Melancholic Identities
More than twenty years have passed since the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics succumbed to collapse. Alongside the monumental changes that this historic event wrought in terms of the structural reordering of the international system, Russia has simultaneously experienced substantial political and economic changes over the past two decades. Still, whether Russia’s citizens have come to embrace their departure from Soviet Communism remains debatable.
For many Russians, the collapse of the Soviet Union meant not only the death of a strict political system, but of a way of life they had grown to love. At the beginning the new Western lifestyle had seems to be well assimilated, however, after 1998 crisis, difficulties and uncertainty brought a high polarized society and an unemployment levels never lived in the USSR. The standard of living fell for many people, their social safety net disintegrated, death rates soared and the population shrank. Insecurity and frustration for the “new Western lifestyle” brought a widespread Soviet past nostalgia. Even if in 2009 Russia have recovered and has embarked on an ambitious program of modernization and diversification focused on new technology and institutional reform and even there is a growing of pride and emotional, moral and spiritual strength never seen before, for too many people the poverty is still a problem. Although nostalgia for the Soviet Union in Russia is pervasive, there are sharp differences across generations: older Russians express the greatest sense of loss while the new generations oscillating between adaptation and resignation.
These images made in Moscow and St. Petersburg is a personal visual impression from an “in between two worlds” society. Nevertheless, as tragic as the Russian “modus Vivendi” is (and has always been) this great people possess a great spirit and I think is just a matter of time until Russia will reinvent itself redefining the notions of greatness and power.
Melancholic Identities
More than twenty years have passed since the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics succumbed to collapse. Alongside the monumental changes that this historic event wrought in terms of the structural reordering of the international system, Russia has simultaneously experienced substantial political and economic changes over the past two decades. Still, whether Russia’s citizens have come to embrace their departure from Soviet Communism remains debatable.
For many Russians, the collapse of the Soviet Union meant not only the death of a strict political system, but of a way of life they had grown to love. At the beginning the new Western lifestyle had seems to be well assimilated, however, after 1998 crisis, difficulties and uncertainty brought a high polarized society and an unemployment levels never lived in the USSR. The standard of living fell for many people, their social safety net disintegrated, death rates soared and the population shrank. Insecurity and frustration for the “new Western lifestyle” brought a widespread Soviet past nostalgia. Even if in 2009 Russia have recovered and has embarked on an ambitious program of modernization and diversification focused on new technology and institutional reform and even there is a growing of pride and emotional, moral and spiritual strength never seen before, for too many people the poverty is still a problem. Although nostalgia for the Soviet Union in Russia is pervasive, there are sharp differences across generations: older Russians express the greatest sense of loss while the new generations oscillating between adaptation and resignation.
These images made in Moscow and St. Petersburg is a personal visual impression from an “in between two worlds” society. Nevertheless, as tragic as the Russian “modus Vivendi” is (and has always been) this great people possess a great spirit and I think is just a matter of time until Russia will reinvent itself redefining the notions of greatness and power.
