From Sept 1991 until Jan 1992 I travelled through a large part of the Eastern Bloc. The original plan was to reconnect with family and have a break between university and full-time work, so it was only by accident that I stumbled onto the post-Glasnost upheaval.
I spent seventeen weeks in Hungary, Poland, Romania, pre-dissolution Czechoslovakia and the not-quite-ex Soviet Union — experiencing first-hand The Fall Of Communism
and deliberately avoiding gap-year clichés like London, Paris, Rome, Ibiza or any other part of Western Europe.
As you can imagine it was a fascinating trip. To paraphrase David Stark, it was a moment when Eastern Europe played Capitalism with Communist pieces
and when millions of usually placid Socialists became unhinged.
The following images and commentary are an informal photo-diary of the visit. For personal vignettes, cultural references (songs and movies), plus a list of relevant books and articles, see also the Notes tab above.
Also note: initially this material went live in 2006, so over the years a lot of the external web-links have become broken.
Quick Links Location Description CCCP Moscow at the end of the USSR Magyarorság Budapest, Szombathely & Mátra Mountains Rumania Bucharest in December Polska Warsaw & Auschwitz under Solidarity Ĉesko Brno in pre-secession Czechoslovakia Image Gallery cccp(Dec 1991) • 271.5 KB • GPS: 55:41:43N, 37:26:44E
From my Hotel Mozhaisky window again, this time looking at a distant power station — the billowing steam clouds give a rough indication of how cold it was (−27°C the day I arrived)
(Sep 1991) • 333.3 KB • GPS: 55:45:14N, 37:37:12E
The queue in front of Lenin's Mausoleum [1] in Moscow's Red Square. At the time there were rumors Vladimir Illyich might be removed and given a proper burial, hence the unusually long queue waiting for a final glimpse.
Notice the red CCCP flag still flying on top of the Kremlin — it was finally taken down on 31st December 1991 [2]
(Dec 1991) • 264.2 KB • GPS: 55:40:02N, 37:40:14E
The famous 16th century Ascension Church inside the Kolomenskoe Museum Preserve [1], on a bank above the Moskva River (visible in the background)
(Dec 1991) • 387.8 KB • GPS: 55:44:56N, 37:34:56E
A few moments of winter sunshine along the Garden Ring Road [1] in inner Moscow. Notice everyone has shopping bags, just in case…
(Dec 1991) • 517.2 KB • GPS: 55:42:28N, 37:23:54E
Birch trees in a housing estate in Moscow's west. If you look at the GPS Location link, you will notice these “Sleeping Districts” [1] run alongside the Outer Ring Road for dozens of kilometres
(Sep 1991) • 386.9 KB • GPS: 55:45:13N, 37:37:22E
At the southeastern corner of Red Square, a pedestrian is told where to go
(Dec 1991) • 349 KB • GPS: 55:46:12N, 37:37:56E
Moscow street vendors offer quality produce to their discerning clientele.
One of the first signs the Iron Curtain [1] was defunct was the presence of fresh fruit in the dead of winter. Brought in from Africa or Spain [2], I once even noticed a "fresh" pineapple in a Moscow corner store, placed high on a shelf behind the counter, presumably to discourage Expropriation by the Proletariat
(Dec 1991) • 552.4 KB • GPS: 55:40:04N, 37:40:07E
The Kolomenskoe Museum Preserve [1] in southeastern Moscow. This is a view of what used to be the main entrance to the estate
(Dec 1991) • 443.5 KB • GPS: 55:45:47N, 37:36:29E
Art and “biznes” on Ulitsa Gorkogo (“Tverskaya-Yamskaya”), in central Moscow. Street vendors were all over the place, and by now I was thoroughly sick of them.
At the time I was unaware that many vendors like these were desperate to raise cash, to compensate for inflation wiping out their state pensions and wages [1].
The memorial plaque on the rear wall is for the soviet artist Pyotr Vasilyev (1899—1975) [2]
(Dec 1991) • 378 KB • GPS: 55:43:19N, 37:22:05E
Ever wondered what a Dacha outside Moscow
looked like?…
(Dec 1991) • 340.5 KB • GPS: 55:45:60N, 37:38:03E
Moscow public telephone box with sports-fan graffiti.
