An Online Babylon: Vavilon.ru
Vavilon, or Babylon, began as a loose group of young poets brought together by Dmitry Kuzmin in 1988. In the post-Soviet years, the group's almanac, and then website, became a driving force behind some of the most innovative poetry of the 1990s.
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Chumak sends morning healing vibes to perestroika-era audiences
A 1989 healing session with TV psychic Allan Chumak (1935-2017) taking place during the morning newscast “120 Minutes.” Chumak alleged that his techniques worked not only on people themselves, but also on their drinking water and moisturizing products.
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Kino’s last concert (Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow)
Footage of a live Kino concert at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium on June 24, 1990, roughly a month and half prior to frontman Viktor Tsoi's death in a car accident in rural Latvia. The footage shows the band at the very height of its popularity, as well as offering an unencumbered look at a country in transition: a heavy and conspicuous Soviet police detail is assigned to the event, while audience members wave both the Soviet flag and the Russian tricolor banner.
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Losing the Soviet nation on "KVN"
The winter 1992 opening broadcast of the amateur variety and improv contest show “KVN” (“the Club of the Jolly and Resourceful”). Filmed just a few months after the dissolution of the USSR, the episode features former Soviet university teams lamenting the new national borders appearing all around them.
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Perestroika-era Russian Women Speak to US Women
A clip from one of many perestroika-era televised conversations between American and Soviet "regular people," in which they find common ground with the help of longtime Soviet propagandist and future star of liberal post-Soviet TV, Vladimir Pozner (1934-).
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“500 Days: Program Summary,” a special issue of "Komsomolskaya pravda"
A special issue of the long-running Soviet daily "Komsomolskaya pravda" dedicated to economist Stanislav Shatalin's (1934-1997) "500 days" plan for economic reform under Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022).
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