For the first time a ban on the balalaika, a period of ten years, was signed by US President Franklin Roosevelt in 1940. And since that time, this document is constantly renewed.
Until 2000, the ban did not concern the state of Alaska, where the balalaika is considered a truly traditional musical instrument, however, bill Clinton expanded the scope of the law and the territory.
Why such dislike of this harmless tool? The formal reason is the ban on the balalaika in tsarist Russia. The Orthodox Church and the government has imposed a ban on the sale of this popular tool due to the fact that it supposedly allows people "to mock and mock the current government". In the USSR, the restriction was lifted.
In fact, the ban on the sale balalaika in the U.S. is striking back. Until 1954 the Soviet Union were not allowed to sell on their territory cowboy hats. In the Soviet Union banning this ridiculous law overturned, and in the U.S. it operates to this day.
However, in the US, this law remains today is not in full form. To play the balalaika, but it should purchase a special license. Not massively sell and make a balalaika, but a single private sales still allowed.
Here are Americans overseas and can't enjoy the sounds of the balalaika, and to blame a ridiculous law, the like of which there are many in the country of victorious democracy.