June 12 is the day of signing the “Declaration of State Sovereignty of the RSFSR” and has been officially considered a public holiday for nineteen years. Pravmir's regular columnist Ksenia Kirillova recalls her 90s and invites readers to walk this path together
Since 2002, this day has been short name“Russia Day”, after which a second, “popular” name was immediately attached to it - Independence Day. This is largely why the attitude towards the new holiday became ambiguous. In fact, what are we celebrating independence from? From the memory of the past? From neighboring fraternal peoples?
In fact, the declaration adopted in 1990 directly indicated that Russia remained a part of Russia, and nothing was said there about its independence. In fact, the document did not mark the collapse of the Union, but the beginning of that very controversial era, which today is commonly called the “dashing nineties.”
Today this “new Russia”, which appeared on paper 21 years ago, is celebrating its “English coming of age”. Nowadays, more and more often there are attempts to evaluate (and most often negatively) those years that fell during the “childhood” of this very “new Russia”. In fact, the final outcome of this time can only be summed up many years later.
I will only try to make a few sketches of that time through the eyes of those whose childhood coincided with the childhood of the post-Union country, and who grew up and made mistakes along with the new Russia.
We, “the same age as the century,” those who just started school at the very beginning of the 90s, still saw (especially in the Russian outback) school uniforms and October badges. We lived, it seemed, in two worlds.
There was something almost fabulous in these brown dresses and black aprons, in Soviet textbooks, literally stuffed with phrases about the Soviet Union and Soviet children (other textbooks at that time simply had not yet been published), while the country was seething.
We learned to read, memorizing a verse dedicated to Lenin’s decree, and at the same time we knew perfectly well that Lenin had created in our country some kind of evil that we were not fully aware of, but unconditional.
Our parents were not paid salaries, there was always a shortage of money, but we, sensitively adopting the mood of adults at the age of seven, rejoiced at the amazing feeling of freedom that was literally in the air in those years. Having no experience of repression and persecution, we perceived freedom precisely as a feeling that made up the joy of life, as something obligatory and irreplaceable.
In our childhood teasing, we joked about political topics, made fun of parliamentary fights, and somehow knew that our right to joke so fearlessly was extremely valuable.
Frightened by the coup of 1991, we, glued to the TV screens, looked at the barricades that had grown up on the streets of Moscow, and the adults frightened us with the fact that if the communists came to power, we would no longer be able to say what we think so freely. For some reason, the thought of this was more frightening than the sight of the barricades.
I will forever remember this unchildish feeling of the value of freedom mixed with childhood fear - main value 90s.
Primary school ended quickly, and we, miraculously going straight from the third grade to the fifth, plunged headlong into a completely new world, where there are no school uniforms or maternity leave left.
The variety and abundance of children's toys like today, in which everyone chooses their own, did not yet exist. In a country not unaccustomed to totalitarianism, the fashion for everything new also entered our lives totally, forcing everyone to unconditionally obey their trends.
Probably all my peers remember Barbie dolls and Transformers, Kinder surprises and magazines with stickers, stretchable springs and the same chewing gum inserts for everyone.
We all watched the same Mexican TV series, which became a real revelation for Russian viewers, and approximately the same cartoons. And, to be honest, many of the children of that time dreamed of becoming racketeers or simply bandits.
With delight, we then ran up to the first orange kiosks that looked like iron booths, and, not noticing their ugliness, crowded around the windows. On summer nights, when the windows were wide open and covered only with a gauze net against mosquitoes (there were no fumigators yet), we sometimes heard real shots, and in the morning we could find bizarre burnt orange ruins in place of yesterday’s kiosks.
The redistribution of property was in full swing.
We grew up early, at the age of ten we already knew perfectly well what financial pyramids, scammers and, of course, MMM JSC are.
In the courtyards we played not at fascists and Russians, but at the war with Chechen militants, not at the storming of Stalingrad, but at the liberation of the Budenovskaya hospital, or, at worst, ninja turtles.
Children of the mid-nineties already knew for sure that they needed to be afraid not of communists, but, but otherwise life began to change for the better. At least parents began to receive salaries, and schools began to receive new generation textbooks.
In those years, some of us, mainly under the influence of our parents, began to go to church, which, however, did not prevent them from practicing magic and fortune telling. With such an increase in religiosity, I honestly admit that it became increasingly difficult for me to prove to my peers that there is no God. In this strange atheism learned from childhood, there was, perhaps, only one positive moment: I managed to avoid a mass fascination with the occult.
The massive dominance of that time somehow also bypassed me and my friends. We were not yet the Internet generation, we did not quickly learn where children come from, and we still spent most of our lives not in front of a monitor, but in the courtyards.
A computer seemed then to be a sign of great wealth, and few people had even heard of cell phones. We played mainly in the courtyard of a long five-story building with twelve entrances, in the last of which, as I understand now, two Mormons managed to live. To get home, these unfortunate people had to walk through the entire yard, bypassing all other entrances.
Of course, none of us realized that the new housemates were Mormons, and no one knew what was hidden behind this word. However, ten and twelve year old tomboys very quickly realized that two people in white shirts with badges and backpacks were Americans, and therefore the unfortunate people were automatically designated as spies.
I don’t know where the representatives “ next generation", accustomed to idolizing everything American, such patriotism awoke, but foreign guests had a very hard time. As soon as they appeared at the very beginning of the yard, all the boys who were on the street at that moment instantly learned about it, and along the entire path from the corner of the house to the last entrance, the visiting missionaries were subjected to either sand bombardment, accompanied by shouts: “Yankee, go home,” or undisguised surveillance.
On the walls of the entrance where the Americans lived, offensive inscriptions made with markers very quickly appeared, and when the missionaries left the house, a whole detachment of grimy “counterintelligence officers” was sent after them. As a result of this “anti-sectarian campaign” that we unwittingly carried out, the Mormons quickly moved into a high-rise building that had virtually no yard.
However, the story with the Mormons was the exception rather than the rule. The nineties had crossed the middle, and we still almost blindly worshiped everything American, and many people sincerely wanted to leave the country. MTV and “Cool girl” have firmly entered our lives, significantly vulgarizing the process of our growing up. However, other values began to appear in the life of our generation, for example, education and career. For the first time during the “dashing 90s”, the guys began to think that entering a university would not be so easy.
