The 1990s was a time of extraordinary turmoil in Russia. From an independent perspective, young European and American writers employed by the Moscow Times reported on the death throes of the Soviet system and Russia's struggles, after decades of communism, to reinvent itself as a democracy with a market-based economy. The foreign editors employed a small group of local photojournalists to take pictures documenting the events the reporters covered. As Russians, they were acutely aware of the often painful changes that were daily occurring around them. The photographs in this exhibition, taken for the Moscow Times between 1992 and 2002, represent their own reflections on Russia after communism.
Former U.S. President Richard Nixon visits the Central Market in Moscow. Mikhail Metzel, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in June 1992. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (1)
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, attends a rock club opening. Mikhail Metzel, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in November 1992. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (3)
Communists rally on October Square in Moscow. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in 1992. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (2)
Reindeer breeders gather on the Taimyr Peninsula of Northern Siberia. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in March 1993. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (4)
A poster in the town of Khatanga, Northern Siberia, displays a portrait of Vladimir Lenin and proclaims: “We will attain the victory of communist labor.” Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in March 1993. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (5)
On Smolensk Square in Moscow, supporters of the Supreme Soviet clash with police. The police reported several officers wounded. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken on October 2, 1993. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (6)
With the fall of communism, Russian photography reentered the international arena. During the long Soviet era, photojournalism had served the propaganda needs of the state. There was no support for Russian photographers who sought to create art or depict a reality at odds with the official party line. The display of controversial work was officially banned, and its creators often jailed. But in the early 1990s, photography reemerged in Russia as a means of free self-expression and a tool for representing a broader range of reality.
During the storming of the White House, home of Russia's legislature, soldiers from the elite “Alpha” unit are sent in to conduct negotiations. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken on October 4, 1993. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (7)
Soldiers take up positions on the Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment, Moscow. Yevgeny Stetsko, photographer. Copyprint, original taken on October 4, 1993. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (8)
As a brass band plays in the background, a man displays personal possessions for sale at an open-air market. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken on October 4, 1993. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (9)
A woman prays in the icon corner in the HIV-positive ward of the 2nd Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Moscow. Yevgeny Stetsko, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in 1993. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (10)
A young boy plays on a tank at a memorial to the battle for Moscow during World War II at Snegiri, a town in the Moscow region. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in 1993. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (11)
MOST-Group head Vladimir Gusinsky, who controls MOST-Bank, also owns Today newspaper and the NTV television station. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in November 1995. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (14)
Veterans gather in Moscow on Victory Day to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken on May 9, 1995. Prints and Photographs Division, Library oof Congress (18)
A woman demonstrates support for Sergei Mavrodi, head of the MMM financial pyramid scheme in which millions of Russians lost billions of rubles. When Mavrodi was arrested, some investors blamed the government for their losses and defended Mavrodi. Yevgeny Stetsko, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in summer 1994. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (12)
The accused awaiting trial in the Butyrskaya prison in Moscow. Designed to hold just one-half the number of inmates it actually houses, the prison was last renovated in 1878. Mikhail Metzel, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in June 1995. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (15)
A man wounded in the first Chechen war adjusts to a prosthesis. Yevgeny Stetsko, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in December 1995. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (16)
A sailor celebrates Navy Day in Gorky Park, Moscow. Mikhail Metzel, photographer. Copyprint, original taken August 1994. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (13)
Workers assemble a new statue of World War II hero Marshal Georgy Zhukov on Manezh Square in downtown Moscow. The statue is the work of sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in 1995. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (17)
Today, many Russian photographers who had no work during the Soviet era are employed as successful photojournalists. While a number of well-known news photographers work abroad for leading Western media and picture agencies, most work for the news magazines and daily papers inside Russia, such as the Moscow Times, which proliferated in the immediate post-communist era.
Members of a military historical society attend a ceremony at the Church of All Saints in Moscow to honor General Lavr Kornilov, a leader of anti-Bolshevik forces during the 1917 Russian revolution. Mikhail Metzel, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in April 1995. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (19)
Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin speaks to members of the State Duma, Russia's legislature. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in April 1996. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (20)
Excavations at Manezh Square in downtown Moscow, in preparation for construction of a new underground shopping mall, unearth a cemetery dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in March 1996. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (21)
As is customary, communist and Christian symbols are seen side by side at an opposition rally. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in March 1996. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (22)
A family from Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in Islamic Central Asia, negotiates the streets of Moscow. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in March 1996. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (23)
Russian Pentecostalists pray at a meeting at a Moscow stadium during the Festival of World Happiness. Yevgeny Stetsko, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in October 1997. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (25)
In contrast to Western news photography, Russian photojournalism often appears to seek a more artistic form. Indeed, a compositional or emotional drama propels many of the images in this exhibition beyond the ordinary limits of documentary news photography. But to non-Russian eyes, the photojournalists' innate ability to grasp the essential significance and poetic import of their subjects stands out the most. Since each has personally experienced the dramatic upheavals that so convulsed Russia in the 1990s, they are acutely attuned to the often shocking impact of societal changes and are thus able to document their effects with an insight denied to out-siders--an insight that can be both passionate, poetic, ironic, sad, and humorous.
