Things on paper
The Rise of Public Opinion Polling
Monitoring Obshchestvennogo Mneniia, the monthly publication of the All Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM).
The Russian Booker - Scandals
A series of five articles scandalously decrying the new literary prize, imported from England, the Russian Booker.
"A Way Out of the Dead End"
The open letter that became known as the Letter of the 13, signed by thirteen of post-Soviet Russia’s most powerful businessmen ahead of the 1996 election, was as much as anything a manifesto of the power of capital in post-Soviet politics.
The Miracle of Evgenii
A Russian soldier during the first Chechen War, Rodionov was captured outside of Grozny and reputedly executed for refusing to renounce his Orthodox faith. His image has since served as the inspiration for several of post-Soviet Orthodoxy's most popular new icons.
Russian Crime Statistics, 1980–1996
Nothing characterized the everyday experience of the urban Russian 1990s like crime; as shown in this first comprehensive statistical study of the 1990s, crime was just as bad as everyone had known. But the numbers also reveal some unexpected trends.
Solzhenitsyn's Return
In 1994, Alexander Solzhenitsyn staged a theatrical return to Russia, flying from America to Magadan, and then returning by train from Vladivostok to Moscow. The journey and the salvific importance Solzhenitsyn attached to it soon became the target of much derision, as well as some praise.
"Russian, It's Time For Revenge!"
In the weeks leading up to the Second Chechen War, Russia’s right wing publications reminded their audiences of the humiliation of the First Chechen War, and called for—nationalist, racist, brutal—revenge.
Evgenia Debryanskaya: I Don't Give a Damn about Public Opinon
Interview with LGBTQ activist Evgenia Debryanskaya in the newspaper Аргументы и факты
Tsvetaeva and Parnok
Article on the affair between poets Marina Tsvetaeva and Sophia Parnok in LGBTQ magazine Риск
The Unknown Diaghilev
Russian translation of an article by American scholar Simon Karlinsky on Sergei Diaghilev, published in the LGBTQ magazine Тема
Elena Bonner: Nothing Interests Me Less than This Problem
Masha Gessen interview with Elena Bonner, published in the LGBTQ magazine Тема
Raid at Shans. Gays triumph.
Item about a police raid at a gay nightclub from the LGBTQ community bulletin Центр треугольник информационный бюллетень
Writers demand a Yeltsin coup ("Letter of the 42")
"Pisateli trebuiut ot pravitel’stva reshitel’nykh deistvii [Writers demand decisive actions from the government].” A letter signed by prominent intelligentsia during the 1993 Parliamentary crisis, in which the liberals urge Yeltsin to use lethal force to destroy the Communist-led parliamentary opposition.
Oligarchs collude for Yeltsin in 1996
"Vyiti iz tupika [To Get Out of the Impasse]," an op-ed coauthered by Berezovsky, Gusinsky and other prominent 'oligarchs,' in which they announce their intention to use all media resources at their disposal to sink Ziuganov's chances of beating Yeltsin in the 1996 election.
Petrovich the Soviet everyman survives post-Soviet Russia at Kommersant
A collection of "Petrovich" cartoons at Russia’s ‘first business newspaper,’ Kommersant, drawn by Andrei Bil’zho. They depict a hapless and repulsive comic personage, born and raised in the Soviet era and now trying to get used to the realia of post-Soviet capitalism.
"New Russians" at Kommersant
Series of articles from the nascent Kommersant Daily in late 1992-early 1993, assessing and explaining the nature of its target audience, the “New Russians”
The View from the Other Side
LGBTQ activist Yaroslav “Slava” Mogutin’s response to another article on gay men in post-Soviet Russia (by Aelita Efimova) in the magazine Совершенно секретно.
AIDS: More Questions than Answers
Late-Soviet mainstream-press article about the AIDS epidemic (from the newspaper Литературная газета)
Two Lives, Two Destinies. Sketch of S.E. Esenin and N. Kliuev
Article about the love affair between and the literary destinies of the poets Sergei Esenin and Nikolai Kliuev in the literary supplement to the gay newspaper 1/10
The Chechen Knot: 13 theses.