Of more interest is the steel mesh visible at the top RHS of the picture. Many buildings had them to protect pedestrians from falling chunks of ice and/or masonry…
(Sep 1991) • 375.3 KB • GPS: 55:45:17N, 37:37:12E
A Moscow family wait for things to change outside the ГУМ department store [1], on the eastern edge of Red Square
(Dec 1991) • 401.8 KB • GPS: 55:45:31N, 37:36:46E
A Day In The Life Of The Neo-Proletariat: Christian Dior in the morning; Yves Rocher after lunch; a park bench at night…
(Dec 1991) • 506.3 KB • GPS: 55:45:11N, 37:35:50E
Architectural juxtapositions along the Prospekt Kalinina — in this case a delicate white orthodox church beside a commie concrete slab.
Everyone went to Arbat Street when in Moscow. I didn't. The joke was on me however, for they renamed Pkt Kalinina to “Ul Novyy Arbat” not long after I left
(Dec 1991) • 370.8 KB • GPS: 55:42:17N, 37:31:47E
Lomonosov Moscow State University [1], the main campus in Moscow. I went there looking for intelligent young women, but found instead substandard food and worse public toilets
(Dec 1991) • 364.4 KB • GPS: 55:45:52N, 37:37:47E
Welcome to Moscow — a few blocks north of the Kremlin.
How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm
[1] once they have sampled the delights of Москва [2]? No doubt it was scenes like this which finally wiped the smirk off Burgess, Philby & Maclean's faces [3]
(Dec 1991) • 332.1 KB • GPS: 55:45:28N, 37:36:51E
While freezing my sphincter off waiting to take the vendors photo [1], I turned around and shot this image of hitch-hikers trying to get a lift.
One of the big surprises in Moscow were all the hitchers touting for rides on the sides of every major road, either early morning or late in the afternoon.
The Kremlin and State Historical Museum are visible in the background [2], with Red Square and Saint Basils Cathedral in the LHS distance
(Dec 1991) • 277.5 KB • GPS: 55:43:53N, 37:36:13E
Muscovites celebrate the cost of living at the gates of Gorky Park [1]. Apparently the placard says: Mad Prices From The Mad Government In The White Madhouse!
(Dec 1991) • 275.9 KB • GPS: 55:40:07N, 37:40:04E
Although I was critical of how run-down most of Moscow was [1], I have to admit parts of it could also be beautiful
(Dec 1991) • 424.8 KB • GPS: 55:42:48N, 37:23:20E
Moscow's western outskirts, just outside the “МКАД” [1], looking east towards the city.
This was the view from my room in the (two star) Hotel Mozhaisky [2], a few minutes after checking in. As of 2007 it appears the concrete “Mockba” sign has been removed
(Dec 1991) • 355.9 KB • GPS: 55:45:36N, 37:36:41E
Ulitsa Gorkogo (since renamed “Tverskaya-Yamskaya”) is a main thoroughfare which leads toward the Kremlin. It was lined with major department and fashion stores — Christian Dior here. Street vendors would set up their stalls outside, hoping to catch a few crumbs from the minority who could afford to shop there
(Dec 1991) • 343.2 KB • GPS: 55:43:08N, 37:23:23E
Waiting for a bread kiosk to open in a far western “Sleeping District” [1].
Note: I am aware the sign actually says “Beer”. The people in the queue were lining up for a different kiosk (out of frame)
(Dec 1991) • 439.1 KB • GPS: 55:42:36N, 37:24:02E
The only way to house ten million people [1] within a 25km radius, is to do so in large apartment blocks.
Unfortunately many of these “Khrushchevka's” were so hastily built that the construction quality ended up being suboptimal [2]
(Dec 1991) • 339.4 KB • GPS: 55:45:31N, 37:36:46E
Women hawk their wares on Ulitsa Gorkogo ("Tverskaya- Yamskaya"), only 200m from the Kremlin. Many were wives of smugglers and truck drivers trying to unload stolen goods, many others were former state employees made redundant by the New Economy [1].
There was a large crowd blocking my view, so I had to wait more than 45 minutes in freezing weather to get this shot. I discovered only later (when safely back in Hungary) that women like these used to beat up anyone who tried to film them…
(Sep 1991) • 276.2 KB • GPS: 55:45:13N, 37:37:16E
Red Square, a few minutes after the Mausoleum photo [1]. We are facing north-west, with the red-painted State Historical Museum on the left [2], the pre-renovation Hotel Москва in the middle [3] and the dull aqua-coloured ГУМ department store on the right [4].
