5 (100%) 1 vote
What did you do
On December 31, 1991, the newspaper "Chimes" pleased its readers with the New Year's forecast of astrologer Pavel Globa: "It has never been worse than it will be in 1992." Just two days later, many readers firmly believed that the stars do not lie. There were no long weekends then; already on January 2, Russians went to work and shopping. At the same time, a presidential decree on price liberalization came into force.
“I took one ruble and went for bread, since I didn’t stock up before the New Year,” blogger boxer_w recalls the harsh winter of 91–92. - Approaching the grocery store, I saw two grandmothers crying, I thought - some kind of grief had happened. Having entered the grocery store, he went up to the counter and put down a ruble to pay for the bread. I was politely asked to look at the price tag. It is difficult to describe my state when I saw the price of bread, 4 rubles 20 kopecks - before the New Year it cost 20 kopecks. The rest was also unaffordable. And then I understood why the grandmothers were crying.”
But overnight the classic Soviet queues disappeared and long-awaited products appeared. “Buyers were good at selling sugar for 8 rubles. 40 kopecks,” Nezavisimaya Gazeta wrote the next day, “according to them, they are so hungry for it that they don’t pay attention to the prices.”
But expectations still remained gloomy; The correspondent of Rossiyskaya Gazeta seriously assumed that passengers would not buy train tickets at the new prices, and ticket inspectors would simply be thrown out of the cars. “I personally witnessed,” the weekly “Arguments and Facts” quoted its reader, “I was standing in a store, a man came in, decently dressed, normal in appearance... I saw meat for 70 rubles, pulled out a gun and started shooting!”
Beef, which cost 7 rubles per kilogram, began to be sold in state stores for 80, and in the markets its price reached 150–300. The price of vodka soared to 180 rubles - for some time it became a delicacy, and soon it was crowded out by dangerous counterfeits and cheap industrial alcohols. The average salary was 330 rubles, a student scholarship - 150. In addition, citizens' savings in savings books were frozen indefinitely, which in conditions of hyperinflation actually meant the withdrawal of money in favor of the state. In the January days of 1992, real tragedies played out at the savings banks...
Price growth in January amounted to 346%, by May it dropped to 12%, average annual inflation reached 2600%.
At the end of January, President Boris Yeltsin issued another fateful decree - “On Free Trade”. In Soviet times, in fact, any purchase or sale of goods by hand was considered speculation and was punishable by law; now, on the contrary, almost all restrictions on the place and items of trade have been lifted.
“A scoundrel gets used to everything” and “if you want to live, know how to move around” - shock therapy before our eyes connected the two poles of Russian culture: the Christian philosophy of Dostoevsky and the criminal wisdom of the prisoner, which saved the people in the most difficult times. And all this to the music from the “Russian Album” by the group “Aquarium” - perhaps the main poetic and musical refrain of 1992. Boris Grebenshchikov sang about Russia when millions were just beginning to dream of emigrating, and found words for prayer when everyone was just getting used to talking about money:
Teach us to see You
What did you think
“Driving through Lubyanka Square, I saw something like a long line stretching along the Detsky Mir store,” Yegor Gaidar recalled about Moscow the day after the signing of the decree “On Free Trade.” - All the previous days it was quite deserted here. “Queue,” I habitually decided. “Apparently some product was thrown away.” Imagine my surprise when I learned that these were not buyers at all! Clutching in their hands several packs of cigarettes or a couple of cans of canned food, woolen socks and mittens, a bottle of vodka or a child’s blouse, and attaching a clipping from the newspaper “Decree on Free Trade” to their clothes with a pin, people offered all sorts of small goods... If I had any doubts - Whether the entrepreneurial spirit of the Russian people survived after seventy years of communism, then from that day on they disappeared.”
This is a small sketch not only of the everyday life of January 1992 Moscow, but also of the psychology of Gaidar’s team, which carried out a real revolution: Soviet socialism was replaced by capitalism. Gaidar saw hope where it would have been easier to see the despair of people trying to survive by all means.
Port wine is being poured near the Barrikadnaya metro station
There was another lens in which all the vicissitudes of everyday life paled in comparison with the colossal spiritual liberation that the first year of the new Russia brought. “The diary ended five years ago with the death of my mother,” wrote nuclear physicist Nikolai Rabotnov at the end of 1992. - Life has changed fantastically. On the one hand, we are poor, we only have enough for food. On the other hand, I traveled abroad three times in two years, after a quarter-century moratorium - to Europe (Jülich, Germany), and to Asia (South Korea), and to the USA, where I spent a week of plant existence with the Turchins, two and a half months back".
The point here, of course, is not about trips abroad as such: for most they remained a pipe dream. But the very feeling of grandiose new possibilities intoxicated the creative intelligentsia. For her, the state turned from an enemy into an ally, and even into a defender from millions who dreamed of a “red revenge” - a return to the USSR.
Who did
Critics of Gaidar's team blamed it for the lack of a well-thought-out reform program. Mikhail Leontyev, a columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta in early 1992, wrote that decisions of the Council of Ministers are made according to the notes of Valentin Pavlov, the first and only Soviet prime minister who carried out an unpopular monetary reform in 1991 and was at that time serving a sentence for participating in the State Emergency Committee. “Reading the regulations of the Russian government,” Leontyev wrote, “encourages us to declare: “Freedom for Valentin Pavlov!”
“By 1991, we turned out to be the only team in the country that had spent more than ten years professionally working on how to implement economic reform in our country,” retorted Anatoly Chubais, chairman of the State Committee for Property Management in an interview with Polit.ru. (State Property Committee), responding to accusations of unpreparedness for reforms.
The team of “reformers” still determines the country’s economic course two and a half decades later.
Leader of the Young Reformers Yegor Gaidar. His team determined the course of the country’s development for two and a half decades ahead.
The press of that time used the term “kamikaze government.” It meant that its members took full responsibility for unpopular decisions and doomed themselves to political suicide.
“If any of us spoke about ourselves like that, then there was some guile and exaltation in it,” recalled Peter Aven in an interview with Forbes magazine. - Look at our biographies, which of us - me, Tolya Chubais, Andrei Nechaev, Sasha Shokhin - are kamikazes?.. We understood that, indeed, reforms are difficult, for some time it will be unpopular, but, in principle, we are all they equally saw themselves as part of history, among the elite of economists.” In the same interview, Aven, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa Bank, casually mentions his love for a wealthy life...
