Russia in the 90s

What was Russia like in the 90s? I'm trying to understand Russia better. I know the basic things. Did anyone live through the coup attempt? 1996 elections? etc. All info and opinions appreciated

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90s Russia was literally anarcho-capitalism. Oligarchy, mafia, criminality, lawlessness. Crazy times

Putin manufactured the Chechen bombings as to false-flag to invade Chechnya and gain prestige

Opportunistic organized crime poaching what they can of the former regime industrial capacity.

Overnight (incompetent) billionaires.

Pretty much the same process as in most places in the Warsaw pact.

I was a kid, so it was great for me.

Does anyone have any information on the Chechen attack on the US embassy in 1995?

I remember hearing ads for the "West Russian investment company" on radio Moscow shortwave.

Is being beaten up by alcoholic parents living in misery considered a great childhood?

Until 16 yo my biggest dream was to eat as many bananas as I possibly could, by we've only had money for two bananas per month at max. My grandma presented me with a Snickers bar once on my birthday. Mum sliced it in thin pieces and gave everyone a piece. I remeber how by granmda was nibbling the piece with her toothless mouth and asking with a smile on her face "Do you like it?". I did.
At 17 me and my mother were selling homegrown vegetables on a local marketplace during the summer break so we could get some money to actually dress me up and buy all the other stuff for school. You have to sit under the blazing summer sun all day long and sprinkle water onto the vegetables so they would look fresh. A lot of my schoolmates were passing by but choosing not to notice me. A teacher of mine walked up to us once to say hi and buy a kilo of tomatoes. I remember the deep sadness in his eyes as he was looking at me.

The institutions failed except the KGB and the military, which is why they started to rely on those.

eat shit Hans
oh wait you'll probably like it

I have a small collection of real life stories about the 90s written by anons which I have translated to English.

When I was a little boy We had to get up at 5 or 6 in the morning to stand in the queue for fresh bread. We stood there in the queue for three hours. I was ecstatically happy when we bought a loaf of bread and finally got out of that horrible noisy queue. I was honoured with the opportunity to carry the loaf home. It was warm and smelled delicious. When we got home and sliced it we understood that the bread was made a few days ago and was simply reheated a few times. That day I lost the hope in people.
On my birthday mum used to make potato mash with cutlets garnished with fresh cucumbers. I got up late at night hungry and went to the kitchen to get a leftover cutlet and found my father sitting there eating rusks with water. Only then I realised I have never seen my father eat something together with us because he was saving all the good stuff like meat and potatos for me while secretly chocking late at night on old dried out bread.
The hell with this, I won't cry over that again.

>What was Russia like in the 90s?
It was literally anarcho-capitalism, businesses got raided, bandits were shooting each other for a piece of money in the woods or simply organized drive-by to eliminate the competitor.
There wasn't a strong police power to shut them all down, so they got away with most of the crimes they committed. But some of them were imprisoned, pic related.
At the same time, common people were struggling with basic problems like how to earn money to not starve to death.
Long story short, back in those days you could be beaten by gopniks just for lulz in a "wrong neighborhood", you could lose your job, you could lose your home and you could lose everything you have. Shortage of everything, even money.

Mate, you have had such a hard time.

This. The worse times in Russian modern history.

The most vivid memory of the 90s that I have. Snowy winter, -25, a square in front of a railstation. A marketplace near the railstation. Back in the day people used to sell everything and everywhere, dressed in those washed up coloured clothes. You know the kind. Well, russians know. They could have a pig's head and a toy doll for sale next to each other. Most of the stuff they were selling was easily recognisable, everybody in the USSR had the same chairs, couches, books, red roly-poly toys. I remember, near a rusted to the core street light there were lying two stiffs in leather jackets. Just lying there in the snow, legs spread wide open, fists clenched. And people just walking by, buying books for the kids, getting a new t-shaped razor while those two guys were just lying there in the broad day light. It's hard to express but everything felt surrealistic and down to the ground at the same time. Everything was surrealistic and everything was a torture. Horrible times.

Is Russia as grim as they say? Not edgy congo grim, but just this gloomy cold nihilistic grim that permeates everything

I've got nothing to compare to, never been anywhere other than in my hometown and Moscow. The vast majority of russians never been abroad, some people were in Turkey and that's it.

Very fun place.

I don't know, you tell me. I lived in comfy little town and had a lot of Lego and encyclopedias of animals.