A couple of things: Red Square was completely fenced off to pedestrian access (very annoying); secondly, photos of military personnel were strictly prohibited at the time, so I had to live dangerously to get this shot…
(Dec 1991) • 448.7 KB • GPS: 55:45:23N, 37:36:34E
Freed of the shackles of the past, a state(less) employee strides heroically towards the Post Demokratizatsiya Paradise…
(Dec 1991) • 408.3 KB • GPS: 55:42:45N, 37:22:56E
December 12th from my window in the Hotel Mozhaisky [4], the day Russia ratified the Belavezha Accords and withdrew from the 1922 CCCP treaty [1].
Not that I knew it at the time. I was travelling alone and didn't speak any Russian, so the hoopla on radio and TV didn't register. I only realised a week later, after I returned to Hungary, that I had inadvertently been A Witness To History
.
The parked trucks in the picture were part of an E.U. food-aid convoy. Later that morning I discovered a major advantage of staying in one of the “Sleeping Districts” [2] at the outskirts of the city: while inner-city tourists had to scratch around for food, we were among the first to be resupplied when the trucks rolled through.
The rocket-shaped building on the horizon is the spire of the Lomonosov MSU [3]
(Dec 1991) • 274.5 KB • GPS: 55:44:07N, 37:35:37E
The reason Metro entrances looked like massive cold-war nuclear bunkers was because… they were entrances to massive cold-war nuclear bunkers [1].
The closer you got to the Kremlin, the thicker the blast doors became. Building domes went from brick to reinforced concrete to solid steel. Escalators to underground platforms doubled or tripled in length…
Seriously scary stuff. A brutal reminder that when in Moscow, your soft pink body was always in the middle of a nuclear bulls-eye
(Dec 1991) • 377.8 KB • GPS: 55:45:08N, 37:34:60E
Impromptu bridge memorials on the Smolenskaya overpass to the August '91 Coup victims [1].
In early September there were already portraits, hand-written posters, crosses and flowers alongside the railing. I even saw a newly-married couple posing for wedding photos.
By mid-December '91 the temporary monuments had been replaced with a more permanent memorial
(Oct 1991) • 379.3 KB • GPS: 47:30:24N, 19:03:41E
Business as unusual, as one of Budapest's main boulevards reverts to its non Soviet-hero name
(Sep 1991) • 379.1 KB • GPS: 47:30:24N, 19:03:33E
A few gypsies travellers in the VIII District engage in a heated conversation on a street corner
(Oct 1991) • 336.4 KB • GPS: 47:14:16N, 16:36:09E
A typical housing estate, in this case along Szürcsapó Utsa, across the road from the Csónakázó (Rowing) Lake.
The only significant difference between Hungarian and other Eastern Bloc housing estates was that the Hungarian versions were usually painted bright colours.
The most cheerful barracks in the Lager
eh?…
(Oct 1991) • 380.4 KB • GPS: 47:30:48N, 19:04:38E
A kindergarten excursion near the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts [1]
(Sep 1991) • 366.2 KB • GPS: 47:30:09N, 19:02:04E
The "Halászbástya" (Fisherman Bastion [1]) on the western bank of the Danube, near Budapest Castle. In the last weeks of summer, cafe patrons relax beneath corporate brands.
With the decline of smoking in the west, tobacco companies rushed east to exploit the collapse of The Wall [2]. Just in time to start saving for another Master Settlement Agreement [3]…
(Nov 1991) • 336.4 KB • GPS: 47:46:40N, 19:56:04E
Gyöngyös [1] is a small city 80km east of Budapest. This was the weekly market held in an open air cinema (the large white wall was actually the projection screen)
(Oct 1991) • 260.2 KB • GPS: 47:13:53N, 16:37:34E
The Iron Curtain starts to tear…
Szombathely is a small Hungarian city near the Austrian border [1]. It was where my parents were born and married and also where most of my relatives live.
The photo depicts the cracked wall of the Szent Márton Churchyard, with an airliner's vapour-trail overhead
(Oct 1991) • 483.2 KB • GPS: 47:22:05N, 16:40:28E
A derelict farmhouse in Tömörd, awaiting re-development by its new Austrian owner.
