DDT’s Shevchuk Goes to Chechnya
An excerpt from “Vremia DDT,” a 2002 documentary centered on DDT, one of Russia’s best-known rock bands throughout the 1990s and later. A montage of amateur footage by DDT leader and frontman Yuri Shevchuk (1957-), who visited Russian frontlines during the First Chechen War in 1995-1996, is backed by the song “Patsany [Guys],” itself inspired by Shevchuk’s experience.
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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).
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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.
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"Pro Eto." Male Prostitution
A clip from the talk show "Pro Eto" with Elena Khanga, episode on male prostitution.
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“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.
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“Politburo” versus the specter of communism during the 1993 Constitutional Crisis
A clip from “Politburo,” a weekly commentary show from Aleksandr Politkovsky, a former host of “Vzgliad.” This episode aired in the days following the April referendum that solidified Yeltsin’s position, and, in particular, follows People’s Deputy (and Yeltsin opponent) Alexander Rutskoy's first salvo in the so-called "Kompromat Wars," in which he made public 11 suitcases’ worth of material allegedly documenting Yeltsin's corruption. The episode ends with some May Day-themed anti-communist “chastushki” (Russian limericks).
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