And then the Yugoslav War of 1999 began - the first event, perhaps, that marked the rise of a national self-awareness that had been driven somewhere deep into the depths. We, already unaccustomed to the times early childhood from the news programs, they again rushed to track all the events of the bombings. Those who were not yet completely immersed in reading “Cool girl” and collecting portraits of pop idols, caught the BBC on large, cassette music centers and tried to grasp the meaning English phrases, in which familiar words pronounced with an accent were guessed: “Belgrade”, “Nish”, “Kragujevac”.
Since childhood, I loved to relax in Kislovodsk, knowing from memory every corner of the huge park that smoothly turns into mountains. Last time I was in this favorite city of my childhood just in the summer of 99, after graduating. Walking along a familiar serpentine road, I suddenly heard a bell ringing for the first time. It came from somewhere behind the huge maple leaves, from the opposite mountain slope.
I immediately remembered an article from one Yekaterinburg newspaper, which said that this was the ringing that marked the end of the war in the Balkans in the second largest city of Serbia, Nis.
In the 90s...
And then, childishly succumbing to this sudden association and the general joy of summer holidays, the blinding blue sky and golden domes sparkling through the foliage, I said what came to mind at that moment: “This is Nisch!”
It turns out that it was in this year, 1999, that the central dome of the St. Nicholas Cathedral of Kislovodsk, which was blown up in 1936, was erected.
St. Nicholas Church could indeed be abbreviated by consonance as “Nish,” but this was not even a matter of this strange coincidence.
It was there, on the Caucasian serpentine road, familiar from early childhood, that at the age of 14 I finally realized that I was unlikely to prove to my classmates that there is no God; that in this world there are some tiny islands of good, which inexplicably turn out to be stronger than all the evil that exists in the world; that our country is the most beautiful in the world, and every person should definitely hear such a ringing in life and find his Niche...
The nineties were ending, just as our childhood was ending. The new Russia was entering a time of youth.
What can you tell me, dear readers?
5 (100%) 1 vote
When it comes to the 90s, each of us sighs heavily. “Oh, it was a difficult time!” - remember those who happened to be young or born in this decade. Even though the time was difficult, these people can still be called lucky.
The times of youth are always remembered with nostalgia. The dashing nineties were a difficult time in the life of the country, but today many miss them. Perhaps this is explained by the fact that at that time the republics of the Soviet Union had just gained independence. It seemed that everything old had sunk into oblivion, and a wonderful future awaited everyone.
If you ask contemporaries what the “dashing nineties” mean, many will talk about the feeling of infinity of opportunities and strength to strive for them. This is a period of real “social teleportation”, when ordinary guys from residential areas became rich, but it was very risky: a huge number of young people died in gang wars. But the risk was justified: those who managed to survive became very respected people. It is not surprising that part of the population is still nostalgic for those times.
The phrase “dashing nineties”
Dashing nineties. Photo Oddly enough, this concept appeared quite recently, at the beginning of the so-called “zero”. Putin's rise to power marked the end of Yeltsin's freedom and the onset of real order. Over time, the state strengthened, and there was even gradual growth. Food stamps are a thing of the past, like Soviet-era lines, and empty store shelves have been replaced by the abundance of modern supermarkets.
The dashing nineties can be perceived negatively or positively, but the country needed them in order to be revived after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It's unlikely that things could have been different. After all, it was not just the state that collapsed, an entire ideology collapsed. And people cannot create, learn and accept new rules in one day
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Chronicle of significant events Russia declared independence on June 12, 1990. A confrontation between two presidents began: one - Gorbachev - was elected by the Congress of People's Deputies, the second - Yeltsin - was elected by the people. The culmination was the August putsch. The dashing nineties have begun. Crime received complete freedom, because all prohibitions were lifted. The old rules have been canceled, but the new ones have not yet been introduced or are not established in public consciousness.
The country was swept by an intellectual and sexual revolution. However, economically, Russia has sunk to the level of primitive societies. Instead of wages, many were given food, and people had to exchange some products for others, building cunning chains involving sometimes even a dozen individuals. Money has depreciated so much that most citizens have become millionaires.
On the path to independence It is impossible to talk about the “dashing nineties” without mentioning the historical context. The first significant event was the “tobacco riot” in Sverdlovsk, which occurred on August 6, 1990. Hundreds of people, outraged by the lack of smoke in stores in their city, stopped the movement of trams in the center. On June 12, 1991, the people elect Boris Yeltsin as President of the Russian Federation. Criminal showdowns begin.
A week later, a coup attempt occurs in the USSR. Because of this, a state of emergency committee was created in Moscow, which was supposed to govern the country during the transition period. However, it only lasted four days. In December 1991, the “center” (one of the criminal groups) opened a casino in Russia. Soon Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and last president The USSR resigns its powers “for reasons of principle.” On December 26, 1991, a declaration was adopted on the cessation of the existence of the USSR in connection with the formation of the CIS.
Independent Russia Immediately after the New Year, on January 2, 1991, prices were liberalized in the country. The food immediately became bad. Prices have skyrocketed, but wages have remained the same. On October 1, 1992, the population began to be issued privatization vouchers for their housing.
So far, foreign passports have been issued only with the permission of the regional leadership. In the summer of 1993, the Government House in Yekaterinburg was shelled with a grenade launcher, and in the fall, troops began an assault in Moscow. Six years later, Yeltsin resigned early, and Vladimir Putin came to power for the first time.
Order or freedom? The dashing nineties were racketeering and gangsters, glitter and poverty, elite prostitutes and sorcerers on TV, prohibition and businessmen. Only 20 years have passed, and the former Soviet republics have changed almost beyond recognition. This was not a time of social elevators, but rather of teleportations. Simple guys, yesterday's schoolchildren, became bandits, then bankers, and sometimes deputies. But these are the ones who survived.
Opinions
In those days, business was built completely differently than it is now. Then no one would even think of going to college to get a degree. The first step was to buy a gun. If the weapon did not pull down the back pocket of his jeans, then no one would talk to the aspiring businessman. The pistol helped in conversations with dull interlocutors. If the guy was lucky and didn't get killed early on, he could quickly buy a jeep. The opportunities to make money seemed endless.
Money came and went very easily. Some went bankrupt, and the more fortunate took their accumulated wealth, or rather plunder, abroad, and then became oligarchs and engaged in completely legitimate types of business. In government agencies the situation was much worse. Employees' salaries were constantly delayed. And this is during a period of insane inflation. They often paid in products, which then had to be exchanged in markets. It was at this time that corruption in government agencies flourished. If the guys went to the “brothers”, then the girls went to the prostitutes. They were also often killed. But some of them managed to earn “a piece of bread with caviar” for themselves and their families.