Liberal economist Sergei Guriev explained the failures of Gaidar’s team this way: “I read that at the first meeting of the reform government at the end of 1991, one of them suggested: let’s now look each other in the eyes and say that we ourselves are not going to receive from state no apartments, cars and so on. This proposal did not pass. And it's very sad. I tried to find out from many of those reformers how it happened that almost all of them became very wealthy people. Some responded that there was an understanding that, finally, we need to live normally, we suffered for so long under Soviet rule, we deserve a good life...”
Who was in charge
The political year of 1992 turned out to be a couple of weeks shorter than the chronological year. It began on January 2 with the liberalization of prices and ended on December 14 with the approval of Viktor Chernomyrdin as head of the Council of Ministers. When accepting Gaidar’s program, Boris Yeltsin obviously did not expect that the consequences of “shock therapy” would be so shocking.
“This is one of the most difficult stories,” recalled Anatoly Chubais. - I remember very well how we wrote out a report for him for the 1991 congress, in November, it seems. There it was: “It will be bad for three months, then it will be easier” “Prices will rise slightly - then they will drop.” We all the time - Egor especially, me less - tried to fix this - to replace three months with five years. It `s naturally. He fixed it. For four months. We give him four months for four years. Of course, Yeltsin: a) sincerely wanted it to be this way; b) any politician would like to say this; c) he sincerely believed that this was right, that this was the way it should be.”
True, in Yeltsin’s own interpretation, everything looked somewhat different.
“Information came to me from various analytical sources,” he said in the book “Notes of the President.” - They all drew one conclusion - a critical mass of dissatisfaction with the government had been created. Gaidar, as an inexperienced politician, gave assurances of imminent stabilization. Involuntarily, I had to do the same.”
And four months later, at the end of May, as Gaidar recalls, the president invited him to his place and said: “Yegor Timurovich, we have sharply reduced military spending, public investment, subsidies to agriculture, spending on science, education, healthcare, culture. Tell me, where is the base of our political support now?”
Sergei Glazyev, Deputy Minister of Economic Relations in Gaidar’s government, and later a great critic of his reforms, believes that Yeltsin, and with him the country, was a hostage to his own management style: “In general, Yeltsin loved simple decisions, without going into the essence of the matter. He could introduce revolutionary changes and then see what came out of it.”
Who resisted
By that time, the conflict between the legislative and executive branches of government was in full swing. Just a couple of weeks after the start of the reforms, Ruslan Khasbulatov said that the Supreme Council would raise the question of dismissing the “incompetent government” with the president, and, as a last resort, would “use its constitutional right” to dismiss it on its own. Around the same days, Vice President Alexander Rutskoi publicly stated that Yeltsin had taken on the overwhelming responsibility of combining the posts of president and head of government...
The entire structure of power in the country was still based on the Soviet, Brezhnev Constitution. The institution of presidency was initially absent from it, but now such a “growth” has formed specifically for Yeltsin. Hence the inevitable problem: who is responsible to whom, who solves what issues. In Soviet times, key decisions were made by the CPSU. Now there was no party, the Supreme Council hoped that it could replace it in the role of collective leader.
People's deputies were strongly connected to the “land” and to the old structures of society. So the opposition to the reforms was socially determined - the only question was who would lead the opposition.
And here Yeltsin’s personal decisions played a role. In 1990, in the newly elected Supreme Council, he needed a person with hardware skills, but without hardware connections - and Khasbulatov appeared. In 1991, to win the presidential election, the votes of undecided voters were needed - and the figure of the popular “Afghan” officer Rutsky arose. In 1992, these people retained leading positions in the country, but in reality they were removed from decision-making. So they quite naturally turned out to be the main dissatisfied ones.
On February 9, about 40 thousand communists and sympathizers marched from Krymsky Val to Manezhnaya Square, where a rally took place. The day before, the mayor's office, having allowed the rally itself, banned any street marches, but the Moscow police did not dare to use force to disperse the demonstrators.
“The next day, the head of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, Arkady Murashev, read out via radio an appeal from Moscow Mayor Gavriil Popov to the police personnel,” Kommersant wrote. - The mayor accused the police officers of failure to comply with the government order banning demonstrations and warned that those responsible for failure to comply with this order would be fired. At the same time, Popov threatened reprisals against those commercial structures that dare to hire those fired.”
On February 23 and March 17, two more large rallies took place in Moscow. Newspapers wrote that on the eve of one of them, weapons began to be delivered to the White House - in case the protesters tried to break through to parliament - and the troops were put on full combat readiness. After one of these rallies, a decision was made to build an underground shopping complex on Manezhnaya Square in order to make it impossible for the opposition to gather under the walls of the Kremlin.
Rally on Vasilyevsky Spusk
Parliament and the government continued to argue over literally every little detail. On May 25, at the height of the crisis in relations between the president and parliament, the Council of Ministers adopted Resolution No. 290, which Kommersant ironically called “very timely,” on measures to improve dog breeding. Before this, the dog of then Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Shokhin died of apoplexy, and Vice President Rutskoi’s favorite was almost shot by his own guards. Alexey Ulyukaev, then an economic adviser to the government, said that the resolution had nothing to do with the lives of government dogs, much less with “the dog life of the government itself.” This resolution, like most others, was naturally condemned by the Supreme Council. The political split went along literally all lines.
The intensity of internal Russian conflicts was such that the majority of the population hardly noticed the ongoing collapse of the USSR and its victims. Meanwhile, wars were fought in Karabakh, Georgia and Tajikistan, Russian peacekeepers entered South Ossetia and Transnistria.
How it was privatized
The second most important, but not the most important, large-scale event of the government of Yegor Gaidar was voucher privatization. The idea of transferring state property into private hands with the help of vouchers was first expressed by economist Vitaly Naishul back in 1986: he figured out how to involve broad layers in this experiment and interest them in privatization. Then the proposal met with friendly criticism from future reformers. But in 1992, this scheme began to seem better to the government because it was simple. The question was being resolved in whose favor privatization should take place. It was possible to privatize in favor of the nomenklatura and the “red directors,” but this would mean a strategic defeat for Yeltsin and Chubais. It is not for nothing that at the meetings with Chubais, the “red directors” were mentioned as the main enemies at that time. It was possible to try to sell the largest state property to the West, but then national capitalism would not have arisen in Russia - and perhaps we would no longer have a country.
