Latvia, a country that was once occupied by the Soviet Union, held a traditional joke evening in the capital earlier this month. People got together and swapped jokes that, under Soviet occupation, could have gotten them sent to jail or a labor camp.
"Did you hear about the speech Leonid Brezhnev gave at the Moscow Olympics in 1980?" one jokester said. "`Oh, oh, oh,' Brezhnev said. `Comrade Brezhnev,' his assistant whispered quietly in his ear. `Those are the Olympic rings. The speech starts a bit lower down.'''
The joke brought roars of laughter from the people who were gathered at the Occupation Museum in Riga.
PHOTO: AP
Many who were there were old enough to have lived through the five-decade-long Soviet occupation of Latvia.
"In the whole Soviet Union, at least 20,000 people -- and some say 100,000 -- were imprisoned for telling political jokes. At least several hundred of them were from Latvia," said Zanda Duma, a representative of the Occupation Museum.
One of the joke-tellers said her friend was punished for telling this joke:
"What fights like a lion, hangs like a monkey and ends up like a fried chicken? A proud Soviet citizen on public transportation!"
Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union first in 1940, then by Nazi Germany in 1941, and again by the Soviets at the end of World War II. Latvia became independent again in 1991.
A bit of humor from time to time helped Latvians to weather the storm of oppressive Soviet occupation. As one of the evening's most active joke tellers, Rihards Kalvans, said, "Making jokes can help a nation get through the darkest of times." (AFP)
曾遭蘇聯佔領的拉脫維亞，本月初在首都舉辦傳統笑話之夜。民眾聚集在一起分享在蘇聯統治時期可能會讓他們坐牢或送進牢改營的笑話。
「你聽過一九八○年蘇聯領導人布里茲涅夫在莫斯科奧運的演說嗎？」其中一個說笑者說：「布里茲涅夫說：『噢，噢，噢。』他的助理在他耳邊輕聲說：『布里茲涅夫同志，這些是奧運的五環標幟，演講是從下方開始。』」（註：布里茲涅夫誤把講稿上的奧運五環看成五個英文字母「O」。）
這個笑話引起齊聚在里加「佔領博物館」的群眾哄堂大笑。
參加的民眾有許多年長者曾目睹蘇聯佔領拉脫維亞長達五十年。
佔領博物館的代表桑達．杜馬說：「全蘇聯至少有兩萬人，也有人說是十萬人，因講政治性笑話而入獄，其中至少有數百人來自拉脫維亞。」
其中一位說笑者談到她一位朋友因講了這樣的笑話而受罰：
「什麼東西打起架來像獅子，手吊起來像猴子，最後宛如煎過的雞肉？是搭乘大眾運輸工具的驕傲蘇聯公民！」
拉脫維亞先是在一九四○年遭蘇聯佔領，一九四一年被納粹德國入侵，二次大戰結束後又再度落入蘇聯手裡，一九九一年終於再度獨立。
隨時來點幽默感可以幫助拉脫維亞度過蘇聯高壓入侵。晚會最生動的笑話高手之一理哈茲．卡維斯說：「說笑話有助於國家度過最灰暗的時期。」 （法新社／翻譯：賴美君）
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