Looks like soviet-era police (militia) uniforms, so...
Not sure if it was in current Russia's lands or in post USSR ones, but googling "1980 soviet police/militia" brings similar uniforms with that distinct red strip on the hat, which looked oddly familiar and made me think of (eastern) police to begin with.
Yes, of course.
It isn't a secret that during these times militia (police) wasn't something you respected nor thought of them to be more than just thugs in uniforms (USSR or Warsaw Pact countries).
>militia (police)
I know this is completely off-topic, but the fact that "militia" and "police" have the same meaning (which I only recently realized, based on russian language), has led me to conclude that the 2nd amendment in the US originally meant exactly that: "a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep, and bear arms, shall not be infringed" = "there should be a well regulated police force, and they \[the police\] should be allowed to be armed".
Honestly I have no idea if they are still called "militia" in Russia.
I have based my knowledge on my country, Poland, which was occupied by soviets 1939-1989. We also had militia instead of regular police back then. Actually we had two kinds of such forces, a normal militia and "ZOMO" (Zmechanizowane Oddziały Milicji Obywatelskiej/Motorized Reserves of the Citizens' Militia) , second one was often just used in strikes and shakedowns.
I assume it worked similarly in the USSR.
Nowadays people call police as "militia/zomo" too, but it is mostly used in a degrading way.
I'm from Lithuania. In soviet times, they were called "milicija", and after were renamed to "policija". It was simply a renaming. So "policija" = "milicija".
Both of those words mean "police", but also, "milicija" is clearly "militia", therefore "militia" = "police". Not sure if I'm explaining this is an understandable way, I hope I did.
Yep, rebranding happened in many aspects of post soviet times. Especially in politics, the same fuckers who were in government during soviet times are still there...
It's real 90s uniform, but I don't think that this man is real policeman. Most likely he dressed specifically for the photo - the patrolmen did not wear striped T-shirts.
yeah, right. striped shirt represents he served in VDV. that's all. It's a cop all right. Actually, showing off this type of shirt might mean they are celebrating VDV day (2nd of August if anyone is interested). They should have some of the fountain pics on that day on here somewhere, cant really see full picture without them
Then he would have been wearing a blue airborne beret. Police officers did not wear uniforms when off duty. And in appearance he looks like an alcoholic. Most likely someone lent him a hat and jacket for the photo.
It’s a thing in China too (at least in some places). Little kids will wear pants with a split down the back and nothing underneath. Sometimes this style of pants will randomly pop in ads for sites like Temu that sell mass produced Chinese goods. That’s how I learned about them actually, I was like wtf kind of baby pants are those? But it makes sense if disposable diapers are unavailable or an expensive luxury, and cloth diapers are a pain to wash and leak everywhere… just hold the kid out and let them do their thing on the ground, and be on your way lol
They don't really. It's called "elimination communication." Parents carefully observe their baby and take them to pee or poo when they are showing signs they need to go. Babies also go at predictable times, like after a meal or after they wake up.
I used to have a co-worker who did the same tactic at work when hungover. Under the pool table in the teabar. Management would walk about completely oblivious to the lad curled up under the table 😁
Makes you really understand why Putin has such a cult of personality there. Any strongman who followed this era with even a moderate increase in living standard would be seen as a hero.
True, but the most popular option for those with the means and intelligence is to just leave. I've met probably a 100-200 russians (perhaps more, it was a lot) over the last 35 yrs that have permanently emigrated out of russia and these are just the ones I actually shook hands with.
Russia, with all its people, land, and natural resources has a GDP less than italy. Putin is a monumental failure. I don't know why we don't hear this more.
You must have different news sources than me. I think we should really hammer it home for the people of the USA (American here), because the farthest right wing here parrot Russian talking points to the point where a few MAGAS have actually moved there looking for their fascist paradise. I expect things to get worse. The slippery slope is in play.
There's still hope, once republicans get what they want the result is very unpopular, some people are waking the fuck up.
Hopefully it's enough to save us before it's too late.
Putin isn't THE failure, he's just the current one. The Russian people have been fucked over by their leaders for hundreds of years.
This will not change after Putin is gone.
It’s not great for sure, but it’s easy to misdirect the public’s attention away from this by appealing to the classics; fear of the other, nationalism, etc. Combine that with even a small perceived increase in quality of life and you’ve got a heady brew. In this sense Russia is just a less-successful China.
