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Lenin Was a Mushroom
An excerpt from the famous episode of the TV show "Piatoe koleso" (The Fifth Wheel) in which the experimental musician and performer Sergey Kuryokhin (1954-1996) nearly convinced Soviet audiences that "Lenin was a mushroom."
View ArtifactThe First (Home-Made) Post-Soviet Independent TV
The Saint Petersburg “New Artists” stage a meeting of the committee “anti-state of emergency” on their “Pirate Television,” declaring their support of Yeltsin against the group of communist hardliners who led the coup d’etat against Gorbachev on August 19, 1991.
View Artifactthe eXile: Bespredel for Expats
The Moscow-based, English-language magazine the eXile combined gonzo journalism and stiob to provide unique reporting on post-Soviet Russia. At the same time, the outlet fetishized the very 1990s-era lawlessness or bespredel—not to mention Western sexual and economic exploitation of Russia—that it nominally denounced and condemned.
View Artifact1992-1993 School math calendar
1992-1993 Math calendar intended for a secondary school student with a photograph of Viktor Tsoi, leader of the rock band Kino on its front cover.
View ArtifactThe Rise of Public Opinion Polling
A collection of data presentation venues of the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM). After the fall of the Soviet Union, VTsIOM became the Russian Federation’s most important polling organization.
View ArtifactNovikov's Shocking Coming Out (Draft)
During an interview, Timur Novikov and Sergey "Afrika" Bugaev talk about their otherwise unconfessed homosexuality in an intentionally shocking way.
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