This is where my maternal great grandparents lived and also where my grandmother was born — ground floor, second door from the right. The two men in the photograph are a first-cousin (taller) and uncle (shorter)
(Nov 1991) • 458.3 KB • GPS: 47:54:44N, 19:58:11E
The lead-crystal glass factory at Parádsasvár in the Mátra Hills, approximately 100km east of Budapest. Behold the delights of air-borne lead residues + crops…
Actually the township is more famous for its castle [1]. In the early '90s it was practically in ruins — definitely not the luxurious five star hotel it has since become
(Sep 1991) • 414.9 KB • GPS: 47:30:56N, 19:04:41E
Hösök Tere (“Heroes' Square” [1]) in eastern Budapest. Often used for parades and national commemorations, it's also a repository of large bronze statues for tourists to admire
(Oct 1991) • 282.7 KB • GPS: 47:30:17N, 19:04:58E
About mid-way between the Danube and the Museum of Fine Arts, pedestrians stop for a moment to read the signs
(Oct 1991) • 293.5 KB • GPS: 47:29:50N, 19:02:51E
Window washers at the Budapest Hotel Intercontinental [1], on the eastern bank of the Danube.
Safety last, I was amazed at how incredibly dangerous this was. At the time in Australia it was illegal to wash tall building exteriors without using (at least) a tethered gantry
(Sep 1991) • 376.5 KB • GPS: 47:25:37N, 19:04:02E
The HÉV [1] terminus on Csepel Island [2], in Budapest's south.
Prior to deindustrialisation in the 1990s, Csepel was an industrial powerhouse, employing tens of thousands of people in enormous steel-works and car manufacturing plants. Not any more…
(Sep 1991) • 348 KB • GPS: 47:30:10N, 19:02:05E
Halászbástya again, as tourists troop through the interior of one of the conical watchtowers
(Sep 1991) • 406.7 KB • GPS: 47:30:10N, 19:02:03E
Halászbástya again, this time with the Budapest Hilton in the background.
Spatially separated by only 100m, culturally they may as well have been on opposing sides of the galaxy
(Oct 1991) • 512 KB • GPS: 47:32:51N, 19:02:21E
Bekasmegyer (“Peaceful Field”) was a vast housing estate to the north of Budapest — a brutal collection of ten storey 1970s apartment blocks, held apart by wind-swept playing fields
(Nov 1991) • 448.4 KB • GPS: 47:54:41N, 19:57:42E
The Mátra Hills forest outside Parádsasvár. Although the forest was (more or less) protected, every week an ex-aparatchik's son-in-law would drive into the woods to cut down trees to sell as firewood
(Dec 1991) • 437.9 KB • GPS: 44:26:29N, 26:06:21E
An older part of Bucharest which managed to escape Nicolae's bulldozers. Paris of the East
eh? As yet there weren't too many street kids or wild dogs [1]…
(Dec 1991) • 278.1 KB • GPS: 44:25:28N, 26:05:30E
The Ceausescu Palace in the background, the Department of Foreign Affairs & Economics on the right. The immediate foreground shows rubble from the late '80s building boom, which ended abruptly with the 1989 revolution.
By amazing luck I befriended a couple of women who worked inside the DoFA&E (Mirela & Monica [1]). One evening after hours they showed me around. Although it looked neat from the outside, the interior — a functioning office building! — was a chaos of rubble, construction rubbish and ceilings propped up with steel pipes
(Dec 1991) • 390 KB • GPS: 44:29:44N, 26:05:33E
At the Otopeni International airport [1], just outside Bucharest.
I befriended M&M towards the end of my five-day visit. Despite well-paying jobs in the Dept. of Economics [2], they shared a dreary flat in a housing estate, complete with bare concrete floors, light-bulbs swinging from ceiling wires, and a bullet hole in the refrigerator door (!)
They look a little tired here because they just spent the taxi ride to the airport arguing and even yelling at the driver over the fare
(Dec 1991) • 418.7 KB • GPS: 44:24:43N, 26:03:52E
Belfast '72 = Beirut '85 = Bucharest '91.
Smashed up, half completed housing estates; people lining up at communal water taps; crowds shoving each other when a food-aid truck arrives; children playing among the ruins … Welcome to Eastern Europe
(Dec 1991) • 275.7 KB • GPS: 44:26:30N, 26:05:58E
Welcome to sunny Bucharest, queueing on what was still the Boulevard n Bâlcescu
(Dec 1991) • 366.5 KB • GPS: 44:25:38N, 26:05:30E
Nic 'n Ele's modest townhouse — twelve storeys, 6000 rooms, the third largest building in the world.
Known variously as “The Palace of the Parliament” (Palatul Parlamentului [1]) or “Palace of the People” (Casa Poporului [2]), the cars give some idea of its bulk
(Dec 1991) • 266.2 KB • GPS: 44:25:39N, 26:05:34E
Another view of the gargantuan Ceausescu Palace, with a couple of boys roller-skating by
(Dec 1991) • 380 KB • GPS: 44:26:19N, 26:05:53E
The balcony where Nicolae Ceausescu [1] made his farewell speech to a warm and appreciative audience, just before the shooting started [2].