Representatives of the intellectual elite often became unemployed during this period. They were ashamed to go to the market and trade, as most people did, hoping to at least somehow earn money. Many tried to go abroad by any means. During this period, another stage of “brain drain” occurred. Experience and habits The dashing nineties determined the entire life of an entire generation.
They formed a whole set of ideas and habits among those who were young then. And often, even now, twenty years later, they still determine their lives. These people rarely trust the system. They often view any government initiative with suspicion. Too often they have been deceived by the government. This generation has great difficulty trusting banks with their hard-earned money. They are more likely to convert them into dollars, or better yet, take them abroad. It is generally very difficult for them to save money, because during inflation they literally melted before their eyes. Those who survived the turbulent nineties are afraid to complain to various authorities.
In those days, bandits were in charge, so to the common man there was no point in trying to enforce the letter of the law. Although the youth of the nineties themselves do not like to adhere to any rules or restrictions. But their advantage is that they are not afraid of any difficulties. After all, they were able to survive in the dashing nineties, which means they are hardened and will survive any crisis. But can that situation happen again?
The dashing nineties: heirs It seemed that with Putin’s coming to power this period of time in Russian history ended forever. The country gradually emerged from poverty and unemployment, and the mafia was almost forgotten. However, after the global financial crisis, the notorious stability never returned. And many began to wonder whether the dashing 90s would return. But can organized crime appear on its own, as is commonly believed? The forecast for the future of modern Russia depends on the answer to this question. Although, without going into details, two elements are needed for the emergence of crime: the need for a large-scale redistribution of property and the need to preserve democracy as a government policy.
However, it is unlikely that the “freedom” of the nineties will be repeated.
These were the years.
Everyone whose character was formed during this period has common traits, which we will now talk about. So, if you were born, grew up or were young in the dashing 90s, then this is all about you!
1. You don't trust the system. And this is not at all surprising! The collapse of the Soviet Union and all the ensuing consequences could not help but instill fear of the actions of the state machine. Especially when it comes to such serious things as pension reform. Bitter experience has shown that the state cannot be trusted, and no one wants to give it money for safekeeping.
2. You know how to defend yourself. Of course, considering how much you've been through. An ordinary skirmish with hooligans at that time could very easily end in bloodshed. This taught you to be prepared for anything and to protect yourself and your loved ones in any situation.
3. You really love sex. And with pleasure you bring sexual fantasies to life. Why not experiment? After all, you grew up at a time when so much information about sex fell on our shoulders. Do you remember porn tapes disguised as documentaries, hidden on your parents' shelf? Everyone experimented back then, and you still have the urge to do so.
4. You don't know how to save money. Due to the fact that a lot of capital went bankrupt in the 90s, you got stuck in your head with the idea that you need to spend everything at once. Otherwise, hard-earned money, if not sunk into oblivion, will at least depreciate. Therefore, now your lifestyle is excessive extravagance. And if you manage to save, it’s with very great difficulty.
5. You don't know how to complain. You lived in a time when you shouldn’t trust anyone - corrupt police, gangs, corruption and complete chaos all around. Well, how could you not close yourself off here? Complaining was dangerous, and you've been afraid to do it ever since.
6. You think our girls are the sexiest. Now the fashion of the 90s seems too frank and vulgar. It’s so good that girls stopped wearing waist-wide miniskirts! But they still exude the spirit of sexuality and freedom. Girls still wear beautiful dresses, heels, jewelry, emphasize the figure with belts and love deep necklines. Everyone is trying to be the most beautiful. How can you not admire this?
7. And your most important feature is that you are not afraid of difficulties. If you managed to survive the dashing 90s, then now you are no longer afraid of anything. You have gone through fire, water and copper pipes, which means your character is tempered and stable. And you can cope with any difficulties in no time!
That's how complicated we are, people who come from the 90s!
Now admit it: do you recognize yourself here? Write in the comments how many points you matched and be sure to share this article with your friends!
The times of youth are always remembered with nostalgia. The dashing nineties were a difficult time in the life of the country, but today many miss them. Perhaps this is explained by the fact that they had just gained independence then. It seemed that everything old had sunk into oblivion, and a wonderful future awaited everyone.
If you ask contemporaries what the “dashing nineties” mean, many will talk about the feeling of infinity of opportunities and strength to strive for them. This is a period of real “social teleportation”, when ordinary guys from residential areas became rich, but it was very risky: a huge number of young people died in gang wars. But the risk was justified: those who managed to survive became very respected people. It is not surprising that part of the population is still nostalgic for those times.
The phrase “dashing nineties”
Oddly enough, this concept appeared quite recently, at the beginning of the so-called “zero”. Putin's rise to power marked the end of Yeltsin's freedom and the onset of real order. Over time, the state strengthened, and there was even gradual growth. Food stamps are a thing of the past, like Soviet-era lines, and empty store shelves have been replaced by the abundance of modern supermarkets. The dashing nineties can be perceived negatively or positively, but the country needed them in order to be revived after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It's unlikely that things could have been different. After all, it was not just the state that collapsed, an entire ideology collapsed. And people cannot create, learn and accept new rules in one day.
Chronicle of significant events
Russia declared independence on June 12, 1990. A confrontation between two presidents began: one - Gorbachev - was elected by the Congress of People's Deputies, the second - Yeltsin - was elected by the people. The culmination was the beginning of the dashing nineties. Crime received complete freedom, because all prohibitions were lifted. The old rules were abolished, but the new ones had not yet been introduced or were not established in the public consciousness. The country was swept by an intellectual and sexual revolution. However, economically, Russia has sunk to the level of primitive societies. Instead of wages, many were given food, and people had to exchange some products for others, building cunning chains involving sometimes even a dozen individuals. Money has depreciated so much that most citizens have become millionaires.
On the way to independence
You can’t talk about the “dashing nineties” without mentioning the historical context. The first significant event was the “tobacco riot” in Sverdlovsk, which occurred on August 6, 1990. Hundreds of people, outraged by the lack of smoke in stores in their city, stopped the movement of trams in the center. On June 12, 1991, the people elect Boris Yeltsin as President of the Russian Federation. Criminal showdowns begin. A week later, a coup attempt occurs in the USSR. Because of this, a state of emergency committee was created in Moscow, which was supposed to govern the country during the transition period. However, it only lasted four days. In December 1991, the “center” (one of them opened a casino in Russia. Soon Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and last president of the USSR, resigned his powers “for reasons of principle.” On December 26, 1991, a declaration was adopted on the cessation of the existence of the USSR in connection with the formation of the CIS.
