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Eastern Block 91-2

Scenes from the Twilight of Communism

From Sept 1991 until Jan 1992 I travelled through a large portion of the Eastern Bloc. My original goal was to catch up with relatives I hadn't seen since childhood, so it was only by accident that I stumbled onto the post-Glasnost upheaval. After all the main purpose of the trip was to have a break between university and full-time work — not to become a European-History Primary Source (!)

Altogether I spent seventeen weeks in Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and the not-yet-post Soviet Union — experiencing first-hand "The Fall Of Communism", and deliberately avoiding the gap-year clichés of London, Paris, Rome or any other part of Western Europe.

Needless to say 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 formerly placid Socialists went berserk.

The following is an informal photo-diary of the visit. Further down I have also included personal vignettes, cultural references (songs and movies), plus a list of relevant books and articles.

Image Gallery

Click on any of the following thumbnails to view an image in greater detail…

Magyar

image link - Halászbástya, Budapest - 126.6 KBHalászbástya, Budapest
(Sep 1991) The "Halászbástya" (Fisherman Bastion [1]) on the western bank of the Danube, near Budapest Castle. In the last weeks of … (more)

... summer, cafe patrons relax beneath corporate brands. With the decline of smoking in the west, tobacco companies rushed east in 1990 to exploit the collapse of The Wall [2]. Just in time to start saving for the Master Settlement Agreement [3]…

image link - Halászbástya + Hilton Hotel, Budapest - 123 KBHalászbástya + Hilton Hotel, Budapest
(Sep 1991) Halászbástya again, with the Budapest Hilton in the background. This juxtaposition, only 100m apart, is perhaps the world's most aggressive … (more)

... example of Development Über Alles.

image link - Cracked Call, Szombathely - 101.1 KBCracked Call, Szombathely
(Oct 1991) The Iron Curtain starts to rip… Szombathely is a small Hungarian city near the Austrian border [1]. It was where … (more)

... 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.

image link - Street couple, Budapest - 101.1 KBStreet couple, Budapest
(Oct 1991) About mid-way between the Danube and the Museum of Fine Arts, pedestrians stop for a moment to read the signs. (more)

 

image link - Bekasmegyer housing estate, Budapest - 159.7 KBBekasmegyer housing estate, Budapest
(Oct 1991) Bekasmegyer is a vast housing estate to the north of Budapest — a brutal collection of ten storey 1970s apartment … (more)

... blocks, kept apart by wind-swept playing fields.

image link - Halászbástya, Budapest - 111.2 KBHalászbástya, Budapest
(Sep 1991) Halászbástya again, as tourists troop through the interior of one of the conical watchtowers. (more)

 

image link - Hösök Tere tourists, Budapest - 142.2 KBHösök Tere tourists, Budapest
(Sep 1991) Hösök Tere ("Heroes' Square" [1]) in eastern Budapest. Often used for parades and national commemorations, it's also a repository of … (more)

... large bronze statues for tourists to admire.

image link - Hotel Intercontinental window washers, Budapest - 103.4 KBHotel Intercontinental window washers, Budapest
(Oct 1991) Window washers at the Budapest Hotel Intercontinental [1], on the eastern bank of the Danube. Safety last, I was amazed … (more)

... at how incredibly dangerous this was. In Australia it was illegal to wash tall building exteriors without using (at least) a tethered gantry.

image link - School excursion, Budapest - 132.3 KBSchool excursion, Budapest
(Oct 1991) A kindergarten excursion near the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts [1]. (more)

 

image link - Teréz Körút, Budapest - 137.9 KBTeréz Körút, Budapest
(Oct 1991) Business as unusual, as one of Budapest's main boulevards reverts to its non Russian-revolutionary name. (more)

 

image link - Street quarrel, Budapest - 139.8 KBStreet quarrel, Budapest
(Sep 1991) A few gypsies in the VIII District engage in a heated conversation on a street corner. (more)

 

image link - Csepel HÉV terminus, Budapest - 151.5 KBCsepel HÉV terminus, Budapest
(Sep 1991) The HÉV [1] terminus on Csepel Island [2], in Budapest's south. Prior to "down-sizing" in the '90s, Csepel was an … (more)

... industrial powerhouse, employing tens of thousands of people in enormous steel-works and car manufacturing plants. Not any more…

image link - Weekly market, Gyöngyös - 118 KBWeekly market, Gyöngyös
(Nov 1991) Gyöngyös [1] is a small city 80km east of Budapest. This was the weekly market held in an open air … (more)