The voucher model offered some semblance of a way out: it was this kind of privatization that made it possible for Boris Yeltsin to act on the side of the people, to at least give them something. Millions of vouchers, symbolizing national wealth, flowed across the country. Factory workers who invested a voucher in their plant in hopes of future profits have found their shareholdings diluted and cheap over the years. Many have given their voucher to a checking investment fund (CHIF) in an attempt to make money immediately. Others even sold it for a bottle of vodka. In October 1992, the legendary company MMM OJSC, the largest financial pyramid in Russian history, was registered. Millions lost their vouchers in vanished CHIFs and pyramid schemes. The bottle was also soon empty. And when the intoxication wore off, it turned out that the vouchers ended up in the pockets of a small circle of people who diligently bought them and exchanged them for blocks of shares in state-owned enterprises.
How did you survive?
The main refrain of the year is to survive. And if possible, somehow make money in the turmoil of the rules of a new life that are just emerging. “One hundred dollars was very decent money for us guys who grew up in the Soviet Union,” recalls Alexander Andrievsky. - In ninety-two, I worked part-time on Novy Arbat, at a kiosk. Our small, inconspicuous store, selling cigarettes and alcohol under the counter, was sometimes visited by strange, “colorful” people. So, one night, a man of marginal appearance, dressed in sportswear, stopped by. He needed to get to one of the expensive restaurants nearby, where the entire Moscow crowd gathered every day. The problem was the lack of a good suit. At first we didn’t even want to have a conversation with this man, but when he took out a thick wad of money... I don’t remember where and how we found a chic suit a la “metropolitan dandy”, but an hour later this man was already sitting in that very establishment, and in my hands was the coveted hundred green..."
A young mother sells milk and toys. Not everyone can buy what they need to live with their salary and pension.
For many, especially young people, all this was an exciting adventure, and not a struggle for existence.
“At 26 years old, I had the most energy,” says businessman Vladimir Alexandrovich. - All these social upheavals seemed like toys, I didn’t see the tragedy in the rapid rise of the dollar, I didn’t notice how everything was falling into the abyss. We had our own company, institute, mountains, youth. But due to circumstances, I had to deal with solving financial issues, and I did it this way: together with my friends I went and bought jewelry, mainly gold, at several points. Then we resold it all for foreign currency. The turnover of money was so great that on the most successful days of such speculation I held a thousand rubles in my hands, which at that time was comparable to the six-month salary of a Soviet citizen.”
Among other things, the decree “On Free Trade” prohibited the collection of duties on goods imported by citizens into the country. For residents of provincial, and especially border, cities, this opened up amazing business opportunities, which would soon receive the popular name “shuttle business.” The essence of life for a “shuttle trader” in 1992 was to sell abroad goods that were easily available in Russia, buy “shortages” with this money, and then resell them at home.
Commercial “tours” lasted, as a rule, no longer than three days. Places of stay are most often China, Türkiye, Poland. Most traveled by plane, train, or car, but others literally crossed the border on foot. By the end of the nineties, the annual turnover of the shuttle industry was estimated at $10 billion - this is approximately a third of all imports. It was comparable to the volume of sales of such natural monopolies as Gazprom (12.4 billion) and exceeded the export of such profitable sectors of the Russian economy as aluminum, forestry and fishing combined.
Not everyone went abroad to trade goods. “That evening everyone was surprised at the girl who “came alone, she has no one here and almost never goes to the market!” - wrote the AiF journalist, - Our rooms were nearby, and at night it became clear why she did not go to the market. She didn’t turn off the light, and I unwittingly became a witness to a simple porn performance, flavored with squeaks and groans: well, everyone earns as best they can”...
How they robbed
By the way, sociologist Simon Kordonsky, another member of the intellectual group preparing the reforms, has an interesting memory regarding the appearance of the decree “On Free Trade.”
“Somehow it was accepted very quickly, but along the way the applications that were the most important were lost. They defined the relationship between traders and cops, as well as various inspections. In particular, the cops were required to provide cargo escort and much more, which I no longer remember.”
Whether this was true or not, the presidential decree really opened up new opportunities not only for entrepreneurs, but also for bandits, who in 1992 finally turned into an alternative center of power in relation to law enforcement agencies. “The lads’ offices have multiplied in the basements and first floors of the whole city,” Evgeniy Vyshenkov spoke about Leningrad in the early 90s in the book “Oral History of Racketeering.” - The whole district knew where they were. Residents of Leningrad, tormented by petty crime, turned to them for help. Someone was beaten by their husband, and the local police officer was powerless, someone was afraid to climb the stairs because of drunken gopniks, someone begged to punish a neighbor in a communal apartment who had set up a hangout in his room. The bandits willingly provided services to all these people. They were flattered by the trusting attitude towards themselves, and they saw in this a justification for many of their other actions.”
The emergence of legal and mass private trade marked the beginning of a phenomenon that researcher Vadim Volkov called “power entrepreneurship”, dedicating a book of the same name to it. “Of course, we also resorted to harsh forms of attack,” Volkov quotes from Valery Karyshev’s book “Notes of a Bandit Lawyer.” - We drive up and say: “Let’s pay, you sucker.” And he paid. And those who did not agree were subjected to our pressure. Fortunately, we had good teaching aids, the same feature films. A soldering iron and batteries with handcuffs were popular, with which we fastened the client. It happened that they took him out into the forest or locked him in the basement. After a little “easy” treatment with beatings, the clients agreed to pay. They usually paid twenty to thirty percent of the profit.”
Buying newspapers. The situation in the country is changing every day
But the bandits quickly ran into competition. “In 1992, events occurred that changed the balance of power in this area,” says Volkov. - With the adoption on March 11 of the Federal Law “On Private Detective and Security Activities”, and on August 14, 1992, the Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation on the adoption of the “Regulations on private security under internal affairs bodies”, former employees of government agencies legally entered into competition in the market of security and law enforcement services organizations - the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB. The participation of professionals has happened before. It is with him that the spread of the term “roof” is connected (the bandits simply “received” or “controlled”).”
The merging of law enforcement agencies with crime determined the history of Russia for years to come. In 1992, the crime rate increased sharply: the number of registered crimes increased from 2 million 173 thousand to 2 million 760 thousand - this is the sharpest jump in recorded history.
How did you earn money?
But in the same 1992, the first real dollar millionaires appeared in Russia, for whom MENATEP Bank, owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, promised to create a special service structure, since they require an exclusive approach. In the corresponding announcement, citizens with a personal fortune of over $10 million were called a “financial-industrial oligarchy” - a word that was yet to acquire all its many negative connotations.
Dmitry Zimin, the founder of VimpelCom, could not yet boast of such wealth. But in the same 1992, on July 12, through his efforts the first cell phone call in Russia was made, which marked the beginning of the history of the Beeline cellular network.
