Songs of 'Yesterday' Explained: 'Back in the U.S.S.R.'

I wanted to write about the meaning of the songs in this movie...growing up listening to the Beatles (having a brother 8 years older who was and still is a FAN) I'd sing along with their music. As I got older, I heard all sorts of stories behind the lyrics, most of which was false. And of course most of the words I would sing were not really correct, being a kid you kind of go with what you know...

"Back in the U.S.S.R." 

1968 

The story of this song begins in Hrishikesh, India, where The Beatles were on a retreat learning Transcendental Meditation from their guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Also on the retreat was Mike Love of The Beach Boys, who told us: "Paul (McCartney) came down to the breakfast table one morning saying, 'Hey, Mike, listen to this.' And he starts strumming and singing, 'Back in the U.S.S.R.,' the verses. And I said, 'Well, Paul, what you ought to do is talk about the girls around Russia, Ukraine girls and then Georgia on my mind, and that kind of thing.' Which he did. So I think it was the fact I was there, which caused Paul to think in terms of Beach Boys, and then my suggestion for what to do on the bridge, he took that suggestion and crafted, like only Sir Paul can, a really great song." McCartney was impressed with the idea and used some Beach Boys' elements in this song: Instead of "California Girls" it was "Moscow Girls." Plus, the definitive Beach Boy "Oooeeeeoooo" in the background harmonies. The title was inspired by Chuck Berry's "Back In The U.S.A." The Beach Boys had been influenced by that song and also "Sweet Little Sixteen" to come up with "California Girls" and "Surfin' U.S.A."

Paul stated in 1968, "In my mind it's just about a (Russian) spy who's been in America for a long time and he's become very American but when he gets back to the USSR he's saying, 'Leave it 'til tomorrow to unpack my case, Honey, disconnect the phone.' and all that, but to Russian women."
Things were tense when they were working on this album, and Ringo walked out during recording, briefly quitting the band. Paul McCartney played drums in his place.
In early 1968, the British government launched the "I'm Backing Britain" campaign to rally enthusiasm and boost their economy, even encouraging workers to stay on the job an extra 30 minutes every day without pay. As part of the campaign, Bruce Forsyth released a song of that title, with the lyrics: In offices and factories up and down the country
An extra half an hour is all we need each day
In shops and supermarkets, everybody's started
To work a little more without the pay This campaign may have influenced "Back In The U.S.S.R.," at least the title.

The line "Georgia's always on my mind" in a play on the Ray Charles song "Georgia On My Mind." It has a double meaning, since Georgia was part of the U.S.S.R. 

*U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republic)

Khrushchev And De-Stalinization
After Stalin's death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev rose to power. He became Communist Party secretary in 1953 and premier in 1958. Khrushchev's tenure spanned the tensest years of the Cold War. He instigated the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 by installing nuclear weapons just 90 miles from Florida's coast in Cuba. At home, however, Khrushchev initiated a series of political reforms that made Soviet society less repressive. During this period, later known as de-Stalinization, Khrushchev criticized Stalin for arresting and deporting opponents, took steps to raise living conditions, freed many political prisoners, loosened artistic censorship, and closed the Gulag labor camps. Deteriorating relations between the Soviet Union and neighboring China and food shortages across the USSR eroded Khrushchev's legitimacy in the eyes of the Communist party leadership. Members of his own political party removed Khrushchev from office in 1964. Sputnik
The Soviets initiated rocketry and space exploration programs in the 1930s as part of Stalin's agenda for building an advanced, industrial economy. Many early projects were tied to the Soviet military and kept secret, but by the 1950s, space would become another dramatic arena for competition between dueling world superpowers. On October 4, 1957, the USSR publicly launched Sputnik 1—the first-ever artificial satellite—into low Earth orbit. The success of Sputnik made Americans fear that the U.S. was falling behind its Cold War rival in technology. The ensuing "Space Race" heated up further in 1961 when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.
U.S. President John F. Kennedy responded to Gagarin's feat by making the bold claim that the U.S. would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. The U.S. succeeded—on July 16, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. Mikhail Gorbachev

During the 1960s and 1970s, the Communist Party elite rapidly gained wealth and power while millions of average Soviet citizens faced starvation. The Soviet Union's push to industrialize at any cost resulted in frequent shortages of food and consumer goods. Bread lines were common throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Soviet citizens often did not have access to basic needs, such as clothing or shoes. The divide between the extreme wealth of the Politburo and the poverty of Soviet citizens created a backlash from younger people who refused to adopt Communist Party ideology as their parents had. The USSR also faced foreign attacks on the Soviet economy. 

*content credit:

https://www.history.com/topics/russia/history-of-the-soviet-union