For almost a month in 1990, a student named S. Piskunov documented regional shortages in a "kitchen diary," responding to “Komsomol’skaia pravda”'s call for readers to track the impacts of Gorbachev's economic reforms on daily life.

A glasnost-era play by Mikhail Shatrov (1932-2010) that opened, without the cuts censors had previously requested, at the Lenin Komsomol Theater in Moscow in February 1986. 

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.

A series of philosophical and theoretical texts from Russian and international authors published by Ad Marginem, meant to bring the latest in global thought into newly opened post-Soviet minds.

Alexander Liubimov’s (1962-) talk show, “One on One,” staged debates between public figures who disagreed strongly with each other. When nationalist provocateur Vladimir Zhirinovsky (1946-2022) and liberal reformer Boris Nemtsov (1959-2015) met on air in as the First Chechen War (1994-1996) was just beginning, sparks—and a piece of the set—flew.

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.