Infamous article on the Chechen war by controversial gay journalist Slava Mogutin
Lesbian Masha Attacks the Bureaucrats
An article on the early 1990s LGBTQ activism of Masha Gessen in Russia
Gay Dawn (Light-Blue Dawn)
A piece in the monthly magazine Совершенно секретно in which a (presumably) heterosexual female journalist responds to the emergence of a gay subculture in early post-Soviet Russia
K Chitateliu
A letter to readers from the editor of a regional newspaper (from the Ural region of Russia), Гей диалог
Kitchen Diary by S. Piskunov, sent to Komsomol’skaia pravda, October-November 1990
Excerpt of Kitchen Diary written by Piskunov and sent to KP
Sovetskii Ekran with K. Kinchev on the cover
Popular film magazines like Soviet Screen (Sovetskii Ekran), were instrumental in establishing rock musicians as cultural icons. Volume 7 (1987) publication places Konstantin Kinchev, frontman of the Leningrad band Alisa, on the cover of its “youth issue” (molodezhnyi vypusk) in an effort to promote the Valerii Ogorodnikov’s film The Burglar (Vzlomshchik, 1987) in which Kinchev plays the lead role.
Sovetskii Ekran with Tsoi on cover
The cover image from volume 13 (1988) depicts Viktor Tsoi of Kino and Petr Mamonov of the Moscow-based rockband Zvuki Mu. Both artists appeared in Rashid Nugmanov 1988 film The Needle (Igla, 1988), which cemented Tsoi’s rock stardom and firmly established
Mamonov as a serious actor. He went on to star in Pavel Lungin’s drama Taxi Blues (Taksi Bliuz, 1990), which was released to international acclaim and became one of the classic examples of the perestroika-era chernukha aesthetic.
Roksi Music Journal (Samizdat) (Vol. 15, 1990.)
The final print issue of the Leningrad-based samizdat rock journal Roksi, which was
founded in 1977 by members of the rock band Aquarium and the future president
of the Leningrad Rock Club. Considered to be the first rock publication in the
Soviet Union, which was subject to raids by the KGB, Roksi eventually
became the official newsletter of the LRC, and thus legitimized by the state
apparatus.
Artifact 00002
Tatiana Samolis, "Ochishchenie," Pravda
“500 Days: Program Summary,” a special issue of Komsomol’skaya Pravda, 29 September 1990
Komsomol'skaya pravda "500 days" special issue
Artifact 00013
"Power to the Fourth Estate," Izvestiia
Gorbachev speaks with state media leaders
Gorbachev’s Speech before a Gathering of State Media Leaders, March 14, 1986
Front page of Komsomol'skaia pravda in new format
Front page of KP when the format of the printed version changed to adjust to 1990s print media reading habits and financial constraints
"Radost' so slezami na glazakh: obsuzhdaem proekt zakona o pechati"
Newspaper discussion of Press Law of 1990, Knizhnoe obozrenie, 30 March 1990
"The Current Moment and Our Tasks"
Andreeva's speech opening the first meeting of the All-Union COmmunist Party of Bolsheviks, 8 November 1991
Urlait Music Journal (Samizdat) 1985-1992
Moscow's samizdat music journal, which followed in the footsteps of Lenigrad's Roksi while forging a new journalistic style. The journal positioned itself to in many ways reject the Leningrad scene. Despite Moscow-based bands generally leaning towards a more avant-garde, art-rock aesthetic, Urlait made a point to promote so-called "national rock." According to Urlait's founder I. Smirnov, bands like DDT, DK, and Oblachnyi Krai (Yuri Loza) were said to be "oriented towards national problems, in opposition to estrada and the confluence of Western and domestic cultural traditions."