Independent Russia
Immediately after the New Year, on January 2, 1991, prices were liberalized in the country. The food immediately became bad. Prices have skyrocketed, but wages have remained the same. On October 1, 1992, the population began to be issued privatization vouchers for their housing. So far, foreign passports have been issued only with the permission of the regional leadership. In the summer, the Government House in Yekaterinburg was shelled with a grenade launcher, and in the fall, troops began an assault in Moscow. Six years later, Yeltsin resigned early, and Vladimir Putin came to power for the first time.
Order or freedom?
The dashing nineties - and the lads, glitter and poverty, elite prostitutes and sorcerers on TV, prohibition and businessmen. Only 20 years have passed, and the former Soviet republics have changed almost beyond recognition. This was not a time of social elevators, but rather of teleportations. Ordinary guys, yesterday's schoolchildren, became bandits, then bankers, and sometimes deputies. But these are the ones who survived.
Opinions
In those days, business was built completely differently than it is now. Then no one would even think of going to college to get a degree. The first step was to buy a gun. If the weapon did not pull down the back pocket of his jeans, then no one would talk to the aspiring businessman. The pistol helped in conversations with dull interlocutors. If the guy was lucky and didn't get killed early on, he could quickly buy a jeep. The opportunities to make money seemed endless. Money came and went very easily. Some went bankrupt, and the more fortunate took their accumulated wealth, or rather plunder, abroad, and then became oligarchs and engaged in completely legitimate types of business.
In government agencies the situation was much worse. Employees' salaries were constantly delayed. And this is during a period of insane inflation. They often paid in products, which then had to be exchanged in markets. It was at this time that corruption in government agencies flourished. If the guys went to the “brothers”, then the girls went to the prostitutes. They were also often killed. But some of them managed to earn “a piece of bread with caviar” for themselves and their families.
Representatives of the intellectual elite often became unemployed during this period. They were ashamed to go to the market and trade, as most people did, hoping to at least somehow earn money. Many tried to go abroad by any means. During this period, another stage of “brain drain” occurred.
Experience and habits
The dashing nineties determined the entire life of an entire generation. They formed a whole set of ideas and habits among those who were young then. And often, even now, twenty years later, they still determine their lives. These people rarely trust the system. They often view any government initiative with suspicion. Too often they have been deceived by the government. This generation has great difficulty trusting banks with their hard-earned money. They are more likely to convert them into dollars, or better yet, take them abroad. It is generally very difficult for them to save money, because during inflation they literally melted before their eyes. Those who survived the turbulent nineties are afraid to complain to various authorities. In those days, bandits were in charge of everything, so the common man had no business trying to enforce the letter of the law. Although the youth of the nineties themselves do not like to adhere to any rules or restrictions. But their advantage is that they are not afraid of any difficulties. After all, they were able to survive in the dashing nineties, which means they are hardened and will survive any crisis. But can that situation happen again?
Wild nineties: heirs
It seemed that with Putin coming to power, this period of time in Russian history ended forever. The country gradually emerged from poverty and unemployment, and the mafia was almost forgotten. However, after the global financial crisis, the notorious stability never returned. And many began to wonder whether the dashing 90s would return. But can it appear by itself, as is commonly believed? The forecast for the future of modern Russia depends on the answer to this question. Although, without going into details, two elements are needed for the emergence of crime: the need for a large-scale redistribution of property and the need to preserve democracy as a government policy. However, it is unlikely that the “freedom” of the nineties will be repeated.
The time when they “hammered the arrow” and “chopped the cabbage.” A time when the fate of two wagons of frozen fish in the port of Vladik (Vladivostok) was usually decided through a game of thimbles.
The time when Americans paid private security services out of their own pockets so that local fools and roads would not get to the still frightening “nuclear button.”
The time when the Marlborough block and the Levis party were paid for with what they managed to steal from the nearest garrison. Time for financial adventures, deception, setups, showdowns.
A time of severe demographic decline, stratification of society and the death of everything good that was created over Soviet time. A time that you really don’t want, but you need to remember, in order to avoid its repetition.
What to say? The topic is not simple. And writing an introduction to it is also not easy. The turmoil of the 90s, there’s no other way to call it. In terms of human and financial losses, it is comparable to a real civil war. Ten years of confusion, search, losses, ups and downs...
Street children
Along with the Chechen war, skinheads and criminal showdowns, street children were the main topic of television. In the 90s and early 2000s (until 2003) they constantly hung around Moscow and other major cities, at train stations and major streets. Required attribute- Moment glue, which they sniffed. They were reminiscent of gypsies - they begged in a crowd, and if you didn’t give them some change, they could rudely curse you after running away to a safe distance. The age is usually from 7 to 14 years. They lived in basements, heating mains and abandoned houses. It is also worth adding that not only street children led a lifestyle similar to this. In any city “in the area” at that time it was considered a show-off to drink, sniff glue and smoke from the age of ten.
Bratva
Bandits and mowing down like bandits. It was fashionable. The first ones can rarely be seen openly - they are in cars, in bars, in clubs, in huts. The latter were everywhere - ordinary, young, street guys from all walks of life, who bought or got hold of a short black leather jacket, often pretty worn and dirty, engaged in goop-stopping, scamming for money and extorting, sometimes six from the real ones. A special case is gangster students who fleece their more sane, but less organized and more cowardly neighbors in the dorm.
Blatnyak
“A musician plays a hit song,
I remember the bunks, the camp,
The musician plays a hit
And my soul hurts"
Lyapis Trubetskoy, Snowstorm, 1996-1998
Blattnyak, also known as chanson, is the brainchild of gangster anti-culture. The time of incredible popularity of Misha Krug and other performers of prison songs. Street and restaurant musicians quickly learn “murka”, because the music is ordered by the one who pays, and back then it was the lads who had the money. A little later, the former Soviet songwriter Mikhail Tanich, who has nothing to do with the bandits, but who spent 8 years in the zone for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, gathers ordinary musicians who somehow perform music and makes of them the Lesopoval group, playing on thin strings shower of rich Pinocchios. Since millions and millions passed through prison in the nineties, it made economic sense.