Zimin turned out to be one of the few who managed to take advantage of conversion - a fashionable perestroika word that meant the repurposing of defense enterprises for the production of civilian products. In most cases, it came down to the banal sale of land and buildings, followed by the massive dismissal of former engineers.
How it ended
On December 1, the next Congress of People's Deputies opened, at which Gaidar was again subjected to obstruction. President Yeltsin responded by nominating him for the post of prime minister (before this, he himself had formally performed the duties of head of government). The congress predictably gave Gaidar a ride. As a result, a list of candidates was compiled, among which, in addition to the main reformer himself, were Secretary of the Security Council Yuri Skokov, who was considered a creature of the military-industrial complex, and Minister of Fuel and Energy Viktor Chernomyrdin, a native of the gas industry. The latter eventually became a compromise figure who stood at the head of the government. Chernomyrdin immediately promised a “market without a bazaar” and was already preparing a decision to freeze prices on vital products, but under pressure from Gaidar, supported by Yeltsin, he abandoned his plans. Politicians entered the new year in anticipation of a referendum on confidence in the legislative and executive branches of government and the course of reforms. And the mood of the country was expressed by the Gas Sector group:
The sun is rising over my native country,
And the Russian man is already screaming drunk!
I don’t care about the collective farm - ugh! and to the factory!
Ninety-second would withstand a year!
In the 90s, Russia embarked on the path of global reforms, which turned into innumerable disasters for the country - rampant banditry, population decline, and a sharp drop in living standards. For the first time, Russians learned what price liberalization, a financial pyramid and default are.
Half a liter for the price of a Volga
In August 1992, Russian citizens were given the opportunity to purchase privatization checks (vouchers), which could be exchanged for assets of state-owned enterprises. The authors of the reforms promised that for a voucher, the nominal value of which was 10 thousand rubles, the population could buy two Volgas, but by the end of 1993 it could barely be exchanged for two bottles of vodka. However, the most enterprising players who had access to classified information were able to make a fortune from privatization checks.
Change - I don’t want to
Until July 1, 1992, the official exchange rate of the ruble corresponded to 56 kopecks per American dollar, but it was impossible for a mere mortal to purchase currency at such a rate, which did not correspond to the market price. Subsequently, the government equated the dollar to the exchange rate, and it suddenly soared to 125 rubles, that is, 222 times. The country has entered an era of currency speculation.
Both for yourself and for others
Everyone who found themselves in the foreign exchange business in the early 90s fell under the “roof”. The currency speculators were protected either by bandits or the police. Considering the solid margin (the difference between the real market rate and the speculative one), both the currency traders themselves and their “roof” earned good money. So, from 1000 American dollars then you could make $100. On the most successful days, a currency speculator could earn up to 3,000 bucks.
Shrink belts
In 1991, grocery stores were usually divided into two parts: one selling goods without restrictions, the other selling goods using coupons. In the first one you could find black bread, marinades, seaweed, pearl barley or barley, and canned food. In the second, after standing in a huge line, you could use coupons to buy milk, ham, frozen fish, rice, millet, flour, eggs, butter, tea, candy, vodka and cigarettes. At the same time, the volumes of purchased products were strictly limited - 1 kg of flour, 1 dozen eggs, 1 liter of butter.
Prices are crazy
Changes in the cost of essential goods were the main indicator of the deteriorating economic situation in the country. So, if at the end of 1991 a loaf of bread cost 1.8 rubles, then at the end of January, after the liberalization of prices, you had to pay 3.6 rubles for it. Further - more: in June 1992, the price tag for bread jumped to 11 rubles, in November - to 20. By January 1994, the price for a loaf of bread had already reached 300 rubles. In just over 2 years, bread prices have risen 166 times!
I can't afford a cloak
The record holder for price increases was communal services, which increased 147 times over the period 1992-93. At the same time, salaries were increased only 15 times. What was the purchasing power of the ruble? For example, in June 1993, the average salary in the country was 22 thousand rubles. 1 kg of butter cost 1,400-1,600 rubles, 1 kg of meat – 2,000 rubles, half a liter of vodka – 1,200 rubles, a liter of gasoline (AI-78) – 1,500 rubles, a woman’s raincoat – 30,000 rubles.
Everything to the market
Many Russians had to change their field of activity in order to somehow survive. The most popular profession at the dawn of the 90s was the “shuttle trader”. According to some data, up to a quarter of able-bodied citizens of the Russian Federation were suppliers of consumer goods. It is difficult to establish the exact earnings of the shuttle traders, since almost all the money was put into circulation. On average, in one trip it was possible to sell goods worth 200-300 dollars.
Deadly product
Alcohol consumption in the mid-90s reached its highest level in the entire history of our country - 18 liters per person per year. They drank mostly surrogates and cheap imported products. It’s all to blame for the exorbitant excise tax of 90%, which left high-quality domestic vodka – Stolichnaya, Pshenichnaya, Russian – gathering dust in warehouses.” The number of deaths from poisoning with low-quality alcohol, among which the Dutch Royal alcohol was in the lead, reached 700 thousand annually.
Frightening decline
The 90s are remembered for catastrophic demographic indicators. According to the calculations of deputies of the Communist Party faction, in the period from 1992 to 1998, the natural population decline exceeded 4.2 million people, and the number of the country's working population decreased annually by an average of 300 thousand. During this period, approximately 20 thousand villages were depopulated.
No one needs
In May 1992, the Russian government repealed the pension law in force in the USSR and introduced new standards, to which reduction factors were applied. As a result of the scandalous innovation, the real pensions of about 35 million Russians were halved. The contingent of street vendors will primarily come from among pensioners.
Survive at any cost
On September 30, 1991, mortuary workers and forensic experts from a number of cities in the Far East met in Khabarovsk to discuss issues of survival during the crisis. In particular, they touched upon the issues of entering markets for organs removed from corpses. And there was something to bargain about. So, an eyeball cost a thousand dollars, a kidney - $14 thousand, a liver - $20 thousand.
Money down the drain
On August 17, 1998, the Russian government declared a default. In just a few months, the dollar exchange rate soared by 300%. The total losses of the Russian economy were then estimated at $96 billion, commercial banks lost $45 billion, the corporate sector - $33 billion, ordinary citizens - $19 billion.
Defend yourself
On July 8, 1991, during another attack by the Caucasian mafia on one of the mines in the Magadan region, a kilogram of gold was stolen. And again the Kolyma police were unable to help. Then law enforcement authorities allowed state gold miners to arm themselves. After all, it was weapons that were the main factor restraining bandits from attacking free miners.
