Robert Stephenson's book focuses on Moscow following the collapse of the USSR and provides a unique pictorial view of daily life in Russia's capital city during the turbulent early years of transition to market capitalism. Original photographs and supporting narrative by the author, who lived in the city throughout the time, show how the old Soviet capital and its inhabitants adapted to a new capitalist reality as Russia opened its doors wide to new influences, ideas and possibilities.
This was a time of promise and protest, revolution and reaction, with Moscow at the centre of the changes. While Soviet monuments, cars and domestic appliances were abandoned and thrown on the rubbish heap, a new consumer society gradually asserted itself. New ideologies and beliefs challenged and clashed with previous orthodoxies. At the same time resistance to reform and western influence was also emerging, and new certainties were sought in the return of old, pre-Soviet symbols and values.
The book portrays the country's capital in the epoch-making period between the fall of communism and the establishment of the modern Russian state and provides a new and intriguing source of original material for all scholars and general readers interested in modern Russian history and culture.
Photographs by Robert Stephenson.
Publishers Maxim Hodak & Max Mendor.
Language
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 279 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
ISBN-13
978-1-912894-19-2 (9781912894192)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Robert Stephenson is a former UK senior civil servant with over thirty-five years of experience working in public administration, including twenty years in international development. He began his international career in Moscow in March 1992 and spent the next five years living and working in the city as a consultant to the new Federal Employment Service, and then leading a major UK-Russia joint funded programme of capacity building for Russian trainers in business and commercial skills. Stephenson went on to lead a UK government team, based in the National School of Government, dedicated to supporting civil service development and reform around the world. For the next 15 years he continued to work with Russian counterparts and led partnerships with civil service institutions in Central and Eastern Europe and former Yugoslavia. Since leaving the service he has concentrated on developing his lifelong passion for travel and photography and his first book, "We Are Building Capitalism! Moscow in Transition 1992-1997" - written from his personal experience and using his own photographs - provides a unique portrait of the city through the turbulent years that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
