden, sometimes triumphant. Sometimes he’s a sculpture-worthy proletarian hero — clutching a sledgehammer, his gaze stoically fixed into the distance. Always there’s something grotesque about him, an unnerving manic undertone. Revolutionary glee shifts into a forced grimace: “

Long live Stalin! He loves you! Sing these words, or you know what he’ll do

“. This is a one-man mob, permanently caught up in the passionate trauma of one historical moment after another.

And when the end comes, it’s beautifully understated:

I work so hard in arranging the blocks
But each night I go home to my wife in tears -
What’s the point of it all, when you’re building a wall
And in front of your eyes it disappears?
Pointless work for pointless pay
This is one game I shall not play.

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