My name is Sasha Joutchkov and I can honestly say that the Russia and russians didn't change much other than the so called "powerful army" and political influence and shits. Only russians can understand the struggle to survive in Russia, financially and emotionally. We are like chinese in China, people think their country is dominating the world but most of them feel like shit living in their own country.

Putin did good, with maltsev, zhirinovsky, commies and navalny you will be catapulted into those times faster than you think

> encyclopedias of animals
Fuck yes.
Why were they even a thing back then?

I don't know, I've just loved animals.

>t. russian living in Germany
so why dont you come back to your homeland if "Putin did good"?

Nothing wrong with aknowledging that putin fixed the country after eltsins fuck ups
Maybr yoi should fuck off to gulag for supporting lunatics like maltsev and navalny

Ok, but answer my question.
>supporting lunatics like maltsev and navalny
I dont support them.

>putin fixed the country after eltsins fuck ups
Oil prices did all of that.

How accurate was "Brat"?

It was prophetic, it told about shooting down Ukranians. We were also mentioned as the main enemy.

when a dumb peasant could become so rich he built a stadium and bought an entire football team solely by selling heating oil as gasoline

this kind of thing

I had encyclopedias of dinosaurs and animals as well when I was a kid. I was mostly impressed with which dinosaur/animal was the biggest though.

We don't worry about politics. We just fuck girls drink beer and send you GTFO!

pasta

They are not lunatics they are Kremlin agents. Just shitty persons who totally descredit idea of opposition to authorities.

pasta

I was a kid in 90's, so it wasn't so bad, living in Moscow. But my family was poor too, so we couldn't afford anything like car or household appliances.
But we had money to buy me and my brother Lego, other constructors for children, encyclopedias and so on, but my father have to collect an empty bottles on the streets to do do, despite having a job and having a best education our country could give.
The most glorious day for me would be to fo visit a McDonalds with my mom and brother (1-2 times a year).

Sure we was poor and pathetic, but felt kinda nice.

Also I saw a guy with a gun on the street, threatening some other guy once when I went to school.

You don't say > I have a small collection of real life stories about the 90s written by anons which I have translated to English.

pasta

>animal encyclopedias
Yes, I still have like four on my book shelf. Even had one about dinosaurs.

Russia is pretty big.
Some shitholes are exactly as grim and hopeless as it can get, often being photographied during overcast\rain for that "Hell on Earth" look.
Other places are lively, colourful, with lots of points of interest, etc.

I had dozens encyclopedias aboout everything. Space, dinosaurs, ancient mythilogy.

My father was gangster in Vorkuta. People got killed. Friend made his own alcohol and Vodka Mafia came and killed him drive by.
Now we in Germany

I visited Moscow with on a work trip in the 90s. The streets were a fucking mess with people selling spoons and forks just trying to make a buck to survive. I remember ordering steak from a restaurant with melted cheese on top which made me and my co-workers walk out. Chef still got made even though we payed him.

Oh I remember I had like ten brain new fresh printed and massive encyclopedias on dinosaurs with lots of cool illustrations. All that hype about dinosaurs was because we had The Land Before Time, Jurassic Park and Walking with Dinosaurs back then. All cool kids and I used to draw them all days all our free times when we were kindergartners. If I had to describe my childhood with one word you know what I'll say. And then suddenly all changed I didn't noticed how, but people just got fed up with all these giant reptiles I guess. Now I hardly can recall ten of them by name, probably knew 100 by heart when I was just 5.

My guess is St.Petersburg is nicer than Moscow although Moscow is more international?

>more international
>being a good thing
lol

I was robbed 3 times by homeless kids and adult bydlo;

we didn't have money for anything, my mom wore same coat for 14 years, dad didnt get salary for 8 months.

We were growing vegetables on grandma's dacha and eating them, it was significant part of our everyday food.

We've never had VHS player, it was too expensive for us, I've never had bicycle as a kid.

t. born in 1986

St.Petersburg people are more arrogant, but like to pretend they are more european-like, while people from Moscow more business-like, but a lot more consumerists.
Those are big cities, so foreigners treated good there, a lot of open-minded people. Black people won't be an eyesore too much.

P.S. Scince encyclopedias were the best.

What about novosibirisk?

novosib iz ok

I have never been there myself, but it's called a student's city. A lot of univercities there. So there are a lot of open-minded youth. By my image it's the best city in Syberia.

Novosibirsk? You probably confused it with Tomsk.

No, I am sure that I am right. But Tomsk is nice city too, a sfar as I know. Knew the guy from there (met him in the Army). Kinda comphy place, but temperature jumps are extreme.

