#post-soviet nostalgia

[russianreader]

"Motherland, Come Home"

DDT frontman Yuri Shevchuk has released the video “Motherland, Come Home.” In the new single, he calls on his country to stop the war and go about its own business. The video was shot by Shevchuk in collaboration with producer and composer Dmitry Yemelyanov. Yuri Shevchuk wrote the poem “Motherland, Come Home” in the summer of 2022, a few months after Russia had launched its invasion of Ukraine.…

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[russianreader]

"Our characters find themselves trapped in confined spaces where both physical and emotional tensions escalate."

“The Cop Party,” an early edition of The Russian Reader, which started life as a series of happenings. Pushkinskaya 10 artists’ squat, Petersburg, circa 1995 What’s the point of this flash mob? The nostalgia of aging people for their own youth? The illusion of normality in a situation of growing abnormality? The illusion of solidarity in a situation where all sociability is…

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[russianreader]

Running: the Numbers

Istanbul, December 2022. Photo courtesy of Republic […] 500 vacancies for military registration specialists were advertised from late September to last December last year, according to HeadHunter. Previously, this specialization was considered a rather rare and generally not very sought-after profile in the personnel departments of Russian organizations (private and public). For comparison:…

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[russianreader]

A Completely Different Country

A Completely Different Country

Would-be Young Pioneers in Novosibirsk. Gorky Palace of Culture in Novosibirsk/vk.com. Courtesy of the Moscow Times This is a completely different country This social media post about life in the late USSR helps to better understand where we find ourselves today. The latest insane campaign to create some kind of children’s organization has everyone and their mother cursing their childhoods as…

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