Bloody years
The mid-90s in Russia were marked by an unprecedented rampant banditry. According to FSB Major General Alexander Gurov, about 32 thousand intentional murders were registered per year, of which 1.5 thousand were contract killings. Old people especially suffered. Over the course of a couple of the most terrible years, in Moscow alone, about 15 thousand lonely elderly people were killed because of apartments.
Coveted fast food
The first McDonald's in Russia, which appeared on Pushkin Square in January 1990, caused an unprecedented stir. Over 25 thousand applications were submitted for 630 jobs. The monthly salary of a McDonald's employee could reach 300 rubles, which exceeded the average salary in the country. Prices at McDuck were outrageous. For example, for a Big Mac you had to pay 3 rubles. 75 kop. For comparison, lunch in a regular canteen cost 1 ruble.
Each decade of the 20th century, in the eyes of an ordinary citizen, is painted in its own colors, shimmering in many shades. The twenties and thirties for some were a time of five-year plans, enthusiasm and intercontinental air travel; for others it was overshadowed by mass repressions. The forties rhyme with “fatal”, they are painted with the whiteness of gray hair and bandages, black smoke and the orange flames of burning cities. The fifties - virgin lands and dudes. The sixties - a calm, but poor life. The seventies - brick-washed bell-bottom jeans, hippies and the sexual revolution. Eighties - sneakers, banana pants and Felicitas. And then a nightmare life began in Russia. It was not easy to survive in the 90s. Let's stop at them.
Illusions
The decade is usually counted from the first year. For example, 1970 still belongs to the sixties. Therefore, the first year in this terribly interesting era is considered to be the year of the collapse (or collapse) of the Soviet Union. After what happened in August 1991, there was no question of the dominant and leading role of the CPSU. The smooth slide towards the market, characteristic of many world economies after the collapse of the socialist system (as, for example, in China), became impossible. But almost no one wanted him. People demanded change - and immediate change. Life in Russia in the 90s began with the illusion that if you take a small step, the country will live as luxuriously as the prosperous West, which has become a model in everything for the majority of the population. Few people imagined the depth of the abyss lying ahead. It seemed that America would stop “playing the fool”, help with advice and money, and the Russians would join the ranks of “civilized peoples” driving expensive cars, living in cottages, wearing prestigious clothes and traveling around the world. This happened, but not for everyone.
Shock
The instant transition to the market caused a shock (English: The Shock). This psychological phenomenon was called “shock therapy”, but had nothing to do with the healing processes. In the 90s, exempt prices began to grow many times faster than the incomes of the majority of the population. Sberbank’s deposits have lost their value, they were most often said to have “disappeared,” but the laws of conservation of matter also apply in economics. Nothing disappears, including money, which simply changes its owners. But the matter was not limited to savings books: in the summer of 1992, the privatization of all public property began. Legally, this process was formalized as a free distribution of ten thousand checks, for which formally it was possible to purchase shares of enterprises. In fact, this method suffered from an important flaw. The so-called “vouchers” were bought en masse by those who had the means and opportunity to do so, and soon factories, factories, collective farms and other entities of the Soviet economy passed into private hands. The workers and peasants again got nothing. This surprised no one.
Political changes
In 1991, American correspondents in the office of the former president of the USSR (who had already timidly retired at that moment) expressed joy at the victory over the “evil empire” with loud cries of “wow!” and similar exclamations. They had reason to believe that the only counterweight in the world to the planetary dominance of the United States had been successfully eliminated. They believed that after that, Russia would soon disappear from the map, it would disintegrate into easily controlled from the outside patches, populated by a demoralized rabble. Although the majority of the subjects of the RSFSR (with the exception of Chechnya and Tatarstan) expressed a desire to remain part of a common state, destructive tendencies were quite clearly observed. Russia's domestic policy in the 90s was formulated by President Yeltsin, who called on the former autonomies to take as much sovereignty as they wanted.
The gloomy realities could turn the most ardent supporter of unity into a separatist. The shooting of tanks from the turret guns of the Supreme Council building (October 1993), numerous casualties, arrest of delegates and other circumstances contributing to the flourishing of democracy did not raise any objections from foreign partners. After this, the Constitution of the Russian Federation was legislated, with a generally acceptable text, but placing the norms of international law above national interests.
Yes, the Parliament now consisted of two chambers, the Federation Council and the State Duma. It's a completely different matter.
Culture
Nothing characterizes the atmosphere of the era more than the spiritual life of Russia. In the 1990s, government funding for cultural programs was curtailed, and sponsorship became widespread in its place. The notorious “crimson jackets,” in the pauses between shooting and blowing up their own kind, allocated funds for projects that suited their tastes, which, of course, affected the quality of cinema, music, literature, theatrical productions and even painting. An outflow of talented people began abroad in search of a better life. However, freedom of expression also had a positive side. The broad masses realized the healing role of religion in general and Orthodoxy in particular, and new churches were built. Some cultural figures (N. Mikhalkov, V. Todorovsky, N. Tsiskaridze, N. Safronov, managed to create true masterpieces in this difficult time.
Chechnya
The development of Russia in the 90s was complicated by a large-scale internal armed conflict. In 1992, the Republic of Tatarstan did not want to recognize itself as a federal part of a common country, but this conflict was kept within a peaceful framework. Things turned out differently with Chechnya. An attempt to resolve the issue by force grew into a tragedy on a national scale, accompanied by terrorist attacks, hostage-taking and military operations. In fact, at the first stage of the war, Russia suffered defeat, which was documented in 1996 with the conclusion of the Khasavyurt Agreement. This forced move gave only a temporary reprieve; in general, the situation threatened to move into an uncontrollable phase. Only in the next decade, during the second phase of the military operation and after cunning political combinations, was it possible to eliminate the danger of the collapse of the country.
Party life
After the abolition of the CPSU monopoly, the time of “pluralism” came. Russia in the 90s of the 20th century became a multi-party country. The most popular public organizations that appeared in the country were considered the LDPR (liberal democrats), the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (communists), Yabloko (advocating private property, a market economy and all kinds of democracy), “Our Home is Russia” (Chernomyrdin with a folded “house” palms, personifying the true financial elite). There was also Gaidar’s “Democratic Choice”, “Right Cause” (as the name implies, the opposite of the left) and dozens of other parties. They united, separated, conflicted, argued, but, in general, outwardly they differed little from one another, although they diversified in Russia in the 90s. Everyone promised that everything would be fine soon. The people didn't believe it.
