Socialist fraternal kiss

The socialist brother kiss was a special form of deference between statesmen of the so-called Eastern Bloc. It is a hug and a kiss on the cheek or mutual rare mouth. Hereby the special bond between the socialist countries should be demonstrated. Both the embrace and the kiss should be an expression of joy, brotherhood and equality, and were on the other hand the transformation of a known ritual and symbol of the Russian Orthodox Church. Among the celebrity Bruderkuss reached by Erich Honecker (DDR ) and Leonid Brezhnev ( Soviet Union).

The origin of this gesture comes from the Orthodox brother or Easter kiss that for the Russian population had a strong significance for its anchoring in the rites of the Orthodox Church and in everyday life was applied. As a symbol of equality, fraternity and solidarity was the socialist brother kiss expression of pathos and enthusiasm of the emerging labor movement in mid to late 19th century. In the years after the October Revolution and the resulting Communist International was a ritualization of the first spontaneous gesture at an official greeting action under Communist comrades. The symbolic affirmation of the feeling of belonging among other things was the fact that many communists and socialists had to make the long, arduous and dangerous journeys to the then insulated Russia. The experienced international solidarity was so stormy expression in hugs and kisses in.