May 02, 2024

"Freedom, Poverty, Lawlessness"


"Freedom, Poverty, Lawlessness"
It may look nice, but many Russians mainly remember the turmoil of the 1990s.  kortunov, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Nostalgia for decades past can sometimes obscure problems, but most Russians seem to have mixed memories of the 1990s, according to a report from Meduza

Meduza asked its readers to describe the 1990s using only three words, and divided answers by the respondent's age. The first category, made up of members of the younger generations who only know about the last decade of the twentieth century from second-hand reports from their elders, used terms like "violence," "mayhem," "poverty," "hope," and "Adidas" to describe the turbulent years before their births.

The second category, made up of Russians who were young children during the 90s, had slightly more visceral answers, including "hungry," "sadness," and "disappointment," but also "my happy childhood." A 32-year-old named Mikhail from St. Petersburg summarized the decade as: "Mom worked constantly."

A picture of the 1990s becomes more vivid in the words of readers who were adults at the time: Anton, 46, described the decade as "youth, love, techno"; Aglaya, 48, remembered it to be "unsettled, but liberating." Sergei, 61, said "Shame on Yeltsin," and Victor, 66, added "Thieves rule Russia."

Galina, a 73-year-old Meduza reader from Yekaterinburg, perhaps summed it up best: "Difficult free life."

You Might Also Like

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955