Homeless people
This period of history gives birth to homeless people, who were completely absent from the Soviet Union before it. Homeless people - yesterday's neighbors, acquaintances and classmates, go from house to house and beg for alms, sleep in the entrances, drink and go to the toilet in the same place. A homeless person was something so wild for a homo-Sovietist that even the then redneck Yura Khoy wrote a song about it:
“I will raise the bull, I will inhale the bitter smoke,
I'll open the hatch and climb home.
Don't feel sorry for me, I live a great life.
Sometimes I just want to eat.”
Gaza Strip, Homeless, 1992
Video salons
In fact, the phenomenon arose and became a cult in the eighties, otherwise where would we have seen Tom and Jerry, Bruce Lee, the first Terminator, Freddy Krueger and other living dead. And at the same time, eroticism.
In the early nineties, video salons reached a quantitative peak, but quickly began to fade away - the new Russians had their own VCRs, and everyone else had no time for it.
For today's youth, it should be noted that most video salons were distinguished by their basement-utility location (turning into real ovens in the summer), video quality, which causes chronic visual damage, and translations that are unsurpassed to this day in their artistry and correspondence to the original text (for example, two main translated curse words - “big white piece of crap” and “pots” replaced almost all rude foreign expressions). As a result, a whole series of films and characters got mixed up and crossed in the minds of visitors. Almost all films of the “action movie about space” type were called Star Wars.
Hazing
“Day and night we rivet holes
Holes, wells and hungry mouths
What we have left from the armies are commanders,
And also admirals from the fleets"
Black Obelisk, “Who are we now?”, 1994
At that time Soviet army They just didn't care and left it to rot. Most of it turned into Russian army and continued to furiously and furiously decompose, which naturally, in addition to the loss of combat effectiveness, led to such an interesting phenomenon as “Hazing.”
Killer
Killer (from the English “killer” - killer) is the name of killers for money who appeared in the 90s. With the advent of “wild” capitalism in our country, such wild ways of resolving conflicts as contract killings appeared. Anyone with whom it was impossible to come to an agreement could simply be ordered. You could order anyone - a journalist, a deputy, a thief in law, even the sky, even Allah. Fortunately there were plenty of killers. It got to the point that they would place advertisements in newspapers without warning like “Looking for a job with risk.”
Martial arts clubs
Since the people were experiencing a fair amount of pressure from marginal packs of gopotas, and the gopota itself was in great need of more significant ways of taking away other people’s property, enterprising comrades began to produce character leveling places in frantic quantities - Martial Arts Clubs. First of all, it was, of course, karate, which for some unknown reason was driven underground back in the 80s.
But then such new-fangled trends as kung fu, Thai boxing, taekwondo and other kickboxing began to timidly raise their heads. People happily grabbed it, because it looked solid and sounded impressive. It was difficult to find a basement that was not occupied by some “teacher”, “sensei”, who had studied a couple of samizdat books of toilet quality and watched a dozen cassettes with Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee, and was now chasing joyful hamsters until they worked up a sweat.
To be fair, it is worth noting that there were also real gurus and senseis who had actually worked for a certain number of years under the supervision of the corresponding overseas masters. Those who in time began to use their heads (not only for breaking objects), subsequently began to represent something of themselves both in terms of collapsing other people's jaws and in terms of obtaining monetary and material profit... Most of the hamsters did not receive anything, and some individuals even left along the “slippery slope” and got acquainted with the work of Misha Krug in the original sources. But that's a completely different story.
Lump
Derived from "thrift store" in the eighties.
The popular abbreviation for “commercial store” in the very early nineties was indicated on the sign in large letters. These were rare and very outlandish small shops for those times, where people went as if to the Hermitage, to look at things and products from another world.
Working in a commercial store was considered prestigious. Then, with the disappearance and repurposing of soviet stores and a general increase in the number retail outlets They began to abandon such a “name”, what else could a store be other than a commercial one. Retail outlets have proper names. Closer to the mid-nineties, a separate type sprang up - “night lights” or night stores, “24 hour” stores.
And finally, stalls, which received this name due to their relationship with commercial stores. They originated in the early nineties, in the form of cheap layouts and tents selling vodka, cigarettes, condoms, chewing gum, Mars, Snickers and imported cocoa.
New Arbat. At the end of the twentieth century, the capital and its center were engulfed in a monstrous plague of many thousands of chaotic and illegal retail outlets
Photo: Valery Khristoforov/TASS
Then the lumps became stationary. At first they had an abundance of glass, then they began to look more and more like armored pillboxes with loopholes. They just often had their glass broken, set them on fire, and even shot them. However, this type of entertainment is still alive.
Foreign consumer goods were sold in lumps, ranging from chewing gum to expensive water and cigarettes. In the lump you could buy playing porn cards, which the shkolota abused for the sake of fap. The lumps abounded in everything that the advertisement talked about. Snickers, Mars, bounty, huyaunty - there was all this in abundance. And what’s important is that the product did not have any excise stamps or stickers indicating compliance with Rosstandart; The now obligatory presence of inscriptions in Russian was also only an option.
Cops
For wide sections of the population, a policeman a la Uncle Styopa became a cop in the nineties, contact with whom for an ordinary citizen is dangerous for life, health and money in his pocket. As people familiar with the system first-hand said: “The bandits will simply rob and beat you up, and the cops will also jail you.”
Drug addicts
There were drug addicts, substance abusers and alcoholics in the late 80s. But the peak of drug addiction came in the 90s, when the fight was actually stopped and when junkies of all ages appeared - from teenagers to men. During the period of a special rise in heroin addiction in the mid-90s, an overdose corpse was taken away from the dorms of our alma maters every week.
Nowadays, heroin is a marginal (and noticeably more expensive) drug, but then, in the beginning and middle of the decade, the golden youth, bohemians, and students “dabbled” in heroin...
Meanwhile, drugs have reached even the most distant corner of the country. How many types, varieties, names there were. How was it possible to figure it out and start taking it, where to inject and what to smoke? This is where TV came to the rescue. With his propaganda. Yes Yes. In the late 80s and early 90s, TV promoted everything. Morning programs on Central Television they walked with Agatha Christie’s fashionable song about drugs “Come on in the evening... We’ll smoke ta-ta-ta.”
TV series have appeared that supposedly tell about the problems of young people, but in fact explain what is going where and why. I especially remember the broadcast of “Up to 16 and older” and a similar program for teenagers, where they showed: they say this is a button accordion and a spoon over the fire, inject it here, but this is very bad, this is ugh, guys, never do that. And this is weed, they smoke it like this, but it’s ayyyyyy, scoundrel drug addicts, screw them. A drug dealer usually looks like this - but you never approach him. Need I mention that after these programs the flywheel of drug trafficking and drug addiction spun so much that it was possible to slow it down, at best, by the mid-2000s.