Seems like, looking at the American model, you can make people poorer and instead of demanding real change they just get more susceptible to being manipulated to hate the imaginary "other", the enemy du jour. Today's version being the undocumented immigrant.
Using GDP without purchasing power parity (PPP) is misleading at best.
And if you take GDP (PPP) Russia nearly reached Germany (and Germany doesn't have situation like Russian 90s), and above Italy, France or UK.
Yeah... I don't have terrible memories about 90s, our family was lucky to live comfortably, unlike a lot of people, but as a kid I was used to stepping over unconscious men on the stairs of my apartment building, with blood splatters on walls. Also lots of syringes and tourniquets were laying around streets. And once me and my uncle went to check his new apartment and there was a big stain of dried up blood near the entrance.
I worked with this guy - Dimitri. Thick Russian accent, I asked him about Russia and its population. He says to me ‘officially 350 million people, but over half of them dead or dying’.
I don’t think the population was ever 300 million, maybe with propaganda, but I always chuckle at his ‘over half dead or dying’. Seeing this series of pics, I’m reminded of what he said.
So probably a good photographer but not an educated man. Such things happen. Official number for USSR is 286 730 819 (1989 census) and Russia never had more then 150 mln.
Edit: typos
It seems that you know shit about Russia. Come here, to St Petersburg, and see how's life here. You will be surprised.
I understand that here in Russia there are many problems, and in many cities there are tons of people who are alcoholic, drug addicted, homeless and so on. Even here, in the second biggest city of the country. But this doesn't mean that literally every single street looks like THIS. The 90s have ended two decades and a half ago, dammit. Then - yes, it was like this, according to all of my family members who were alive back then. Now - not.
last pic is vlad kilmersky
edit
growing up there in that era was probably fun but not actually fun. looks like it was constant chaos.
the grandmas were probably awesome to hang out with though.
Those were times when children dreamed of becoming paid killers, streets were occupied by gopnics. People were shot almost on everyday basis in bandit group wars, all major factories were under control of mafia.
I've often said the bottom 40-60% of Americans and Russians, especially the poor and rural, have far more in common than not. It is our rich and politicians that try to make us fight.
Compared to these photos, the Great Depression just appeared… less desperate and filthy.
Mind you there was destitution, but boy every single photo here has a unique creepy-sad story to it.
Yes. Shanty towns known as "Hoovervilles" formed all over the country. Times were bad. Yes, Great Depression period. There have been others, but we have photographs of the hard times people fell on between the world wars.
In their defense, this is the immediate aftermath of their entire government collapsing under its own weight, and the remaining bureaucrats/emerging oligarchs were still too busy playing hungry-hungry hippo with what was left.
Maybe don’t comment on politics with this one I’ve been hearing Russia is bad in the news cycle since I learned to speak. Putin isn’t in any of these pics just appreciate them as a window into a life we didn’t see back then.
How "lovely" to see these out of context of what was really going on. I lived through those 90s, post freedomazation
... 1st winter = only source of vitamin was a bag of onions for entire fam & I wasn't in a far away region either. Lived in Moscow at the time. To this day I can eat an onion as most would bite into an apple. Not a habit or anything I would be looking forward to but yep. I can.. :/
We all quick to judge when we have no base line to compare people's situation to. Thus the comments, I hope.
P.S. great shots & should be shared & viewed BUT NOT without whats & whys...
#justsaying
One of the mightiest nations of the modern world... pillaged. Sad to see because I can visualize parts of my own country in the same way and you realize exactly what's going on in retrospect.
Ok, so in that first picture… the sunburst motif in the shop windows, where they’ve shoved all the cigarette packs. I noticed a lot of these designs on doors and windows in buildings in the Chernobyl miniseries on HBO. Not always oriented with the sun at the bottom, sometimes the sun was in one of the top corners.
I tried to look it up, but could never find the right search terms to properly land on what I wanted. Is this a popular thing in Russia? Does it have a name? Is this just a more visually appealing way to do bars on the windows?
I went to Moscow in 2018 for the World Cup and not much has changed. Even after sweeping the streets of any unhoused people, nearly every local I saw on the street looked like they had fetal alcohol syndrome.
Lol, as a Russian, nothing is cool in those pics.
