The Davis Center library is pleased to announce that a new collection of 1,241 photographs documenting social change in Russia during its “wild ‘90s” is fully cataloged and available online.
From a mountain of discarded banana peels (now that bananas were available!) to so-called New Russians showing off their wealth (whether near kiosks sporting Western logos or memorialized in traditional ceramic), this digital collection captures Russia’s transition from Communist Party control to capitalism and looser mores in its first post-Soviet decade.
Donated by British photographer Robert Stephenson—a seconded U.K. government official who worked in Moscow as a consultant on labor issues from 1992 to 1997—the images depict street scenes and other aspects of daily life symptomatic of the political, social, and economic transformations sweeping Russia.
Most of the photos were taken in Moscow, showing newly built monuments alongside those that would soon disappear, anti-government demonstrations amid harsh economic reforms, rock concerts mingled with politics, and processions with a new foreign flavor, from Hare Krishna chanting to the capital’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, surprisingly large in scale.
But 230 pictures depict nine other cities: Kostroma, Rostov, St. Petersburg, Saratov, Smolensk, Suzdal, Tomsk, Vladimir, and Vladivostok. They, too, show glimpses of change, from monuments honoring the victims of Stalin-era repression to plaques celebrating a John Lennon Rock ’n’ Roll Temple.
Peruse the whole collection at leisure—or search within it—for a visual journey back in time and a benchmark for the many changes that would follow.
Soviet hammer and sickle emblem near Moscow's TsDKh (Central House of Artists), with Zurab Tsereteli's Peter the Great statue behind it and the newly rebuilt Cathedral of Christ the Savior in the background, 1997.
Librarian for the Davis Center Collection, Harvard University
