Photos From the Post-Soviet Transition in Russia

This collection of over 1,200 photos, dated from 1992 to 1997, documents daily life in Russian cities in the tumultuous years following the collapse of the USSR.
Man in ushanka playing a recorder under a large Marlboro sign; two men stand next to him, one wearing an ostentatious bright-red coat
Spectators next to a street kiosk during Moscow's first St. Patrick’s Day parade in March 1993. Image details.

Documenting different aspects of daily life in Russia at the height of a period of rapid transition and new freedoms that followed the break-up of the Soviet Union, these 1,241 photographs provide a visual record of Moscow and other Russian cities during a brief but consequential moment in Russian history. 

The wide range of subjects represented in the collection includes: 

5 different busts are scattered on the ground outside
Discarded busts of Soviet heroes in Moscow, March 1992. View Image.
  • the casting aside of old symbols of the Soviet regime and the construction of new monuments
  • street protests and demonstrations
  • the impact of economic shock therapy and arrival of an unregulated free market on individuals and businesses 
  • the changing faces of cities and public spaces
  • the resurgence of the Orthodox Church and the arrival of new religious groups
  • the rise of new mass media and foreign influences on fashions and styles. 

These photos were donated to the Davis Center Collection at Fung Library in digital format by Robert Stephenson, a British photographer and former civil servant who took them while living and working in Russia from 1992 to 1997. 

The images document scenes from daily life during this period in Moscow and other cities, including St. Petersburg, Smolensk, Saratov, Rostov-on-Don, Tomsk and Vladivostok. 

Explore samples from the collection below or browse all of the photos in HOLLIS Images, our image catalog.

Marchers carry red banners down a street on a sunny day with tall buildings in the background
Working Russia banner on Victory Day in Moscow in 1993. View Image.
A woman pushes a stroller and pulls a sled by buses parked on a snowy street.
Woman with sled and stroller in Moscow in the early 1990s. View Image.
Stone monuments illustrated with mosaic of tiles show pay tribute to the Red Army and Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
Monuments to Red Army and Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in Moscow in the early 1990s. View Image

Accessing These Materials

Access the full collection online via HOLLIS Images and learn more about the collection in HOLLIS, the library's catalog.

Click here for HOLLIS Images search tips.

This collection is part of the Davis Center Collection at Fung Library.

Contact

Svetlana Rukhelman

Related Collections

Collection

Soviet Information Bureau Photograph Collection

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