Vinyl Nostalgia 
ANTROP is a Soviet (later Russian) music label created in Leningrad in 1979, originally as a recording studio by the famous producer and publisher Andrej Tropillo (the name consists of the first letters of his name and surname). It was there that legendary Soviet rock bands such as Zoo, Time Machine, Alice and Aquarium recorded their albums.
In the second half of the 1980s, Tropillo became one of the managers of the Melodija label, exactly when censorship allowed the publication of The Beatles’ albums in the USSR. Some records recorded by the producer in Leningrad were then released by a domestic producer, and the Antrop logo was also placed on the covers next to the Melodija logo.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Tropillo began publishing albums. It was then that, taking advantage of the imperfections of the then Soviet (and later Russian) copyright protection legislation, Antropa released albums by Western rock bands (The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and many others). Their covers included, for example, a note „recording from a radio broadcast”, which, according to the law at that time, eliminated the need to observe copyright for commercial use. Some Beatles albums (e.g. Help!) included a note that the material was „taken from the collection of Nikolai Vasin” (a famous Russian fan of The Beatles).
To avoid being accused of violating copyright and publishing rights to the covers, Tropillo modified them slightly and translated the titles into Russian. On the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the producer added a photo of himself in the back row, and instead of Karl Marx he put the face of Nikolai Vasin. On the cover of Abbey Road, John Lennon is walking barefoot (instead of Paul McCartney).
The covers of records published by Antrop bear a stamp with the Latin words Consummati in unum and a statement that the publisher is the Rock’n’Roll Parish Publishing Center of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia. This may be related to the fact that Andrej Tropillo’s recording studio in Leningrad was located in the building of the Lutheran church.
Probably all records released by the Antrop label were pressed in Riga, which is why in the covers of Sgt. Pepper and Revolver you can find printed graphics with a medieval panorama of this city and the logo of the local pressing plant (RITONIS).
In 1993-1994, Tropillo used a new name: Santa Records, but no Beatles albums were released with this label.
All Beatles albums released by Antrop were considered pirated and excluded from official catalog lists, although they can be found on Discogs.