Elections-96
The task of a politician is to create illusions, in this he differs from a real statesman, but at the same time is similar to a film director. The exploitation of visible images is a favorite technique of those who seek to capture the souls, emotions and votes of voters. The Communist Party skillfully exploited nostalgic sentiments, idealizing Soviet life. In Russia in the 90s, fairly wide sections of the population remembered the best times, when there was no war, the issue of getting daily bread was not so pressing, there were no unemployed people, etc. The leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, who promised to return all this, had every chance of becoming President of Russia. Oddly enough, this did not happen. Obviously, the people still understood that there would still be no return to the socialist order. passed. But the elections were dramatic.
Late nineties
Surviving the nineties in Russia and other post-Soviet countries was not easy, and not everyone succeeded. But everything ends sooner or later. It has come to an end and it is good that the change of course took place bloodlessly, not accompanied by one of the terrible civil strife with which our history is so rich. After a long stagnation, the economy, culture and spiritual life began to revive, timidly and slowly. In the 90s, Russia received a vaccine that was very painful and dangerous for the entire state organism, but the country survived it, although not without complications. God willing, the lesson will be useful.
Pictures with stories from the famous photographer Igor Gavrilov, who devoted more than 40 years to his difficult profession.
Igor Gavrilov is a living legend of Soviet photojournalism. His work is amazing, each photograph is life, not covered up, but caught by surprise. Many of the author’s brilliant photographs were not published at the time only because they were too plausible.
For Igor, the main genre is analytical reporting. The main goal of his work is to photograph the truth, in search of which he traveled all over Russia, worked in 50 foreign countries, photographed in almost all hot spots of the country, and on the seventh day after the explosion he flew over the reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Professionalism, great love for his work, and correct principles made Igor’s work significant and internationally recognized. The photographer’s photographs were published in the world’s most prestigious publications: Paris Matsh, Le photo, Stern, Spiegel, Independent, Elle, Play boy – and many others. Nominated for "Best Photographer of the Year" by Time magazine. World Press Photo Award Winner.
The publication “Russian Reporter” published material for which they selected 50 shots of the photographer, taken by him in various periods of his life - from his student years to recent trips around the planet. Igor spoke about each photograph - sometimes in a nutshell, sometimes in detail, and sometimes with digressions into more general topics.
The result is a piercing story that makes you look at the photographs from a completely different angle.
Communal apartment
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Late 80s – early 90s. Communal apartment. It looks like a set at Mosfilm, where temporary partitions are being built to depict some kind of life. But this is a very real apartment.
I was asked to film a topic about communal services. I was not only in this one apartment, but I also bothered all my friends who know or have friends who live in communal apartments. But this one completely amazed me. In the frame is a large room of one family. There’s a mother sitting in the corner, and below us is her daughter, very cute. They simply separated this large room with a plywood partition to somehow separate them from each other. But they partitioned it not up to the ceiling, but up to the middle, and therefore it was possible to climb onto this partition and take such a shot from there. I remember there was no dust there, I think, for six months or a year, I came out of there covered in some kind of cobwebs, dust, whatever the hell.
Symbol of the era
What we lived with for quite a long time, when a person came to the store and saw completely empty shelves there. This is the early 90s or 89.
"Where have you been?…"
A shot with the most unfortunate fate. I made it in Western Ukraine, in the city of Ivano-Frankovsk. In those days, quite a large number of foreigners from the socialist camp and many correspondents gathered there. I was walking to the press center from the hotel and saw this scene at the bus stop. I literally pressed it twice. Some military man attacked me and started shouting to the whole of Ivano-Frankivsk that I was defaming the Soviet way of life, why I was filming disabled people, where I came from.
The frame was not published in Ogonyok, and no matter where I offered it, it was not accepted anywhere. The editor-in-chief of the magazine "Soviet Photo" personally posted this frame with her own hands three times from collections that were sent to some international photo competitions - "Interpress Photo" or World Press Photo, accompanying her actions with impartial comments.
The winds of perestroika blew. A full editorial room of Moscow photojournalists gathered in “Soviet Photo”, the subject of discussion was how to modernize the magazine. I took out this photograph with the words: “Just print these photos.” And in response I heard: “Igor, where were you before, why didn’t you bring such shots to “Soviet Photo”?”
Lonely but wise
This is Victory Day, approximately 76-77. Such a scene formed on the embankment. I believe that the wisest is the one who stands alone in the middle, he is engaged in business: he drinks beer, eats a sandwich. And it is still unknown what they will do.
Earthquake in Armenia
Lists of people who were found and identified. They hang on the glass - the press center there is improvised in some building - and people come up all the time and read.
Chief engineer of a garment factory. It took 2.5 hours to dig it out of the rubble of the destroyed factory, all this time I stood under a swinging slab on a protruding beam. It is clear that in two and a half hours I could take a lot of photographs, but some force kept me in this unsafe place. Three, four frames – that’s all I managed to take from my position. Couldn't take anything off. And yet this is one of the best shots in this series. Who helped me? I tend to think about Him. Well, yes, but maybe it just happened that way.
When I arrived in Moscow, showed the photographs, Ogonyok gave nominally one spread of fairly calm photographs. And it hurt me a lot.
I was hoping that they would print more photos and stronger ones. And I sent it all to Time, and Time came out with the main report of the issue. And they nominated me for best reporter of the year for this report.
First International Hairdressing Competition in Moscow
This is the early 80s. The girls in the picture are models of the competition, their hair is being dried under this beautiful poster. The most interesting thing is that this photograph was published in Ogonyok magazine in those years, before perestroika, but somewhat cropped. The chief artist took out large scissors 20 centimeters long from the office and, with the words “What, oh..., Gavrilov,” cut off the poster.
Vysotsky's funeral
Taganka, opposite the theater. Funeral of Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky. I stood at the coffin in the theater for two hours, I could not leave. I made a mistake with the exposition, but when I went out to the square, I saw it all. And only now, literally this year, I realized that in fact Vysotsky’s funeral was the first unauthorized rally in the Soviet Union. The first popular disobedience of that government, when people came - no one called them, no one drove them, as was done at the demonstration on November 7 or May 1 - but they came.
Too loose
Special detention center in Moscow on Altufevskoye Highway. I filmed there several times and each time with great interest. Well, what can I say? With great pain - this is too pompous. No, there wasn’t much pain. But I feel sorry for the children. All those who ran away from home, those found at train stations, on the streets are collected there.