... cinema (the large white wall was actually the projection screen).

image link - Parádsasvár glass factory - 159.4 KBParádsasvár glass factory
(Nov 1991) The lead-crystal glass factory at Parádsasvár in the Mátra Hills, approximately 100km east of Budapest. Hmmm, air-borne lead residues + … (more)

... 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.

image link - Parádsasvár Matra Hills - 142.2 KBParádsasvár Matra Hills
(Nov 1991) The Mátra Hills forest outside Parádsasvár. Although the forest was (more or less) protected, every week a local official's son-in-law … (more)

... would drive into the woods to cut down trees to sell as firewood.

image link - Derelict farmhouse, Tömörd - 200.2 KBDerelict farmhouse, Tömörd
(Oct 1991) A derelict farmhouse in Tömörd, awaiting re-development by its new Austrian owner. This is where my maternal great grandparents lived, … (more)

... and also where my grandmother was born — bottom storey, second door from right. The two men in the photograph are a first-cousin (taller) and uncle (shorter).

image link - Housing estate, Szombathely - 158.1 KBHousing estate, Szombathely
(Oct 1991) A typical housing estate, in this case along Szürcsapó Utsa, across the road from the Csónakázó (Rowing) Lake. The biggest … (more)

... difference I found 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?…		  
CCCP

image link - Food relief convoy, Moscow - 141.5 KBFood relief convoy, Moscow
(Dec 1991) December 12th from my window in the Гостиница Можайский, the day Russia seceded from the Soviet Union [1]. Not that … (more)

... I knew it at the time. I was travelling alone and didn't speak any Russian, so all the hoopla on radio and TV didn't register. In fact I only realised I had been "A Witness To History" when I got back to Hungary, a week later. The parked trucks in the photo were part of an E.U. food-aid convoy. Later that morning I discovered a major advantage of lodging 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 trucks rolled through. BTW the rocket-shaped building on the horizon is the spire of the Lomonosov MSU [3].

image link - Matveevskoe housing estate, Moscow - 201.5 KBMatveevskoe housing estate, Moscow
(Dec 1991) Birch trees in a housing estate in Moscow's west. If you look at the GPS Location link, you will notice … (more)

... these Спальный район [1] run alongside the Outer Ring Road for dozens of kilometres.

image link - Prospekt Kalinina, Moscow - 162 KBProspekt Kalinina, Moscow
(Dec 1991) Architectural juxtapositions along the Prospekt Kalinina — in this case a delicate white orthodox church beside a commie concrete slab. … (more)

... Everyone goes to Arbat Street when in Moscow. I didn't. The joke was on me though, for they renamed Pkt Kalinina to "Ul Novyy Arbat" not long after I left.

image link - Western city limits, Moscow - 164.7 KBWestern city limits, Moscow
(Dec 1991) Moscow's western outskirts, just outside the "МКАД" [1], looking east towards the city. This was the view from my room … (more)

... in the (two star) Гостиница Можайский, a few minutes after checking in. BTW as of 2007 it appears the concrete "Mockba" sign no longer exists.

image link - Nemcinovka dacha, near Moscow - 151.5 KBNemcinovka dacha, near Moscow
(Dec 1991) Ever wonder what a "Dacha outside Moscow" looks like?… (more)

 

image link - Ulitsa Gorkogo, Moscow - 137.7 KBUlitsa Gorkogo, Moscow
(Dec 1991) Ulitsa Gorkogo (today "Tverskaya-Yamskaya") is a main thoroughfare which leads towards the Kremlin. It was lined with major department and … (more)

... 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.

image link - Park Kultury Metro entrance, Moscow - 119.5 KBPark Kultury Metro entrance, Moscow
(Dec 1991) The reason Metro entrances look like massive cold-war nuclear bunkers is because… they are entrances to massive cold-war nuclear bunkers … (more)

... [1]. The closer you get to the Kremlin, the thicker the blast doors become. Building domes go from brick to reinforced concrete to solid steel. Escalators down to platforms double or triple 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.

image link - Gorky Park protest, Moscow - 118.5 KBGorky Park protest, Moscow
(Dec 1991) Muscovites celebrate the cost of living at the gates of Gorky Park [1]. Apparently the placard says: "Mad Prices From … (more)