>What was Russia like in the 90s?
Anarchy, death and misery.

Novosibirks has never been cosidered as "a students' city". It's Tomsk, for sure. Or maybe you conufuse the whole city with Akademgorodok, which is kind of a student place.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akademgorodok

Was it a mistake?

It was irreversible in 1991 anyway.

Only stalinist style purges could save USSR in the 80s.

What if the new union treaty went through? And Gorbachev foiled the coup before it ever happened.

Bump for interest

Hard to say what could've happened.

Nah, with capitalism being restored a new union would've been almost the same shithole as post soviet repunlics (as socialist as modern day China (I guess no-one considers China to be socialist)).

Tell me about life in provincial Russia during those times

>My grandma presented me with a Snickers bar once on my birthday
we ate snickers and any kind of bars exactly like this till early 00s unironicaly. Thank you for remind me good times:^)

I can remember only the late 90s, but it was relatively ok.

>land before time
>walking with dinosaurs
Fucking hell yeah

Wait, so you remember living under the soviet union?

>mfw 17 to 1

slightly

i remember 1st may 1989, we went on parade, i've never seen so many people before

The freest country in the world. Freedom beats much of prosperity in my opinion. We laughed at retarded American morlas and bigotry but now ythey're brought here by Putin and Co.

It was good enough for me.

Where did you live?

It was literally anarco-capitalist place.

He's either trolling or was born in the 00s.

Look at this, tibla

S*viets are fucking weak

Iraqi here
Basically lived in similar but somehow worse conditions between the invasion of kuwait and the US invasion. My cousin was an engineer and got payed 5 dollars a month. I had the same coat for ~14 years and had to sell almost everything at home to survive. also a fuck ton of relatives died thanks to american planes bombing retreating troops and burying them alive. Lost several others including 2 infants because the hospitals had almost 0 supplies and were full to the brim

the whites still lost

my childhood is the only time in my life when i was relatively happy.

I thought that the Saddam times was a golden age for you

Germans/Estonians/Finns also lost. Why? Because c*mmies have a lot of zombie people.

>coat
>iraq
what

This picture is accurate.

It's not, I can't drink even a glass of vodka.

deserts get cold as fuck during the night.

why are you such a pussy?

Holy shit either russia is retarded or germany is genius.

I want to give you a hug

i lived in petropavlovsk-kamchatskiy, kamchatka during this time. My dad was caviar trader so we lived more then comfortably, borderline wealthy i guess for quite long time, but due to poor money management(savings, investment and other financial stuff was just unheared-of for my parents) and pressure from korean mafia we became poor quite quickly. At one point they cant even afford food for me and my sister.(i remember when i accidentally find 100 rubles near school while walking and my mum borrowed it from me to buy some groceries. She gave it back some time later though) So it was a time when I and my sister spent all our free time in dacha while parents were looking for opportunities to make some money. And there was bunch of other kids with parents in the same situation. So we were left for ourselves for a whole summer. Of course there was my grandma too but she was more bothered with gardening then anything else. And was a great time tbqh, basically lie movie Kids on steroids

Winters are really fucking cold+When it rains it fucking pours
not unless you consider being at war for most of your life and having every aspect of your life restricted a golden age

Man up Ahmed

I didn't live in any of the desert regions. Most Iraqis don't live in the desert either

DAYLY REMINDER:

We aren't European
We aren't White
We aren't Slav

>pressure from korean mafia
wtf? you allowed a bunch of yellow ones to push you around in your own country?

Try living in a country where the temperature goes from an average of 42 Celsius in the summer to 14 in the winter. Sometimes the temperatures get as high as 53 and as low as 5.

not only yellow ones but don't forget about dagestanian, Azerbaijanian, ossetinian, chechenian and armenian mafia. It was fucked up

and above of all russian of course

>42 Celsius in the summer to 14 in the winter
still beter than +35C during summers and -35C during winters

you shouldnt miss an oportunity to kill one of those creatures

Saddam should have won
Then the eternal s*udi would be destroyed.
Cuck.

>Cuck
No.

What I remember/know
I remember my parents doing stint as a street cleaners, myself being taken along. That allowed us to get our own flat, separate from grandparents
I remember dad losing his job as an engineer, then finding a job as an electrician in an American embassy. I remember being there once, at Christmas celebration, there were candy cones
I remember talks of maniacs in the city. There were always whores on nearby highway. I remember being adviced “never go by ladder, junkies are there”