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| | Johnson's Russia List #6406 - Soviet Chic, Berdy/ New Russians, Yeltsin, Poll/ Georgia, ORT Review, Alcohol, Iran, ... |
 | | Zhiguli, named after the Soviet Union’s cheapest beer, was one of the most popular bars in the 1980s, a place where non-party youth could drink, as long as they could afford a five-rouble entrance bribe to the bouncer. |
 | | A decade after the collapse of communism, the Russians are yearning nostalgically for the foibles and frustration, the slogans and stupidities of a system that was built on fear, ran on hypocrisy and fell apart amid cynicism and ridicule. |
 | | But with the chaos surrounding the collapse of the Soviet Union, organised crime flourished with the weak state powerless to resist, seizing control of the fragile banking sector and collaborating with the Soviet nomenklatura (bureaucrats) to pillage state assets. |
| www.cdi.org /russia/johnson/6406.htm (10186 words) |
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