Kontr Kult Ur'a Music Journal (Samizdat) 1989-1991
Kontr Kult Ur'a was envisioned as an ideological reincarnation of Urlait, which was deemed by the new editorial board as "cult-like" and "radically positioned." The journal also was one of the first samizdat rock zines in Moscow and Leningrad to prominently feature and promote Siberian punk rock, including Egor Letov, Civil Defence, and Yanka.
Anarkhia Music Journal (Samizdat)
According to rock historican Alexander Kushnir, Tiumen's samizdat music zine Anarkhia served as "the Bible of western Siberian punk rock," standing in opposition to the other Soviet rock samizdat publications with its strict affinity to punk as its central aesthetic ideology.
Band Survey from the Leningrad Rock Club completed by Sergei Kuryokhin of Pop Mekhanika
An official rock club survey in which Sergei Kuryokhin utlilizes the late-Soviet aesthetic of stiob and performative socialism to underscore the club's dependence on the KGB
Interview with V. Boldyrev, head of GlavLit
"Bol'she demokratii, men'she tain," article/interview in Izvestiia
Homosexuality in Soviet Prisons and Camps
An article by Russian LGBTQ activist Slava Mogutin and American LGBTQ activist Sonja Franeta on the history of homosexuality in the Soviet penal system
Homosexuality in Soviet Prisons and Camps
An article by Russian LGBTQ activist Slava Mogutin and American LGBTQ activist Sonja Franeta on the history of homosexuality in the Soviet penal system
You Can't Teach the Lefthanded to Be Righthanded
An article from Argumenty i fakty from 1990 in which w journalists seek comment from Igor Kon on the topic of homosexuality
Valerii Pereleshin
Piece on the gay Russian émigré poet Valerii Pereleshin with excerpts from his verse cycle “Ariel” in gay newspaper Shans
"I cannot forsake my principles"
Nina Andreeva's letter published in Sovetskaia Rossiia
Soviet Homosexuals: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Essay by gay former Soviet inmate published in journal Gay, славяне!
Protect Yourself against AIDS, Brother!
AIDS prevention public service announcement in the gay magazine Импульс
Love is Nasty, It Can Make you Fall in Love with An Asshole
Item in Правда about Slava Mogutin’s attempt to register marriage to partner Robert Filipini
A Conservative Revolutionary Avant-Garde
“The New against the Old,” a programmatic article by Aleksandr Dugin from the first issue of Limonka, the official newspaper of Eduard Limonov’s National Bolshevik Party (NBP), radical political organization/countercultural movement.
An Armed Paradise
An article by Aleksey Tsvetkov, anarchist writer and associate director of Limonka who temporarily turned the newspaper to a postmodern art project of sorts.
“Rise, you cursed people!”: The Aesthetics of Limonka
A cover of Limonka from 1997 displaying a collage by Aleksandr Lebedev-Frontov.
Top Secret: Investigative Journalism and True Crime During Perestroika
Sovershenno sekretno, the first privately owned periodical in Soviet Russia since 1917, showcased a combination of transparency and sensationalism that became a distinguishing feature of journalistic writing in the post-Soviet period.
The First Article on Prostitution in the Soviet Union
"The White Dance" by Evgeny Dodolev broke a major taboo of Soviet press, by doing a report on the existence of foreign-currency prostitutes in the USSR. Dodolev would then go on to be a part of the Vzgliad team, as well as the creator of 1990s "Novyi vzgliad"
"Moscovskii komsomolets," 19-21 November, 1986
Novyi Vzgliad: Violence, Political Irony, and National Pride
Novyi Vzgliad authors write some of the most scandalous and incendiary political commentaries of the 1990s, producing new forms of political irony. Iaroslav Mogutin and Eduard Limonov turn violence into a paradoxical source of identity. The main artifact here–an article by Mogutin–exemplifies this process.
Romantics and Fascists
Kuryokhin explains his definition of fascism and his distinction between mainstream postmodernism and a postmodernism of protest.