Speaking of which — in '91 most downtown buildings still had their upper levels riddled with bullet holes, from people firing up at the Securitate on the roof
(Dec 1991) • 376.4 KB • GPS: 44:25:37N, 26:06:12E
Centru Civic, a fountain emptied for winter, office and apartment blocks for the élite (security police, commie hacks, aparatchiks etc.)
The monolithic building in the far background is the six-thousand room Ceausescu palace [1], still unfinished when Nicolae and Elena were given rapid-lead therapy for Christmas 1989 [2]
(Dec 1991) • 321.5 KB • GPS: 44:26:14N, 26:05:55E
Where I stayed in Bucharest. Pretty good, but had trouble sleeping due to the loud Horizontal Collaboration by a couple next door.
I was also surprised by the large number of private businesses run from hotel suites (you can see small posters hanging from their windows) — probably due to the lack of office rental space
(Dec 1991) • 277.1 KB • GPS: 44:26:49N, 26:05:50E
Pedestrians crossing the road outside the Economics faculty
(Dec 1991) • 332.9 KB • GPS: 44:26:56N, 26:06:03E
Optimizing cabbages at an open air market in Bucharest
(Dec 1991) • 477.7 KB • GPS: 44:25:34N, 26:05:34E
In order for Ceausescu to build his first socialist capital for the new socialist man
[1], hundreds of buildings in the Uranus District had to be bulldozed. Fortunately the revolution in '89 put a halt to the madness.
Thus if you went around behind the new apartment blocs on Centru Civic, you could still see some of the original buildings
(Oct 1991) • 397.2 KB • GPS: 52:14:51N, 20:59:18E
Geometric street patterns in the old Jewish Quarter of Warsaw
(Nov 1991) • 330.8 KB • GPS: 52:13:58N, 21:00:38E
International corporate brands make their presence felt at a Swietokrzyska Street cigarette kiosk
(Oct 1991) • 385.5 KB • GPS: 52:13:55N, 21:00:25E
230m tall and opened July 1955, the "PKiN" [1] was a Socialist Realist skyscraper [2] in the middle of the city.
Warsaw natives detested the place, not only for its architectural ugliness, but also for being a reminder of four decades of Communist occupation and rule
(Nov 1991) • 203.5 KB • GPS: 52:13:55N, 21:00:39E
A few minutes later, an older lady also waits for the same bus. The buildings in the background were State clothing and department stores
(Oct 1991) • 490.4 KB • GPS: 52:14:32N, 20:59:21E
Warsaw really copped it during World War Two [1]. Thanks to decades of communist neglect, you could still find small pockets of destruction in the early '90s
(Oct 1991) • 403 KB • GPS: 52:14:16N, 21:00:54E
Tearing up Warsaw footpaths to lay electrical cables
(Oct 1991) • 443.9 KB • GPS: 52:14:55N, 20:59:22E
After WWII, so much of Warsaw lay in ruins [1] that it was easier to flatten the rubble and build on top of it, rather than cart away.
This photo depicts some of the 1940's “strata” I saw during a walk around the old Jewish Ghetto
(Nov 1991) • 187.5 KB • GPS: 52:13:56N, 21:00:38E
Neo Comecon Globalism. (Clockwise from left) The American Marriott hotel [1], Russian PKiN [2] and Hungarian FVV trams [3]…
(Nov 1991) • 345.6 KB • GPS: 52:13:20N, 21:00:57E
Plac Konstytucji in Warsaw, across the road from the fun-fun-fun retro-Stalinist MDM Hotel [1], where I stayed.
Also visible are a couple of sidewalk kiosks, of which there were hundreds throughout the city. There was a rental shortage at the time, so if you wanted to open a business you either had to get a kiosk or rent a hotel suite [2]
(Nov 1991) • 190.4 KB • GPS: 52:13:56N, 21:00:39E
A young girl waits for a bus on Marszalkowska Street, across the road from the ubiquitous PKiN [1]
(Oct 1991) • 336.9 KB • GPS: 52:14:03N, 21:00:41E
A group of school boys wait enthusiastically to enter the Warsaw Filharmonia
(Jan 1992) • 446.1 KB • GPS: 50:02:03N, 19:12:36E
Welcome to Europe. The entrance gate to the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau [1] in Oświecim
(Jan 1992) • 343.1 KB • GPS: 50:02:01N, 19:12:38E
One bullet fired in Sarajevo in 1914 [1], passed through millions of Europeans [2] before ending up here, in the gas chambers of Auschwitz
(Oct 1991) • 416.7 KB • GPS: 52:14:59N, 20:59:54E
High-tech Warsaw. Contrast the satellite dish on the balcony (third floor from the top) with the window washer dangling from a rope, two balconies to the right
(Nov 1991) • 110.4 KB • GPS: 52:10:19N, 21:04:11E
The view from the Budzynska [1] apartment balcony, in southern Warsaw.