Moreover, society practically did not condemn this. Propaganda has made this problem a harmless feature, national trait. Yes, they say, we are like that, we like to drink, break, steal. All the 90s told us that we were losers, this is ours best feature and because of this we are unique.
The invisible hand of the market
Finally, the “long-awaited” market has appeared in Russia. However, it was introduced through one place, which led to disastrous consequences:
. The disappearance of entire sectors of the economy.
Presumably, the RSFSR alone, not counting the other republics, lost 50% of GDP in two years. By comparison, the Great Depression cost the United States 27% of GDP over three years. A decrease in real incomes of the population and high unemployment in the bargain, oddly enough. The exact figures (taking into account the share of the black market and postscripts before and after the collapse) have been ground into dust by time; no one has studied this scientifically.
. Fierce, furious unemployment.
In fact, there are much more unemployed than there are nominal ones: enterprises are standing still and many work part-time in part-time jobs. working week, paid part-time.
. Original “know-how” - issuance at enterprises wages manufactured goods.
For example, furniture, canned food, linen, whatever! But in fact, they sold goods to their own employees at commercial prices under the pretext of “no money.” Here is the one who delivers by bringing the situation to the point of absurdity. An even more kosher scheme worked like this: the plant bought refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, TV sets and sold them with VAT to its employees for a conditional salary. And the profit received from the sale of the plant’s products not only remained entirely in the director’s pockets, but also increased! That's the same!
“What is Russian business? “Steal a box of vodka, sell the vodka, drink the money.”
Non-traditional methods of treatment: Chumak and Kashpirovsky
Healers who took away the last things from the disabled, lovers of horoscopes and astrologers, UFOs, snow and universe people and other science fiction bloomed in full bloom. Also at this time, all sorts of pseudoscientists were chopping cabbage.
They say that once, when Kashpirovsky had just gained popularity, he was invited to give a “closed lecture” for MGIMO employees. There were no healings. Kashpirovsky simply talked about his method and somehow casually mentioned that he also treats obesity. Hearing this, the ambassador's wives and ladies from the teaching staff trickled off the stage after the lecture. Kashpirovsky looked carefully at the suffering women crowded around him and said: “I give instructions - you need to eat less.”
It must be said that Chumak was a very influential person, since his program was part of the “120 minutes” program (originally “90 minutes”) on television, which was shown at 7 am. Thanks to this fact, the human brain was actively exposed to the daily phimotic precipitation of the television miracle worker right from the morning.
Alan Chumak Sessions 1990
Using the TV, he not only treated diseases, but also “charged” water and “creams”: millions of “hamsters” placed glasses of water near the screens. It was also possible to charge water via radio. It’s a pity there were no cell phones in the country back then, since Chumak also knew how to charge batteries.
Also, Chumak sold his photographs and posters, which had to be applied to sore spots for healing. Naturally, the more photos were attached, the more healing the effect. Healthy lifestyle publications sold “charged” portraits to increase circulation sales.
New Russians
In contrast to the socialist approximately equal distribution of income, the B part of the population began to receive much (several million times) more income than the rest of the majority. The reasons for this in the so-called “period of initial accumulation of capital” were quite artificial, often not entirely decent and clearly illegal.
In fact, an elite class was created out of nothing in 10 years (1986-1996). This process began especially quickly with the privatization of state property after Yeltsin’s coup in 1993, when former bandits, swindlers and their henchmen sawed up the people’s property for the pennies that they had stolen from them a little earlier.
Zhmurki
As a result, by 1996, 10% of the population had legal (or semi-legal) ownership of 90% of the national income, another 10-15% later formed their service personnel, who had the opportunity to live comfortably with an income of $ 500 per family person (corrupt media, managers middle managers, traders, corrupt officials, etc.), and the remaining 75% were doomed to live on a minimum wage in a state of semi-slaves and in conditions of total corruption with little chance of a serious rise. Given the complete collapse of the economy, there was no hope for the situation to improve.
Scumbags
“Fast gait and crazy look” - this is about them. common feature real scumbags - a look full of angry, joyful energy in a good mood.
Dashing 90s
At a time when everything becomes possible, they quickly multiply and gather in flocks, and in a flock, frosty character traits develop faster and manifest themselves more strongly. Before that, they probably somehow kept themselves under control, found peaceful uses of their powers, or ended up in prison. If they are involved in banditry, even if they immediately receive money from a person, they will still beat them without getting anything at all - they will maim or kill them. They are looking for any opportunity to disinterestedly deal with someone. The most desirable result of a showdown is for two or three or more people to attack one, shouting “... get him down!!!” and then the highest delicacy for any racially correct scumbag is to jump on the head of a person lying down (a composter), trying to deliver a strong blow with his heel so that the skull cracks.
A scumbag’s weapon is like a kitty’s new phone; it will often be in plain sight and will definitely be used. Bandit scumbags with weapons always mean a lot of corpses. As a rule, a scumbag doesn’t have his own girlfriend, or he only has one or two in his company. general girls, frostbitten or weak-willed, narrow-minded girls who are not used to refusing anyone and believe that these particular boys have real power.
Prostitutes
“You see, guys, this is not a joke.
Remember, guys, Olya is a prostitute.
The girl is rich and lives well.
Who will find the guys to control her?
Group "Announcement", "Olya and Speed"
Massive and often very young, girls (and sometimes boys) are twelve years old, sometimes less. That's when there was a holiday on the street of perverts! Half or more of the schoolgirls, after a series of publications in the press about currency prostitutes and the chain reaction of conversations on this topic that began in the second half of the 80s and early 90s, began to consider the work of a prostitute the best women's career, full of romance and magnificent prospects, which, by the way, was greatly facilitated by the films “Intergirl” (even despite the fact that the film ends tragically for main character, precisely as a result of her prostitution) and especially “Pretty Woman” (in general, in this regard, the most harmful film: millions of girls around the world, after watching this particular movie, decided to become prostitutes).
Prostitutes then were naive and unafraid. We walked with whomever and wherever we went. We often ran into thugs. As a rule, the life of a street prostitute is short-lived, much like the life of a drug addict, and ends horribly: death at the hands of bandits, practicing maniacal killers or thugs, sometimes under the wheels of cars, death from disease, overdoses.