Olga. Love and Faith Are Not Dead
Profile of a post-Soviet lesbian survivor of Soviet-era anti-LGBTQ repressions
Eduard Limonov: It’s Me, Eddy, Glagol Press.
Glagol Press (Moscow) 1991 edition of Eduard Limonov’s It’s Me, Eddy.
Revisiting Tchaikovsky's Supposed Suicide: Rebuttal
Article disputing accounts of Tchaikovsky’s suicide in the face of having his homosexuality broadly divulged.
Show Me a Happy Homosexual and I'll Show You a Gay Corpse
Pseudoscientific article on cures or treatments for homosexuality.
Gays and Lefties: Comrades in Misfortune
Interview of gay activist
Gorbachev is Man of the Year
Cover of Time Magazine, 1987
The Future of Crimea
Campaign documents surrounding the 1991–92 referenda on the independence of Crimea.
Alla Pugacheva — Post-Soviet Diva
The most famous woman in the Soviet Union transformed into a successful post-Soviet star.
Megapolis-Ekspress: Urban Exoticism and National Pride
Igor Dudinsky takes over the magazine Megapolis-ekspress and turns it into an extreme and surreal parody of the lowest and most excessively sensationalist forms of Western tabloids.
the eXile: Bespredel for Expats
A selection of articles from the English-language magazine the eXile, which combined gonzo journalism and styob and provided unique reporting on post-Soviet Russia, while at the same time fetishizing the 1990s lawlessness or bespredel and the Westerners’ exploitation of Russia (sexual and otherwise) that it itself denounced and condemned.
Oleg Kulik and Alexander Brener, Rabid Dog or the last taboo guarded by a lone Cerberus, Nov. 23rd, 1994. The street outside Marat Guelman’s gallery, Moscow.
A snarling, nude and chained Kulik attacks cars and strangers, while Brener pulls on the chain, both are in a public street.
"Tsoi's Wall" on Arbat
A wall of fan graffiti dedocated to the late Soviet rock star Viktor Tsoi on Moscow's famous Arbat Street.
Leningrad Rock Club
A wall of graffiti in the courtyard of the Leningrad Rock Club (1981-1991) on 13 Rubinshteyna Street in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), which featured fan street art dedicated to USSR's most revered rock-music collectives. When the wall was painted over in 2010 by the bulding's new proprietor, this caused a public outcry from both rock fans and the many surviving musicians from that era, who sought to preserve the LRC's legacy and designmate the wall and the building a historical landmark.
Shaburov Sasha Christ
Alexander Shaburov developed a series of performances about artistic identity, which included both mocking and pastiching the cult leader Marina Tsvigun (AKA "Maria Devi Christ" ) whose group attempted to seize the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv in 1993.
"First Glove" by Alexander Brener
Alexander Brener, "First Glove" 1995: a performance where Brener challenged Yeltsin to a fist-fight on the Red Square.
Anatoly Osmolovsky & the Nongovernmental Control Commission, Against Everyone, 1999, Lenin’s Masoleum
A group of people holding a banner reading "Against Everyone" stand atop Lenin's Masoleum.
Alexander Shaburov's "Monument to an Invisible Man", 1999
A monument pedestal with no statue, two uneven footprints are imprinted on the pedestal.
Expropriation of the Territory of Art, E.T.A--text, 1991
Image of the actionist group E.T.A. forming an obscene word out of their bodies in front of the Kremlin
Issue #1 of “Radek”, 1994
Cover of "Radek" featuring four denuded men in front of the burned White house.
The “Kartinnik”/”Picture-man” society at the Dam boardwalk in Sverdlovsk, 1989
A photograph of a group of youths doing a Punk-Skomorokh performance at a public boardwalk. B.U. Kashkin's "Kartinnik" circle creates a wave of notorious but positive and cheerful actionism.
3pm on Sundays at the Dam, the jesters [skomorokhi] will gift society pictures!, 1989 Tempera on Wood panel.