Notice the satellite dishes — Communism wasn't defeated so much by MIRVs or Reaganomics [2], but rather “Dynasty” and “Dallas”
(Oct 1991) • 218 KB • GPS: 52:10:20N, 21:04:14E
One of the highlights of my trip was hanging out with the three-year old daughter of Svavek and Magda Budzyńska. One of a generation of ex-pat children born overseas, she returned to Poland with her parents in early '91. By the time we met she barely knew any English.
She was a bit terrified of me at first, but within a day we were inseparable. The little maniac would climb all over me while I was reading, and this shot was taken during a rare moment when she actually stood still. Then in December we parted and I never saw her again
(Jan 1992) • 284.9 KB • GPS: 49:11:28N, 16:36:25E
Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Brno — a gothic monster of a building which dominated the entire town [1]
(Jan 1992) • 284.8 KB • GPS: 49:11:41N, 16:36:31E
A building site in Brno, at the edge of the main Námesti Svobodytown square
(Jan 1992) • 220.2 KB • GPS: 49:11:47N, 16:36:28E
The golden fog of mid-morning, looking along tramlines towards Námesti Svobody square
The following is a random list of unusual things noticed during the 17 weeks from Oct 1991 — Jan 1992:
BudapestJust water?Yes.
Not coffee?No.
Tea?No.
Coke?No.
Fanta?No.
Beer?No.
Wine?No.
Pálinka?No.
Er, would you like perhaps a little Málna-surp in your water?No.
Just plain water?Yes.
Like peasants.Yes.
oomph.
Wow! Did you go out to see Fernando?…Instead of the soppy Abba song, it eventually turned out that
Fernandowas actually the Hungarian yachtsman Nándor Fa (ie.
Fa Nándor) who visited Sydney in 1991.
Shuttle Tradersin the seats behind me on the Aeroflot flight from Singapore to Moscow. They spent the entire trip smoking cigars, drinking (bottles of) Vodka and fussing over stacks of VCR and CD-Player boxes.
socialist realistworks… but instead found two rooms of (boring) icons and not much else. It transpired that the rest of the museum was closed for extensive renovations, for an entire year…
CCCPexit stamp.
get around town, then being driven out to an empty field and left there.
Change money, Change money…
friend of a friendtravel-agent. When back in Sydney, my credit card statement shows unauthorised forex transactions, so the airline has to issue a full refund. By then the Warsaw agent has moved on to other business opportunities, so the flight ends up being free.
But… But here all men smoke!!
Who was that guy who came to uncle Gheorghe's funeral?…
me-toohouses straining for attention beside the famous Villa Tugendhat.
The following pop tunes, in no particular order, were all over MTV Europe in 1991/2. Because radio was still under State control, Satellite-TV was the only (free) option if you wanted to listen to contemporary music.
BTW Depeche Mode were also hugely popular, despite being ignored by MTV. It was impossible to walk through a housing estate and not see "DM" graffiti everywhere, or hear their music blaring from an 8th floor teenager's window.
MoviesThe following depict the locations and capture the mood of the times rather well:
Three-Colourstrilogy. Features currency speculators; peasant land-millionaires; the endlessly delayed Warsaw Metro; black market smuggling and Julie Delpy (sigh) in a love-gone-bad plot.
These days, you can buy anything.Filmed in Warsaw during the '93 winter, it brilliantly captures the go-go/ get-rich-quick atmosphere of the time.
visual poetryabout the chaos in the Balkans after the collapse of Communism. The sequence showing the concrete Lenin statue barging down the river is memorable, the rest of the film is not. Neo-scholasticistic cineastes however Think Otherwise.
Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire(Pantheon Books) by Sebestyen;
The Year That Changed the World: The Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall(Simon & Schuster) by Meyer;
Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment(Modern Library) by Kotkin.
From time to time a few more notes and links are added, but I don't plan on adding any more images as the current selection tells the story well enough.
BTW if you spot any serious errors or omissions, don't hesitate to drop me a note via the Feedback Form on the Home Page.
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo
HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.4