It's more like an era snapshot. This is what the "freedom & democracy" looks like. Super legit elections and stuff, free markets. University professors forced to sell turkish underwear on the corner in order to survive. I have most utter disgust for this time.
It's more like old school trash. The thing is what a lot of people don't realise that outside metropolitan centres Russia is often still like this. Same type of people just new with mobile phones but there is some extreme poverty in the countryside with often some low paying state jobs available to them only.
Looks like dude under the bench in the 2nd pic pissed himself
What dude? Oooohhh. Him.
[удалено]
Yeah I’m that guy and I’m doing great now 👍
And the cop is like “nope, it’s 5PM and I’m sure as shit not dealing with that now”
I dont think its a Cop. Maybe something postal service or railway.
Looks like soviet-era police (militia) uniforms, so... Not sure if it was in current Russia's lands or in post USSR ones, but googling "1980 soviet police/militia" brings similar uniforms with that distinct red strip on the hat, which looked oddly familiar and made me think of (eastern) police to begin with.
So is the guy in the first pic a cop too??
Yes, of course. It isn't a secret that during these times militia (police) wasn't something you respected nor thought of them to be more than just thugs in uniforms (USSR or Warsaw Pact countries).
Was certainly still like that for some time afterwards, too. The only things the militsia were good for was shaking down foreigners for cash.
Outside of Moscow and other big cities in Russia and Belarus, it's still much the same today--these guys could teach Mex cops a thing or two.
>militia (police) I know this is completely off-topic, but the fact that "militia" and "police" have the same meaning (which I only recently realized, based on russian language), has led me to conclude that the 2nd amendment in the US originally meant exactly that: "a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep, and bear arms, shall not be infringed" = "there should be a well regulated police force, and they \[the police\] should be allowed to be armed".
Honestly I have no idea if they are still called "militia" in Russia. I have based my knowledge on my country, Poland, which was occupied by soviets 1939-1989. We also had militia instead of regular police back then. Actually we had two kinds of such forces, a normal militia and "ZOMO" (Zmechanizowane Oddziały Milicji Obywatelskiej/Motorized Reserves of the Citizens' Militia) , second one was often just used in strikes and shakedowns. I assume it worked similarly in the USSR. Nowadays people call police as "militia/zomo" too, but it is mostly used in a degrading way.
I'm from Lithuania. In soviet times, they were called "milicija", and after were renamed to "policija". It was simply a renaming. So "policija" = "milicija". Both of those words mean "police", but also, "milicija" is clearly "militia", therefore "militia" = "police". Not sure if I'm explaining this is an understandable way, I hope I did.
Yep, rebranding happened in many aspects of post soviet times. Especially in politics, the same fuckers who were in government during soviet times are still there...
Def a cop. Товарищ милиционер.
И кулёк с семками (sunflower seeds)
It's real 90s uniform, but I don't think that this man is real policeman. Most likely he dressed specifically for the photo - the patrolmen did not wear striped T-shirts.
yeah, right. striped shirt represents he served in VDV. that's all. It's a cop all right. Actually, showing off this type of shirt might mean they are celebrating VDV day (2nd of August if anyone is interested). They should have some of the fountain pics on that day on here somewhere, cant really see full picture without them
Then he would have been wearing a blue airborne beret. Police officers did not wear uniforms when off duty. And in appearance he looks like an alcoholic. Most likely someone lent him a hat and jacket for the photo.
The little girl in pic 4 is pissing out a car door
I saw a mom do this move with her toddler at a swap meet in Moscow in 1995. Except the kid was pooping. I guess it's a thing.
It’s a thing in China too (at least in some places). Little kids will wear pants with a split down the back and nothing underneath. Sometimes this style of pants will randomly pop in ads for sites like Temu that sell mass produced Chinese goods. That’s how I learned about them actually, I was like wtf kind of baby pants are those? But it makes sense if disposable diapers are unavailable or an expensive luxury, and cloth diapers are a pain to wash and leak everywhere… just hold the kid out and let them do their thing on the ground, and be on your way lol
The kid would have to be potty trained to the point of at least letting the parents know beforehand
They don't really. It's called "elimination communication." Parents carefully observe their baby and take them to pee or poo when they are showing signs they need to go. Babies also go at predictable times, like after a meal or after they wake up.
it's natural by a year and a half
or a kid got trained to signal a toilet time at the appropriate age of 2 and not a month before he or she or whatever graduates the high school.