The ice breaks on the Moscow River, with the newly-rebuilt Cathedral of Christ the Savior in the background. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in March 1998. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (24)
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright meets Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II at the Danilov Monastery in Moscow. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in February 1997. Prints and Photographs Division (26)
A view of the town of Verkhoturye reborn as a center of Orthodox Christianity, in Russia's Ural Mountain region. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in August 1997. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (27)
The Tetris Wax Museum in Moscow displays busts of political leaders from the past. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in May 1997. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (28)
Lyubov Tumayeva from Nizhny Novgorod tells of her son Sergei, who died in Chechnya. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in August 1997. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (29)
President Boris Yeltsin pays his respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Moscow. Yevgeny Stetsko, photographer. Copyprint, original taken on May 9, 1999. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (30)
The Tax Police hold a news conference in Moscow. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in 1997. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (31)
A monk approaches a Buddhist temple in Buryatia, Eastern Siberia. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in November 1998. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (32)
Members celebrate eighty years of the Komsomol, the Communist youth organization, on Poklonnaya Hill, Moscow. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in October 1998. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (33)
A man catches a few winks on the Moscow River embankment. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in 1996. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (34)
A cadet collapses from heat and nerves during an induction ceremony of the Suvorov Military Academy outside the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in August 1999. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (38)
Young soldiers enjoy Paratroopers Day on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in August 2001. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (47)
The Moscow Times' photographers covered not only the major news stories of the 1990s—the armed conflict between the Russian Parliament and President Boris Yeltsin in October 1993; the momentous 1996 presidential election campaign won by Boris Yeltsin; Russia's financial collapse in 1998; the terrorist bombings in Moscow in September 1999 and 2000; and the election of President Vladimir Putin in 2000—but also many minor and contradictory dramas and achievements as well. The photographs in this exhibition illustrate the widespread revival of religion; the unprecedented number of political and protest demonstrations; nostalgia for both the communist and tsarist pasts; the presence of AIDS; the continued celebration of military anniversaries; the effects of the wars in Chechnya; the aftermath of the financial pyramid scheme that ruined millions of Russians; and the rise of both business oligarchs and ultranationalist politicians. But the photographs also catch special, timeless moments in the life of Russia: ice fishing in winter; the spring breakup of the frozen Moscow River; young soldiers celebrating on leave; and the discovery of a long-forgotten graveyard during construction of a new downtown shopping plaza. Together, the images help tell the story of a nation undergoing radical transformation on many levels.
A terrorist explosion rips apart a nine-story apartment building, killing ninety-four Muscovites. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken on September 9, 1999. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (37)
Archpriest Fyodor Sokolov performs the Orthodox rite called “going down to the Jordan” by dipping a young member of his congregation into a hole in the ice on the Moscow Canal. Sokolov had earlier blessed the water as part of the celebration of Epiphany. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in January 2000. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (36)
Moscow prepares for the 200th anniversary celebration of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin's birth in 1799. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in May 1999. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (39)
Firemen exhausted from rescue work rest after the explosion on Pushkin Square in Moscow. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken on September 8, 2000. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (41)
A View of Red Square in Moscow. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in 1994. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (44)
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II comforts children of sailors who perished in the Kursk nuclear submarine disaster. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in August 2000. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (42)
Efforts by Russian and German volunteers ensure that the remains of fallen German soldiers in Russia's Kaliningrad province on the Baltic Sea will be reburied in a military cemetery. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in September 2000. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (40)
Young admirers of Lavrenty Beria, director of the Soviet secret police who was instrumental in carrying out the purges under Joseph Stalin, display communist symbols in Volgograd. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in June 2000. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (43)
A man fishes through the ice in Kostroma, northeast of Moscow, against the backdrop of the historic Ipatiev monastery. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken spring in 2000. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (45)
Muscovites celebrate spring with balloons on Manezh Square. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in April 2002. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (49)
Skinheads protest the importation of American chicken in front of the McDonald's restaurant on Pushkin Square in Moscow. Vladimir Filonov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken in April 2002. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (50)
Veterans and their families gather to celebrate Victory Day in Moscow in front of the Bolshoy Theater. Igor Tabakov, photographer. Copyprint, original taken on May 9, 2002. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (51)
