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.

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Pro Eto - The Sexual Lives of the Disabled

Clip from Pro Eto hosted by Elena Khanga that brings together 1990s interest in sex with the increasing visibility of disabilities and the disintegration of state institutions previously entrusted with their care.

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Ekho Moskvy - 20 August 1991

Live coverage of the GKChP putsch in August 1991 from the Echo of Moscow radio station. Demonstrates the chaos of the moment, the putschists' failure to control their message, and the power of the newly independent media.

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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.

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First Russian-language LiveJournal Post

A post in 1999 demonstrates that LiveJournal processes Cyrillic encoding, leading to the Russian internet's most pervasive and influential early social media site. LiveJournal, soon known simply as ZhZh in Russian, became a platform for poets, writers, political activists, essayists and graphomaniacs. It launched or catalyzed several literary and political careers, and fed the budding market for conspiratorial thinking in late 1990s Russia.

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The Russian Booker - Scandals

A series of five articles scandalously decrying the new literary prize, imported from England, the Russian Booker.

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