Advertising
TV advertising was clearly divided according to picture quality and subject matter into imported and domestic. Import advertising was bright and imaginative. Back then they watched it as a short film, without bothering with what they advertised. Cigarette advertisements especially stood out: Marlboro, Lucky Strike. The domestic one was noticeably inferior in improvisation. The MMM videos alone are worth it: “I’m not a freeloader, I’m a partner.” Or stupid advertising of some kind of pyramids with 900% profitability, “something there... investments,” funds that actively collect vouchers.
Meme of the early 90s - Lenya Golubkov
Most of it is just mumbling against the background of a static picture. Target Audience actively washed the brain (or whatever replaced it): something came Golden time, when you don’t have to work, just put your money at interest. Moreover, in advertising, no one messed with the plot, picture, or sound. An average video of those times: on the screen there are falling coins, falling bills, giant blinking inscriptions in “%” and the address with the phone number of another pyramid. For the deaf, apparently the address was also read out in the voice of a Soviet radio announcer. That's all! The advertising worked and how. People stood in line to give away their banknotes. The very first commercials that went into the box en masse were Mars-Snickers-Bounty.
The still thin Semchev (the fat guy who later advertised beer) appeared on the screen in a Twix advertisement. Alcohol advertising: Rasputin winks, “I am a white eagle”, a bottle of Absolute with glitches. Powder rainbow with joyful schoolboy: Invite, Yuppie, Zuko. Coca-Cola vs Pepsi. Advertising for Imperial Bank “Until the first star...”. Advertising Dandy: “Dandy, Dandy, we all love Dandy, everyone plays Dandy.” From the advertisement it was impossible to understand what kind of dandy this was, what the cartoon elephant had to do with it and why they loved him, but gradually everyone got used to the fact that there was no need to look for meaning here, and then they decided that it was better not to look for meaning at all.
Or here’s the plot of one of the TV-Park magazine’s commercials: “Let’s place an ordinary newspaper in sulfuric acid, and TV-Park magazine in distilled water. You see, nothing happened to TV-Park magazine!” Remember?
Sects
Sad wandering along the street and handing out your printed materials to everyone.
The attack begins with a question like: “Do you know what awaits us?” or “Do you believe in God?” During the conversation they say that after a global cataclysm, when a little more than all of humanity is cut down, those who are in the know will receive another globe. Until this moment arrives, citizens who agree to join must also walk the streets of the city and spam passers-by.
The organization is a typical financial pyramid, where profits are received by the top, and dividends are paid to participants in spiritual food. Since the current is divided into many subcurrents, in an interesting way“Trolling” is the retelling of the dogmas of one movement to representatives of another.
Financial pyramids
After privatization, all sorts of financial pyramids sprang up like mushrooms after rain, offering former Soviets to make quick money. The end was naturally predictable, but not for the millions of suckers who gave their money to scammers.
Chernukha
Chernukha style, which originated at the very end of the eighties and reached its peak in the mid-nineties. It continues to exist now.
Like porn, chernukha gained popularity thanks to the principle “because now it is possible, but before it was impossible.” Distinctive feature black stuff: the obligatory presence of blood, perversion, violence, murder, devilry, aliens, anti-scientific dogma, prostitutes, drug addicts and prisoners.
ps:
I remember well how in those days in the West we were admired and praised for destroying our army and introducing “democratic values”. And they are so diligent in this
In 1991, a new large letter “M” appeared in Moscow, and this was not the entrance to the metro, but the first McDonald’s fast food restaurant in the USSR. Yugoslav builders erected the largest McDonald's in Europe with 900 seats on Pushkin Square of the former Lira cafe. Canadians calculated that with any influx of public, visitors would wait no more than 2-3 minutes for their turn, but Moscow McDonald's broke all records, welcoming 30-40 thousand people every day! This record has not yet been broken. The queue that formed near this restaurant covered the entire nearby public garden. After this, McDonald's philosophy as the fastest eatery simply collapsed. In Russia, this restaurant has become a cult establishment, a real landmark of the capital. Before going inside, visitors had to breathe down each other’s necks for about an hour, but inside they were fascinated by the interior, the European and Japanese halls, the miracle of the Big Mac, and the smiling and efficient nature of the young salespeople.
Since the 90s, the massive accumulation of initial capital has created the opportunity to earn big and real “green” money and the opportunity to spend it. Large amounts of capital were invested in computers, and the country's need for this technology was at least 10 million units. To "Hurray!" Any kind of car was available: bad Singaporean ones, used American ones, stolen from God knows where, without any documentation, etc. By reselling just one computer you could earn about 40 thousand rubles, and at that time this was a colossal amount with which you could afford two Zhigul cars.
Businesses needed banks where money could be stored and processed. They didn’t even try to stir up the State Bank. The rubles lay there like “dead weight”. Despite the “predatory conditions”, 60% of the profit went to the state; already in March 1990, more than 200 commercial banks opened. The government is beginning to recognize that the dollar no longer costs 60 kopecks, but 1 ruble 80 kopecks. But on the currency exchange the rate coincided with the black market rate - 21 rubles per 1 dollar. Since the dollar is captured by the USSR, a whole network of “currencies” is rapidly developing.
Nelson Mandella - the story of his fall and meteoric rise
After Luis Corvalan was released and the campaigns of solidarity with American prisoners of conscience came to naught, the only one on the list of the struggle for liberation remains the leader of the black majority in South Africa - Nelson Mandella. A rare occasion, the USSR, languishing behind the walls of the Apartheid regime, demands his release along with the rest of the world. However, Mandella will spend 27 years, 6 months and 6 days behind bars. Racism was criticized by leading Western countries, UN sanctions were applied against South Africa, new president South African Declerk, who was called the South African Gorbachev, frees Mandella and lifts the ban on the activities of the African National Congress of the main black organization. Mandella stated that his goal was to abolish all Apartheid laws and hold free elections on the principle of “one person, one vote.” As a result, he will achieve his goal, and in the parliamentary elections blacks will receive 63% of the mandates, and Mandella himself was elected the first black president of South Africa.
Abolition of censorship – freedom of broadcasting
Radio waves emerge from censorship control and the first non-state radio stations in history begin to operate. On medium ultrashort waves in the Baltics and in Moscow, modern popular music and news are now broadcast live. The most popular stations at that time: “Pioneers”, “M1” in Lithuania and SNC in Moscow, and of course the most successful project together with the French - “Europe Plus”. The presenters are now called DJs, and Russian-language music is excluded from the regular playlist. 2 hours a day on the equipment of the Faculty of Journalism at the most famous university in the country - Moscow State University - the information station "Echo of Moscow" begins to report.
