The 90s

State Emergency Committee, Belovezh Accords, vouchers, pledge auctions, Yeltsin’s “family”.

Double-headed eagle, tricolor, USSR coat of arms, stars, crosses, “the Lenin monument was torn down.”

Discos, basements, drinking on a bench, playing cards, dominoes, football in the yard, fishing.

Factories are idle, there is unemployment, shuttle trading, trade, racketeering, working for someone else, and moonlighting.

Divorces, single mothers, street children, homeless children, grandmothers raising grandchildren.

Fear, hope, cynicism, survival, mistrust, aggression, nostalgia for the USSR.

The August putsch of 1993, the default of 1998, the elections of 1996, the apartment bombings, the war in Chechnya.

Markets (Cherkizon), train stations, casinos, night clubs, pubs, stalls, garages.

Homeless people, shuttle traders, cooperators, bandits, cops, intelligentsia, workers, “new Russians”.

"Brother", "sucker", "scammer", "shooter", "money", "roof", "cop", "churka", "ID card", "cards".

The first IBM, Dandy, Sega, computer clubs, floppy disks, games on cassettes.

Pagers, the first mobile phones (“bricks”), payphones, cards, long-distance calls.

Panel houses, communal apartments, dormitories, apartments with carpets, Khrushchev-era buildings, new Russian houses with cottages.

Zhiguli, Volga, foreign cars (Mercedes, Beemers), minibuses, trams, metro.

Rubles with Lenin, dollars, "dolls", inflation, millions in a string bag, "greenbacks".

Port wine 777, Smirnov vodka, Zhigulevskoye beer, Fanta, Pepsi, Royal spirit.

Doshirak, Chinese noodles, Snickers, Bounty, Love is chewing gum, Bush's legs, potatoes, herring.

Tracksuits (Abibas, Puma), leather jackets, acid-wash jeans, sneakers, raspberry jackets.

"Field of Miracles", "Santa Barbara", "Simply Maria", advertisements for "MMM", "Vlastelina".

"Brother", "Brother 2", "Truckers", "Streets of Broken Lights", "Cops", action films with Van Damme.

Chanson (Krug, Severny), pop (Laskovy May, Kar-Man), rock (Kino, DDT), techno, rave.

Corrupt cops, raids, "police lawlessness", riot police, special police forces, patrols.

Racketeering, gangsters, shootouts, showdowns, contract killings, organized crime groups, protection rackets, thieves in law.

Hyperinflation, coupons, barter, shuttle traders, markets, "Bush legs", wages are delayed.

Yeltsin, the collapse of the USSR, the storming of the White House, Chechnya, the 1998 default, oligarchs, privatization.