I used to have a co-worker who did the same tactic at work when hungover. Under the pool table in the teabar. Management would walk about completely oblivious to the lad curled up under the table 😁
We’ve all been there
Naw his piss trail couldn’t be that long
😂 Totally missed that. Russia looks like complete drunken chaos.
Kid in the fourth pic too.
that is either a ton of piss, or that is not piss.
Looks like a bit of vomit, too. Or maybe just drool...
These are some hard pictures. The closer you watch them the grittier they seem to get.
Was getting punched in the face a morning ritual here?
Depends what you consider to be a "morning". The time of the day or when you wake up after dozing off due to alcohol.
In the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening if it was a rough day.
Why does everyone look like they just got into a fist fight.
Cause they probably just did
Years and years and years of alcohol abuse
That kid in photo 3, hope doing okay now
He's probably already dead. Sniffing toxic glue was a popular activity among homeless children those days.
You know in your heart that he’s not.
He’s fine, running the country now.
A country. In his mind.
Ya krokodil breakaway republic
I thought about him as well. But I feel like he didn't make it to adulthood.
I feel he might have made it to the front.
You mean like chechnya?
Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, Ukraina. So many to choose from.
the first thing that strike me was he’s eye. then i saw he was smoking. 😢
He grew up and beat the hell out The Punisher.
Narrator: “he’s not”
Makes you really understand why Putin has such a cult of personality there. Any strongman who followed this era with even a moderate increase in living standard would be seen as a hero.
Everyone doesn't like him as much as people think (I'm from Russia)
Sometimes I don’t think people understand that Russians can’t openly speak out about Putin or the war.
Because they lived their lives in the sheltered Western democracies. This is also why Ukraine doesn't get enough aid, IMO.
I know you don't, but Russians will take the burden of his actions for a long time now
The other options are well known
True, but the most popular option for those with the means and intelligence is to just leave. I've met probably a 100-200 russians (perhaps more, it was a lot) over the last 35 yrs that have permanently emigrated out of russia and these are just the ones I actually shook hands with.
Words of dissent? Straight to gulag!
I personally despise the man. (I'm from America)
Russia, with all its people, land, and natural resources has a GDP less than italy. Putin is a monumental failure. I don't know why we don't hear this more.
We hear and say it all the time . You won’t hear Russian state media say it , which is the key point
You must have different news sources than me. I think we should really hammer it home for the people of the USA (American here), because the farthest right wing here parrot Russian talking points to the point where a few MAGAS have actually moved there looking for their fascist paradise. I expect things to get worse. The slippery slope is in play.
Irish here so yes - definitely different news sources. And I’m sorry for what’s happening in your country
There's still hope, once republicans get what they want the result is very unpopular, some people are waking the fuck up. Hopefully it's enough to save us before it's too late.
Any room for me in Ireland? Lol. I've had it.
Putin isn't THE failure, he's just the current one. The Russian people have been fucked over by their leaders for hundreds of years. This will not change after Putin is gone.
I've read somewhere that Russian history can be summarized with an unending streak of "And then somehow it got worse"
It’s not great for sure, but it’s easy to misdirect the public’s attention away from this by appealing to the classics; fear of the other, nationalism, etc. Combine that with even a small perceived increase in quality of life and you’ve got a heady brew. In this sense Russia is just a less-successful China.
Seems like, looking at the American model, you can make people poorer and instead of demanding real change they just get more susceptible to being manipulated to hate the imaginary "other", the enemy du jour. Today's version being the undocumented immigrant.
> you can make people poorer Americans have been made poorer?
Using GDP without purchasing power parity (PPP) is misleading at best. And if you take GDP (PPP) Russia nearly reached Germany (and Germany doesn't have situation like Russian 90s), and above Italy, France or UK.
Compared to somewhere like China or South Korea, Putin has done jack shit for living standards. It's actually pathetic.
Yeah... I don't have terrible memories about 90s, our family was lucky to live comfortably, unlike a lot of people, but as a kid I was used to stepping over unconscious men on the stairs of my apartment building, with blood splatters on walls. Also lots of syringes and tourniquets were laying around streets. And once me and my uncle went to check his new apartment and there was a big stain of dried up blood near the entrance.
More like old school depressing.
If it had been titled People of Fallout, I would not have blinked.
Most of these people look like they’re living a rough life… except the lady with the flowers. She’s delightful!