When this boy was getting his hair cut, lice were jumping off him, about three meters away from him. I barely had time to brush it off, I thought I would get lice all over myself while I was taking it off.
Waste-free production
70s, Moscow. Godless Lane. Opposite the window where people hand over dishes that have just been washed from labels in a puddle, there is a Mineralnye Vody store - quite famous in Moscow. In order to return the dishes, get money, go across the street and buy wine or beer, which was also sold there, people did this.
Life after Afghanistan
Late 80s. Moscow region. This is a rehabilitation hospital for soldiers returning from Afghanistan. There were such boys there. An entire hospital - about 500 people who had just returned from there and saw death. The staff had a hard time dealing with them.
Best Photograph of 1990 in America
November 6, 1990, Time magazine's assignment was to photograph the city before November 7. This is the last November 7th when there was a communist demonstration. The frame was published in Time, and then it was included in the best photographs of the year in America - a great book, I have it. And the next day there was nothing left. That's it, the last demonstration, the last parade. Paragraph.
A photograph is not worth the grief caused for the sake of this photograph.
I was filming something in Georgia - and suddenly an avalanche occurred in Svaneti. One Svan man found himself at the bottom when an avalanche hit his village, and so we drove together along mountain roads to the scene of the tragedy. Our journey took three or four days. When we arrived, the entire village was destroyed. I started filming. There was no one on the streets, absolutely no one. And suddenly I saw these people coming up to the rest of the house - a man, a woman and a child, they were carrying small glasses of chacha or vodka in their hands. The man has on his chest a portrait of his relative who died in an avalanche. I understand that now I can take such a tough shot. They are coming. I know where to do it, I know how to do it. I am waiting. Here they come, I raise the device to my eyes and press it once. Complete silence - mountains. And this man looked at me. Standing behind me is my boyfriend, with whom I arrived, so he put his hand on my shoulder and said: “He doesn’t like you taking pictures.”
And I didn’t take any more pictures, didn’t take a single frame. The woman cried, sobbed, threw herself on her knees and shoveled the snow, and a strange child stood aside, with some kind of hat pulled over one eye, and a man. I didn't take pictures. And when all this was over, the man came up to me and invited me to the funeral in the dugout. It is not customary there to invite strangers to such events, but I was invited for the respect shown.
No photograph is worth the grief caused to people for the sake of this photograph. You can make excuses later - millions will see it, this, that, the fifth, the tenth. Despite the toughness of our profession, despite the toughness of the situations in which we sometimes find ourselves, we must, first of all, remain a person, and then a professional.
Children in cages
The very first publication in the Ogonyok magazine from places not so remote - this kind of material had never been published in the Soviet Union before. This is a court colony for juvenile offenders. In four days I made a material that, in general, brought me quite a lot of fame and many medals, was published in the Independent Magazine in English, and was published in many books. There was no digital camera then, I couldn’t see on the display whether my shadow fell correctly. This is exactly the shadow I was looking for. This is in a punishment cell, a guy sits and looks at me, although I didn’t even ask him to look.
Death Road
The beginning of the journey to the Pamirs, early 80s. This is one of the most difficult business trips. We drove along the Khorog-Osh road, and this road was called the road of death. There are high mountains, 4.5–5 thousand meters, the road is serpentines and cliffs. And the gearbox in our car fell apart. If it weren’t for the border guards... Everyone there helps each other, because they understand that if you stop on this road at night, you may not wake up.
The weather is bad
This is Domodedovo airport, 70s. I run from the train to the airport terminal building. The weather was bad, and the planes did not fly for a long time, and therefore all those who did not fly away scattered around the airport and around. The man in the picture did not fly away, he is sleeping at the end of this railway “track”.
This is Sakhalin, 1974. I went to practice as a student photojournalist for a construction team. In this photo are my fellow students. And the person who is holding the legs of who knows who already is Yegor Veren, who is now one of the leaders of Interfax. These are the guys laying an electric cable under the heating main and passing the end to one another.
Another selection of the best photographs by the photojournalist:
Our family was a typical provincial family, without much income. But we had enough. I, like many children then, knew approximately what my future would be like: school, university, then work, marriage, etc. It was rolled track, prepared in the USSR for the ordinary person. Without any special ups, but also without disasters, perhaps boring, but safe. Relative well-being was guaranteed if you followed certain rules and kept your head down. The future was predictable. The structure of the world was clear. The rules of the game (read life) are the same. And then the 90s came.
The well-ordered and well-functioning world (of course, it was already noticeable that the mechanism was beginning to malfunction) suddenly fell apart. The modest but seemingly unshakable stability collapsed. I was not that old, so I don’t remember the exact events. But I remember well my and my parents’ emotional feelings: fear, hopelessness, rather hopelessness and helplessness. Familiar things have disappeared. There was a shortage of food and clothing. New, unusual things appeared: American chewing gum, American films, advertising, the words “voucher”, “privatization” and “new Russians”. Something happened that in the relatively well-fed, calm, still Soviet 80s was impossible to even imagine. My former teacher suddenly became a shuttle operator and began selling second-hand goods at the market. The father of the most notorious student and hooligan in the class brought his son to school in a cool car. All the rules are gone. There is only one law left: arbitrariness. That's why the most intense feeling of the 90s, which I remember - fear. What's happening? What to do? What to expect? How to live? Confusion and helplessness.
Briefly speaking, the feelings of an ordinary person in the 90s can be described with the obscene but expressive expression “total fucked up” .
I don’t want to go into the political intricacies of those years, figure out who is right and who is wrong, and make assumptions in the spirit of “what if...” I want to talk about how it was for an ordinary person. I will try to compare my vague half-childhood memories with analytical and statistical data and impressions of those who were already adults at that time.
In December 1991, contrary to the wishes of the majority of the still Soviet people, the USSR was finally collapsed. Instead, they put together an indistinct and fragile, like a sand castle, CIS. And on January 2, the then Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his comrades began the so-called economic reforms. State control over the economy was removed, prices were set free, and social spending was sharply reduced. Privatization has begun. The goal of the Yeltsin-Gaidar program was to transfer the economy to a market economy. Actually happened redistribution and takeover of the country by oligarchs. As a result, entire sectors of the economy disappeared. The exact numbers are no longer known, but presumably in the RSFSR alone, GDP fell by 50% in two years. (During the Great Depression in the United States, GDP fell by only 27% over three years, almost half as much. Americans consider the Great Depression a national catastrophe. What did the 90s become for Russians then?)