B.U. Kashkin's circle created outsider art in various media, but especially painting, distributing it to the public during their Punk-Skomorokh perfromances. B.U. Kashkin encouraged amateur artists to experiment with public art.
The Non-governmental Control Committee, Barricade, Bolshaia Nikitinskaia street, 1998
Photograph of artists barricading Bolshaia Nikitinskaia street
Dmitri Vrubel, "My God, Help Me To Survive This Deadly Love", 1990, graffiti, Berlin Wall, East Berlin.
Graffiti of Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker kissing on the East Berlin wall.
Novikov's New Russian Classicism: Pop Culture, Fashion, and Totalitarianism
Timur Novikov’s essay and manifesto “The New Russian Classicism.”
Gone with the Wind - The post-Soviet Sequels
Series of five collectively authored sequels to Margaret Mitchell's bestselling Gone with the Wind. Writing in Minsk, the anonymous authors published under the pseudonym Dzhuliia Khilpatrik and released titles like We'll Call Her Scarlett, Rhett Butler's Son, and Scarlett's Last Love.
Olympic Stadium Book Market
The center of the post-Soviet book trade made its home in the corridors of the enormous stadium built for the 1980s summer games in Moscow. It was chaotic, even dangerous, and an embarrassment of riches.
Proekt OGI
A literary club opened by the United Humanitarian Publishers (OGI) in 1998 in the apartment of Dmitrii Ol'shanskii, Proekt OGI represented one of the more successful attempts to reclaim the late-Soviet underground in the new post-Soviet, capitalist world.
Long Live PaperLessLit
Soviet paper shortages, new computer technologies, and the lifting of censorship come together in an unexpected way in this proposal to preserve manuscripts of unpublished authors for posterity.
“Dictatorship of Conscience”
Play by Mikhail Shatrov that opened at the Lenin Komsomol Theather in Moscow, Feb. 1986
The Black Series from Vagrius
The book series “Contemporary Russian Prose” or the “Black Series,” published by Vagrius, one of post-Soviet Russia’s most successful commercial publishers, made bestsellers out of literary prose.
Philosophy on the Margins
Series of philosophical and theoretical texts from Russian and international authors published by Ad Marginem and meant to bring the latest in global thought into newly opened post-Soviet minds.
Interview with Victor Pelevin
After the launch of Victor Pelevin’s hit novel Generation ‘P’, the author set out on a publicity tour in which he behaved poorly, much like his protagonist. And much like his protagonist, he proved that in post-Soviet Russia, bad behavior sells.
Babylon (online) Vavilon (.ru)
Vavilon, or Babylon, began as a loose group of young poets brought together by Dmitry Kuz'min in 1988. In the post-Soviet years, the group's almanac and then webside became a driving forces behind some of the most innovative poetry of the 1990s.
Bestsellers of Moscow
Post-Soviet Russia's first bestseller lists, compiled by the weekly industry newspaper Knizhnoe obozrenie and published from late 1993 through 1998.
The Triumph Prize
Launched at the same time as the Russian Booker and funded by the newly minted oligarch Boris Berezovsky, the Triumph Prize promised an even broader program of cultural guardianship and philanthropy.
Rebuilding Russia
Alexander Solzhenitsyn's traditionalist prescription for pulling Russia out of its difficulties was seen by many as out of touch with the times, but many of the ideas he expounded in 1991 have become part of Russia's neo-revanchism in recent years.
Vladimir Putin's 1999 Vision for Russia
Just before assuming the presidency, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin published an essay that outlined his vision for Russia. He saw it as a post-industrial society that could successfully integrate into the new world order only with a strong central government.
Artifcat 00006
anti-USSR pamphlet
“Go buy some food… for the last time!” Yeltsin takes on Zyuganov in the 1996 presidential election
Anti-Zyuganov poster ("buy food... for the last time!")