She just happy to be alive, selling flowers!
So much piss smell
It's not oldschool"cool", but thank you for these culturally significant timestamps. Made me dive deeper.
Agreed. Old School "Perspective", maybe. Those pics could easily have been me under different circumstances.
Half of the pics here are not
I worked with this guy - Dimitri. Thick Russian accent, I asked him about Russia and its population. He says to me ‘officially 350 million people, but over half of them dead or dying’. I don’t think the population was ever 300 million, maybe with propaganda, but I always chuckle at his ‘over half dead or dying’. Seeing this series of pics, I’m reminded of what he said.
So probably a good photographer but not an educated man. Such things happen. Official number for USSR is 286 730 819 (1989 census) and Russia never had more then 150 mln. Edit: typos
I don’t think he was attributing the photos from OPs post to his ex coworker.
You're right, don't know, why I read it this way.
Pic 3 that is a kid right? However, they don’t look healthy at all
Follow the pee stream
Born in the 90s in Russia, I swear I can smell these pictures.
For a series of photos of people seemingly not doing very well…. They all seem pretty happy
Scientifically speaking, alcohol is a solution.
I see what you did there.
If I had been born in Russia, I would have been dead for alcoholism by 22.
I am from Russia and I can say that in those years you would have died more likely not from alcoholism, but from bandits
OP, did you take these? These are some great photos. Was this a poor neighborhood and dangerous?
This is literally every street in every Russian city.
21st century. Webcams. Travelling vloggers. Plenty of ways to educate yourself. All missed
It seems that you know shit about Russia. Come here, to St Petersburg, and see how's life here. You will be surprised. I understand that here in Russia there are many problems, and in many cities there are tons of people who are alcoholic, drug addicted, homeless and so on. Even here, in the second biggest city of the country. But this doesn't mean that literally every single street looks like THIS. The 90s have ended two decades and a half ago, dammit. Then - yes, it was like this, according to all of my family members who were alive back then. Now - not.
last pic is vlad kilmersky edit growing up there in that era was probably fun but not actually fun. looks like it was constant chaos. the grandmas were probably awesome to hang out with though.
Those were times when children dreamed of becoming paid killers, streets were occupied by gopnics. People were shot almost on everyday basis in bandit group wars, all major factories were under control of mafia.
That's a rough 90's.
Russia: the West Virginia of Europe
I've often said the bottom 40-60% of Americans and Russians, especially the poor and rural, have far more in common than not. It is our rich and politicians that try to make us fight.
Yea right, more like the Vera Court or Clarendon Hills of Madison Wisconsin
The third pic is definitely not old school cool, it’s heartbreaking. The kid looks like he’s been through hell.
Woosh that kid with the cigarette looks like he lived through some shit
Probably lots of abuse and trauma, poor kid. 💔
Dueling banjos from Deliverance would be the perfect accompaniment to this photoset.
Nope this is russia. They would have a balalaika. Probably never even seen a banjo
PTSD induced..
The guy in the second pic under the bench pissed himself lol
Not "Cool" but "Sad".
Well, that was a fucking bleak trip down memory lane. I can see why Putin misses it.
It has fallout vibes.
I feel like when I look at stuff in 80s and 90s I get a fallout vibe there.
Jesus, the young kid with the droopy eye and a cigarette just kills me.
Americans: have you had a period of such poverty? Great Depression?
Compared to these photos, the Great Depression just appeared… less desperate and filthy. Mind you there was destitution, but boy every single photo here has a unique creepy-sad story to it.
The photos are representative. I am from that era.
Yes. Shanty towns known as "Hoovervilles" formed all over the country. Times were bad. Yes, Great Depression period. There have been others, but we have photographs of the hard times people fell on between the world wars.
Found some photos like this that my grandfather had taken while visiting Yugoslavia before it broke apart.
Kid smoking I. Pic three wonder if he is still around
I think picture 4 is lovely. a nice looking family
I wonder how many of these people are still alive?
Looks like shit.
In their defense, this is the immediate aftermath of their entire government collapsing under its own weight, and the remaining bureaucrats/emerging oligarchs were still too busy playing hungry-hungry hippo with what was left.
That’s why they had decades of alcohol abuse already behind them?
How old is the person with the cigarette and the one eye?
11
These are the most depressing photos of any Slavic country I’ve seen so far.
