Heiki Ahonen, from Estonia, says it was much more difficult to find Beatles music in the Baltics during the 1960s than it apparently was in Poland. Though he was six years old when Revolver was released in 1966, he says it wasn't until the early 1970s, when he was 11, that he actually got to hear a song by the Beatles for the first time.
"It was a kind of (flexi-disc) record on postcard that a friend got in the mail. For some reason, this record made it to us. Of course, the postcard came from the west. I don't know exactly which country it was from, and I can't remember the name of the song, but I remember how several schoolmates gathered together to hear it."
Ilija Maric, 44, of the former Yugoslav republic of Montenegro, still vividly recalls the first time he heard about the strange group from Liverpool. He says the news came in 1963 from a daily newspaper from Belgrade called "Boulevard." Maric still remembers the description provided by that state newspaper. He quotes the article as saying: "Look what has happened in Britain. One group that calls itself "The Beatles" is singing with very bad voices, and wearing long hair like women... and all the girls are screaming for them. It is incredible, but like all of these miracles, we can say that they will be forgotten after three days."