A page from the World of New Russians Dictionary featuring a mocking rendition of Leonard Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” (c. 1490).

A snarling, nude Oleg Kulik (1961-) attacks cars and strangers on the street, while his friend, Alexander Brener (1957-), pulls on a chain attached to his neck. 

Perestroika, the puzzle game based on the eponymous series of late-Soviet political reforms, heralded a new, weird age in Russian gaming in its inexplicable attempt to represent the ongoing political turmoil via the reductive means of traversing colorful islands to prosperity. 

This Ukrainian video game attempted to represent the rough transition to capitalism via a detailed, simulationist interface.

Mikhail Gorbachev’s (1931-2022) speech before a gathering of state media leaders on 14 March 1986, in which he named the Soviet media as the driver of perestroika’s success—positioning it as both a revolutionary force for public awakening and a loyal partner to the Party.