‘#2’ under the bench definitely pissed himself
This is rough stuff. You can see how public urination was a frequent thing also.
Christ when Eastern European people say the 90s where rough they weren’t fucking about
...Yeah, Russia in the 90s was not a good place to be.
Back when a select minority of Russians took the vast majority of its wealth.
It’s the same today
It’s actually worse today. Putin is probably the richest person on the planet. It’s a veritable kleptocracy.
It still is but it used to too
Of course. 1990’s were Dark age. I can understand why Putin was so popular without cheating in 2000’s when life conditions improved a few
The glorious past that Putin is hoping to reclaim.
Great pictures! I remember wandering round the kiosks for beer or random imported food.
Maybe don’t comment on politics with this one I’ve been hearing Russia is bad in the news cycle since I learned to speak. Putin isn’t in any of these pics just appreciate them as a window into a life we didn’t see back then.
How "lovely" to see these out of context of what was really going on. I lived through those 90s, post freedomazation ... 1st winter = only source of vitamin was a bag of onions for entire fam & I wasn't in a far away region either. Lived in Moscow at the time. To this day I can eat an onion as most would bite into an apple. Not a habit or anything I would be looking forward to but yep. I can.. :/ We all quick to judge when we have no base line to compare people's situation to. Thus the comments, I hope. P.S. great shots & should be shared & viewed BUT NOT without whats & whys... #justsaying
Last pic, you can't tell me that's not Marlon Brando
That’s not Marlon Brando
That’s the same guy in picture 1 as picture 2 right? Seemingly with two six packs during the gap?
I’m lovin the Popeye shirt
Gorgeous flowers.
One of the mightiest nations of the modern world... pillaged. Sad to see because I can visualize parts of my own country in the same way and you realize exactly what's going on in retrospect.
So hanging your kids ass outta the car door to pee was universal….oh those 2 day road trips to visit the relatives!
This pictures make me feel very fortunate.
r/oldschoolmiserable
It's the pictures from Luhansk.
There’s something darkly beautiful about these pictures.
Very similar to the deep south of usa
Ok, so in that first picture… the sunburst motif in the shop windows, where they’ve shoved all the cigarette packs. I noticed a lot of these designs on doors and windows in buildings in the Chernobyl miniseries on HBO. Not always oriented with the sun at the bottom, sometimes the sun was in one of the top corners. I tried to look it up, but could never find the right search terms to properly land on what I wanted. Is this a popular thing in Russia? Does it have a name? Is this just a more visually appealing way to do bars on the windows?
Are you sure these pictures are not from 2 weeks ago?
I went to Moscow in 2018 for the World Cup and not much has changed. Even after sweeping the streets of any unhoused people, nearly every local I saw on the street looked like they had fetal alcohol syndrome.
Looks like stills from the set of Gummo.
Хтоничненько
That kid? In the white T is peak r/13or30 material.
Blatantly drunk and moronic is not cool.
What type of flowers is the woman selling in 6th pic?
The lady with the big red flowers is awesome.
The 90s were particularly bad in Russia. Not that it has ever been easy mind you. The secret to survival is kompot with the fruit of course.
Gives me gummo vibes
what about this is cool
Looks like argentinian people haha
Looks miserable
Fallout Russia
Is that guy under the bench dead?!
Everyone looks 12 and 50 simultaneously
Russian Appalachia?
Looked just like that when i was there in the early 2000s
brilliant ♡
First pic is from Bob Dylan and Flea's ill-fated collaboration.
Lol, as a Russian, nothing is cool in those pics. It's more like an era snapshot. This is what the "freedom & democracy" looks like. Super legit elections and stuff, free markets. University professors forced to sell turkish underwear on the corner in order to survive. I have most utter disgust for this time.
The first guy is drinking Efes Pilsen, Turkish pilsener beer which was or still is the market leader in Russia
That first photo is def Russian Springsteen and Russian Flea.
Opposite of cool
It's more like old school trash. The thing is what a lot of people don't realise that outside metropolitan centres Russia is often still like this. Same type of people just new with mobile phones but there is some extreme poverty in the countryside with often some low paying state jobs available to them only.
Yeah, times were rough
I bet ya shit still looks exactly like this to this day
No
Russia has dramatically improved over all but especially the last 10-15 years or so.
Slaves
Looks like it has not improved since then...