Own production in the former USSR was practically destroyed. Population incomes fell sharply, and wild unemployment began. It was then that homeless people, hitherto unknown in the USSR, began to appear on the streets, and in today’s Russia they have become a familiar part of the landscape. The homeless did not appear on their own. Classmates, colleagues, neighbors became homeless.
In my hometown there were at least 3 factories: a butter factory, a winery and a bakery. Only the winery remained alive. The rest lie in ruins. My father worked at a winery, was among the leaders in production, and his portrait often hung on the Honor Board. In the 90s, my father continued to go to work regularly, he still worked well, but did not receive any money. At that time we ate mainly potatoes and cabbage. Meat, and especially sausage, one of the symbols of abundance in Soviet times, became unavailable. My aunt, who worked at a lamb factory, was paid in flour and sugar. Some people survived from their gardens. The family of my classmate, whose grandmother is a pensioner and whose mother is disabled, earned their living by selling ceramic figurines at the market. An enterprising neighbor on the landing started up something like this business.
Here it is, the main word that appeared in the 90s, and gradually became the main one - business . Soviet laws collapsed, and with them the laws of morality, and the laws of business came into force: whoever has more money is right, he rules .
In the 90s, you shouldn’t have worked, like my father did. It was necessary tomake money . It doesn't matter whether it's legal or illegal. Those who failed to change their minds did not know how to spin(and these were the majority) became impoverished. Many were never able to adapt and either ended up on the street, drank themselves to death, or died. The 90s were the heyday of all kinds of semi-legal and illegal businesses of all stripes. Some made money, others robbed the first, others protected both the first and the second.
Privatization was, in fact, barely disguised cutting up state property . There was a big fight over the state pie. Businessmen All stripes tried to snatch a sweeter piece. Chips flew in this fight: the 90s became the time unprecedented rampant crime. This was the time of the birth of the now world famous Russian mafia. Mom stopped letting me go outside after 10 pm. They were afraid of gopniks - young thugs in sweatpants, always spitting out the husks from sunflower seeds capable of robbing, beating or killing. The police were under crime control, actually bought brothers. St. Petersburg has turned from a cultural capital into a criminal capital. It was then that AIDS appeared in the former USSR. The birth rate has fallen sharply and the mortality rate has skyrocketed. People died in batches in criminal showdowns ( businessmen they couldn’t figure out who was right and who was wrong), because of poverty, drugs, and alcoholism. The percentage of suicides has jumped - from despair and powerlessness. During these ten terrible years, the country experienced 2 Chechen wars and a series of cruel and brazen terrorist attacks. Total In the 90s, more than 5 and a half million people died in Russia.
Inflation reached unprecedented heights - 2600%. Money has turned into trash. It’s symbolic: my mother then bought a bigger wallet for the money, because it didn’t fit in the old one. At the same time, there was not enough even for bread. And after the 1998 denomination, the large wallet had to be changed to a small one. Very small because everything that had been accumulated before was burned.
Result: economic reforms paved the way for businessmen(thieves and racketeers), which became modern elite. By 1996, 90% of the national income belonged to 10% of the population. The remaining 90% were robbed and poor.
There were two ways to escape from total chaos and horror: to run away or to go to work. The Iron Curtain collapsed along with the USSR, and in the 90s the mass emigration. Everyone who had even the slightest clue fled. Life abroad seemed like paradise. The girls dreamed of marrying a foreigner. The pop music of the 90s perfectly illustrated this widespread desire to escape from a dying country. Remember: “This is San Francisco, the disco city”? Or the immortal group “Combination”: “American fight, I’ll go with you...”? Jews, Germans and everyone who was related to Jews and Germans left my hometown. Almost one and a half million people have emigrated to Israel alone in 10 years.
They went to Moscow to work. It was in the 90s capital of our Motherland Moscow began to turn into snickering Nerezinova. Provincial businessmen who stole money flocked to Moscow to build mansions on Rublyovka. The capital's rich bought up ruined plants and factories in the provinces on the cheap. In the 90s, pipes were laid through which rivers of money from all over Russia still flow into Moscow. And the collapse of the union republics caused a powerful flow of guest workers in the 2000s.
Happened total revaluation of values. More precisely, the destruction of values. The USSR had an ideology. In other words, Soviet people believed and lived according to certain commandments. It doesn’t matter how good the Soviet ideology and commandments were, they were there. In the 90s, the only ideology and measure of everything was loot, grandmothers. That’s right - “loot”, with a contemptuous connotation, which perfectly conveys the ease with which they made money and parted with their lives back then. Everything is sold and everything is bought - that was the motto of that time.
And also believed in miracle . Only a miracle can save you from total Armageddon, right? Therefore, like mushrooms after the rain, healers, soothsayers, astrologers, Hare Krishnas, Jehovah's Witnesses and scammers of all kinds and stripes began to appear, offering miraculous and quick salvation, healing and enrichment. From the TV, Kashpirovsky frowned menacingly and Chumak muttered, dissolving scars and charging water for the whole country. MMM offered fantastic profits in a short time. A symbolic story: in our school there was a pioneer leader, a devout communist and an atheist. In the 90s it became no less furious Orthodox. Belief in miracles gave rise to another fashionable term of those years: divorce for money. In fact, everything around was a scam of the population for money : privatization, banks that appeared like mushrooms after rain and offered unrealistic interest rates, traditional healers and political speeches.
The 90s gave birth to modern Russia , in which we now live. The destruction of its own production has led to the fact that Russia can turn into a raw material appendage of developed and not so developed countries. China, for example, which leases our land and helps us supposedly develop our own natural resources in Siberia and the Far East. The current elite was formed from corrupt officials and crime bosses. The total power of money has led to fantastic corruption. The collapse of the union republics gave rise to a powerful flow of guest workers and illegal migrants. As a result, there is a strong surge of xenophobia in society. The demographic echoes of the 90s are so strong that scientists seriously fear that Russians as a nation will disappear into the midst of Asian newcomers.
Many people say: “But then there was freedom!” The borders have been opened. They published a lot of books that were banned in the USSR. Foreign music and cinema, previously accessible only to a few, poured into the country. Thanks to the shuttles, it was possible to buy imported brand clothes and Chinese counterfeits on the market. Freedom of speech: newspapers openly criticized the authorities, rock concerts and rather daring programs were shown on prime-time TV. The sexual revolution broke out (which, however, turned out to be the rise of prostitution and the rampant HIV). Others say that in the 90s there was not freedom, but mayhem. These years remained in the memory of Russians under the expressive name .
What do you think?