The biggest scandal of the 90s in Russia
Newspaper " Soviet Russia"reported information provided by the editors from the first secretary of the Krasnodar regional party committee, Ivan Poloskov: "12 tanks were detained in the Novorossiysk port, which the ANT cooperative tried to sell abroad. It was immediately clear that the ANT case was an attack on business in general. Entrepreneurs sold the Motherland wholesale and retail, and only party bodies continue to defend state interests. The combination of a private owner and a tank can scare anyone, although the charter of the state cooperative concern approved by the government states that “the export and import of weapons is prohibited.” ANT is paralyzed, its leader Ryazhentsev manages to escape to Hungary. This case will be closed in three years, and Ryazhentsev will even be given an apology.
The first measures of the capitals of the USSR
In the spring of 1990, power in Moscow and Leningrad passed from the city committee to the party of Democrats of the first call. The Democratic Russia association wins the city elections. The Moscow Council was headed by Mikhail Popov and the Leningrad Council was headed by Anatoly Sobchak.
An association of Leningrad primitivists is in vogue: artists and musicians, artists with beards and vests, named after Dmitry Shagin, they are called Mitki and paint paintings with titles like “They hit me with a board - I lie in pain and melancholy”, “Mitki take the gun from Mayakovsky” , “Mitki brings his ears to Van Gogh.” In the old understanding, artists are workers of the easel and canvas. The Mitkas are not painters at all, but they considered themselves more than just artists. It turns out that in order to become more than a recognized painter, you need to be able to draw just a little bit. Among other things, Mitki presents fantasies on the themes of cult movie characters: Chapaev, Sukhov and Zhigulovo. The public exclaims “Cool!”, and experts talk about the first project in the genre of Soviet folk mythology. Boris Grebenshchikov and Andrei Makarevich consider themselves to be Mitkas. Shevchuk, Butusov and Chizh take part in Mitkovo gatherings. Soil conceptualism is actively promoted in the image of drunkards who don’t give a damn under the program motto “Duc, fir-fry.”
Party politics
The long-standing dream of patriotic orthodoxies is coming true - Russia should have its own party, its own Central Committee. The party conference of Russian communists convened in 1990 developed into the founding congress of the Communist Party of the RSFSR. Although both Marxist and democratic platforms make presentations at the congress, the game is one-sided. The leadership of the future RCP is even more conservative than the Central Committee of the CPSU. At the congress they curse perestroika, and the hero of the fight against ANT, Krasnodar resident Ivan Poloskov, is elected first secretary of the new Central Committee. Those who have not yet left the party are perplexed: what are they doing now? Automatically enrolled in Poloskovites? Or do they continue to be under Gorbachev?
German reunification
Back in 1988, before his book about perestroika, Gorbachev wrote that the issue of German unification should be resolved in 100 years. Then Chancellor Helmut Kohl said that this problem was not on the agenda. However, after the Berlin Wall collapsed in November 1989, events began to develop rapidly. In December 1989, the two Germanys entered into an agreement on cooperation and good neighborliness as different states. But already in early February, Kohl proposed creating a German monetary union, and at a meeting in Moscow, he sought recognition from Gorbachev: the issue of the unity of the German nation should be decided by the Germans themselves. East German Christian Democrats win the first free elections in the GDR.
Turkish tea – dust in bags and complete tastelessness
There is a crisis in the supply of the main soft drink. There is a catastrophic shortage of tea in the country. Sales using coupons in many areas, even in Leningrad. Turkey buys 30 thousand tons of packaged tea. Purple and yellow plump packs with the inscription “Chaikur” appear on the shelves. Experts equate it to the second grade of Georgian tea. In general, this is still tea, although the contents of the bag look like dust and production waste. The brew turns out unattractive, not aromatic and tasteless. There were even rumors that this tea was radioactive. The Turks were very offended, and in order to justify their name they give instructions in newspapers and on television on how to pour boiling water correctly and how long to steam it.
The first president of the USSR - Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev
Gorbachev strengthens state power. He decides to become president of the USSR. The Supreme Council establishes this post during an extraordinary congress of deputies, where they must approve this resolution and elect the first president. Only 46 votes in the voting procedure are not enough to make the election universal. But at the congress itself they are elected without any alternative. On March 15, Gorbachev takes an oath on the constitution. From that time on, he would avoid the title “General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.”
A major innovation in women's fashion. Leggings and leggings are on sale. Legs covered in black and color are part of the idea of beauty at the turn of the decade. To begin with, it’s worth clarifying that leggings are thick tights with the foot cut off. Long leggings are worn with a long shirt or a newfangled miniskirt. And the ankles are decorated with openwork cuffs. The record kiosks constantly play a song: “Your green leggings killed me like a moose.” Tight-fitting women's trousers - leggings - are slightly tighter than leggings. The leggings are stretched along the length of the leg with straps, just like sweatpants. Those who were used to tucking their trousers into their boots were especially pleased.
Death of Viktor Tsoi
On August 15, 1990, the leader of the super-popular group “Kino,” 28-year-old Viktor Tsoi, was killed in a car accident. His death came as a shock to millions of fans throughout the Soviet Union. At the zenith of fame, the first star of the youth sub-culture dies. While relaxing near Riga, Viktor Tsoi was returning by car from a morning fishing trip. He fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into an oncoming Ikarus. In Leningrad, fans of the Kino group are somewhat haunted by Tsoi’s grave at the Bogoslovskoye Cemetery. In Moscow, the walls of a house on Arbatsky Lane are covered with lines from his songs. The band's musicians call the album recorded by Tsoi "Black". The premiere of the program, the last concert of the group, a crowded hall, an empty stage, a soundtrack.
Media in the early 90s in Russia - liberation from censorship
Printing and other media mass media now free - proclaims the law on the press, the draft of which could not be published in newspapers for a long time, since censorship prohibited it. Glasnost and freedom of speech are changing little by little. Censorship structures are only renamed into an organization for the protection of State Secrets. But formally, interference in the activities of the press is prohibited, and private individuals can also establish media. All publications are registered with the State Press Committee. The newspaper Izvestia receives the very first certificate. The private weekly Kommersant calls entrepreneurs its audience. Post-Soviet journalism is gradually beginning to take shape. The circulation of the weekly newspaper “Arguments and Facts” became a sensation. In 1990, having reached 33 million 302 thousand copies, they were entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the most popular periodical in the world.
