World of New Russians Dictionary

The ironic business art venture by Grigorii Bal’tser, a prolific art dealer and collector, was launched in 1998, with a storefront on the prestigious Arbat boulevard in Moscow. Its first offerings included a book series by artist Katya Metelitsa and a variety of handcrafted objects in Russian folk art styles. Every item sold at the World of New Russians mocked and mythologized so-called “New Russians”: the class of professional criminals and carpetbaggers whose wealth, violence, and excess dominated the public imagination during the 1990s. The ironic works sold in the store depict New Russians in genre scenes emphasizing their ridiculous luxury, wild fashion, and overall habitus. This artifact, the "Dictionary" released by a team of writers headed by Metelitsa and illustrated by V. Fomina was published in 1988. Written in the style of a children's alphabet book, each page offers a playful representation of a New Russian pastime or problem, aligning the key words to match the featured letter. The accompanying image is from the page opposite the list of contents, representing a New Russian as the Vitruvian man, accompanied by multiple signifiers of his glamourous and ridiculous identity, which the page instructs the reader to find in the scavenger hunt at the bottom: "Challenge. Find the following in the picture: the addiks [adidas sneakers], the versaces, the golds [sic.]..." The list concludes with a direct address: "Too hard? Study our dictionary!"