Petrovich, the Soviet everyman, survives post-Soviet Russia in “Kommersant”

A collection of "Petrovich" cartoons by Andrei Bil’zho published in Russia’s “first business newspaper,” “Kommersant.” Bil’zho’s drawings depict a hapless and repulsive comic personage, born and raised in the Soviet era but trying to get his bearings in post-Soviet capitalism.

View Artifact

An episode of the talk show “Tema”: “Racism in Russia”

A clip from the talk show "Tema [Theme]," Vladislav Listyev's (1956-1995) major post-Soviet project after the 1991 end of “Vzgliad.” This episode centers on racism in Russia and includes guest Dzheims (James) Lloydovich Patterson (1933-), who played an interracial baby in the classic Stalin-era musical comedy Circus (1936).

View Artifact

Referendum 1993: the "Yes Yes No Yes" campaign

“Yes, yes, no yes [Da, Da, Net, Da],” an agitational propaganda campaign for the 1993 referendum, featuring the slogan "We are building a new Russia!"

View Artifact

The Glasnost Booth during the USSR’s last celebration of the October Revolution

“Glas naroda” (The People’s Voice) was a booth installed in the middle of Moscow, into which random people could enter and speak their minds on camera. For this 1991 episode, the booth was set in the vicinity of the Kremlin on last anniversary of the October Revolution ever celebrated in the USSR.

View Artifact

"New Russians" at “Kommersant”

A series of articles from the nascent “Kommersant Daily” dating to late 1992/ early 1993 sought to assess the paper’s target audience, the wealthy class of so-called “New Russians.”

View Artifact

“Field of Wonders”: The post-Soviet people’s show

A clip from the most-watched entertainment show of the 1990s, "Pole chudes [Field of Wonders],” featuring the post-Soviet “narod” (people) of regular folks engaged in a free-flowing relationship with both capitalism and Russia’s Central Television.

View Artifact