Explore: Year » 1986

Russian Crime Statistics, 1980-1996

Nothing epitomized the everyday experience of the urban Russian 1990s like crime. As this first comprehensive statistical study of the 1990s demonstrates, crime was just as bad as everyone had anecdotally experienced. The numbers also reveal some unexpected trends.

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Klei-Moment

Made by the German Henkel company, Moment-brand glue was a staple of post-Soviet hobbyists. It also became one of the preferred drugs among post-Soviet youth. The brand name alone became synonymous with huffing.

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AIDS: More Questions than Answers

Late-Soviet mainstream-press article about the AIDS epidemic (from the newspaper Литературная газета)

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“Dictatorship of Conscience” (Draft)

Play by Mikhail Shatrov that opened at the Lenin Komsomol Theather in Moscow, Feb. 1986

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Perestroika 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 long-time Soviet propagandist and future star of liberal post-Soviet TV, Vladimir Pozner

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Urlait Music Journal (Samizdat) 1985-1992 (Draft)

Moscow's samizdat music journal, which followed in the footsteps of Lenigrad's Roksi while forging a new journalistic style. The journal positioned itself to in many ways reject the Leningrad scene. Despite Moscow-based bands generally leaning towards a more avant-garde, art-rock aesthetic, Urlait made a point to promote so-called "national rock." According to Urlait's founder I. Smirnov, bands like DDT, DK, and Oblachnyi Krai (Yuri Loza) were said to be "oriented towards national problems, in opposition to estrada and the confluence of Western and domestic cultural traditions."

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