Vyacheslav Marychev, "Actor" of the Russian Duma
During a Duma session, Marychev cocks a gun while wearing sunglasses and a Megadeth t-shirt tucked into high-waisted slacks
Kolia Vasin’s petition for the “John Lennon Church of Rock-n-Roll” (Khram Rok-n-rolla imeni Dzhona Lennona.) in St. Petersburg (April 1992).
An official petition for the establishment of the so-called "John Lennon Church of Rock-n-Roll" in St. Petersburg, conceived by the self-described "Beatlelologist" Kolia Vasin, a major personality in and driver behind the formation of Leningrad's rock music community.
Maria Devi Khristos
Maria Devi Khristos, street poster with a woman in religious regalia making a gesture of blessing, 1991.
Poster of the The Beer Lovers' Party, Text: “Beer Lovers’ Party: Is this serious? This is serious!” 1995.
Poster in the style of Soviet agit-prop promoting the Beer Lovers' Party
Election poster for the Democratic Choice of Russia--United Democrats 1995 campaign for the Duma.
Poster depicting a stream of people entering a giant pack of Belomor Canal cigarettes to promote the Democratic Choice of Russia--United Democrats Party.
"LoveIs" gum insert
"LoveIs" gum insert. Image shows a man and woman walking somewhere. The English text reads: "taking him/her to the place you lived before marrying". The Russian text reads: "Showing her your future marriage house". LoveIs featured Kim Casali's syndicated cartoon "Love Is", however the explosion in similarly adorned gum included everything from film stills from the Godfather and Jurassic Park to pornography.
Fascist Fashion Between Counterculture and Mainstream
Images from a photo shoot from the Polushkin Brothers’ collection Fash-Fashion–alluding to both queer and fascist aesthetics–is used as an ad for the popular brand Dr. Martens in the lifestyle magazine Ptiuch and as a model for a nascent National Bolshevik countercultural aesthetics in the pages of the newly founded political newspaper Limonka.
Cover for “Red Hogwash” [“Krasnaia Burda”], issue 1, October 1990 by G. Malyshev.
The first issue of Red Hogwash's cover depicts a man in the costume of the Statue of Liberty lighting a cigarette with the torch.
Places of Interest for Gays in Moscow
An annotated map of gay locales (cafes, bars, nightclubs, saunas, and cruising areas or "pleshki" in a 1997 issue of the gay magazine Арго
A Man Who Keeps Up with the Times
A piece on David Bowie, focusing on the star’s bisexuality, in the glossy color gay magazine Мальчишник
World of New Russians Dictionary
Page from the "World of New Russians Dictionary" with a mocking Vitruvian man.
Sergei Penkin: "Holiday" Album Cover
Cover art for an album by pop-music artist Sergei Penkin.
Express-Gazette Cover, Headlines: “Pugacheva is being tricky”, “Fillip’s Spermatozoid” 1998
Busy tabloid cover depicting pop stars Alla Pugacheva and Fillip Kirkorov embracing next to a headline speculating about the viability of Kirkorov's sperm.
SpidInfo #1, January 1991
Cover of the first issue of SpidInfo depicting an anxious nude couple turned away from each other in bed.
Tanks in Lithuania
Pravda coverage of Soviet tanks in Vilnius, January 1991
1992-1993 Math calendar intended for a secondary school student with a photograph of Viktor Tsoi, frontman of the rock band Kino on its front cover.
Serving as a testament to the meteoric rise in popularity and the widespread influence of rock music culture on the everyday lives of the newly post-Soviet citizens, this 1992/1993 math calendar, intended for schoolchildren set to master the concepts of algebra and geometry, cements the shift of public opinion about the position and status of rock musicians in Soviet/post-Soviet society from that of ideologically nefarious loafers to newly minted fallen heroes and teenage idols. The recently deceased Tsoi is inscribed in this artifact as an officially sanctioned role model for Russian youth, whose death is emblematic of the fading old regime, and whose music is a fully commercialized consumer product.