... The Mad Government In The White Madhouse!".

image link - Street grocers, Moscow - 124.9 KBStreet grocers, Moscow
(Dec 1991) Moscow street vendors offer quality produce to an enthusiastic and receptive clientele. One of the first signs the Iron Curtain … (more)

... [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.

image link - Family outside G.U.M., Moscow - 142.3 KBFamily outside G.U.M., Moscow
(Sep 1991) A Moscow family wait for things to change outside the ГУМ department store [1], on the eastern edge of Red … (more)

... Square.

image link - Kujbyse Street, Moscow - 147.8 KBKujbyse Street, Moscow
(Sep 1991) At the southeastern corner of Red Square, a pedestrian is told where to go. (more)

 

image link - Kremlin hitch-hikers, Moscow - 123.3 KBKremlin hitch-hikers, Moscow
(Dec 1991) While freezing my butt off waiting to take the vendors photo [1], I turned around and shot this image of … (more)

... 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.

image link - Bread queue, Moscow - 142.7 KBBread queue, Moscow
(Dec 1991) Waiting for a bread kiosk to open in a western Спальный район suburb [1]. Note: I am aware the sign … (more)

... in the background says "Beer". The people in the queue were actually lining up for a different kiosk (out of frame).

image link - Church of Ascension, Kolomenskoe Moscow - 115.6 KBChurch of Ascension, Kolomenskoe Moscow
(Dec 1991) The famous Ascension Church inside the Kolomenskoe Museum Preserve [1], on a bank above the Moskva River (visible in the … (more)

... LHS background).

image link - Kazan Cathedral, Kolomenskoe Moscow - 137.8 KBKazan Cathedral, Kolomenskoe Moscow
(Dec 1991) Although I was critical of what a run-down dump Moscow generally was [1], I have to admit parts of it … (more)

... could also be beautiful.

image link - Red Gate, Kolomenskoe Moscow - 229.1 KBRed Gate, Kolomenskoe Moscow
(Dec 1991) The Kolomenskoe Museum Preserve [1] in southeastern Moscow. This is a view of what used to be the main entrance … (more)

... to the estate.

image link - Lomonosov Moscow State University - 109.2 KBLomonosov Moscow State University
(Dec 1991) Lomonosov Moscow State University [1], the main campus in Moscow. I came here looking for young intelligent women, but found … (more)

... instead bad food and worse public toilets.

image link - Inner city street, Moscow - 145.9 KBInner city street, Moscow
(Dec 1991) Welcome to Moscow — a few blocks north of the Kremlin. "How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm" … (more)

... [1] when they have sampled the delights of Москва [2]? I bet it was scenes like this which finally wiped the smile off Guy Burgess' face [3].

image link - Telephone user, Moscow - 123.8 KBTelephone user, Moscow
(Dec 1991) Moscow public telephone box with sports-fan graffiti. Of more interest is the steel mesh visible at the top RHS of … (more)

... the picture. Many buildings had these to protect pedestrians from falling chunks of ice (and/or masonry…)

image link - August Putsch memorials, Moscow - 124.5 KBAugust Putsch memorials, Moscow
(Dec 1991) Impromptu bridge memorials to the August '91 Coup victims [1], on the Smolenskaya overpass. When I arrived in Moscow in … (more)

... early September, there were already portraits, hand-written posters, crosses and flowers alongside to the railing. I even saw a newly-married couple posing for wedding photos. By the time I returned in mid-December, the temporary monuments had been replaced with these more durable versions.

image link - Sennaja Smolenskij Blvd., Moscow - 143.4 KBSennaja Smolenskij Blvd., Moscow
(Dec 1991) A few moments of winter sunshine along the Garden Ring Road [1] in inner Moscow. Notice everyone has shopping bags, … (more)

... "just in case…"

image link - Lenin's Tomb + Red Square, Moscow - 143.1 KBLenin's Tomb + Red Square, Moscow
(Sep 1991) The queue in front of Lenin's Mausoleum [1] in Moscow's Red Square. At the time there were rumors Vladimir Illyich … (more)

... 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].

image link - Red Square militia, Moscow - 121.2 KBRed Square militia, Moscow
(Sep 1991) Red Square, a few minutes after the Mausoleum photo [1]. We are facing north-west, with the red-painted State Historical Museum … (more)

... on the left [2], the grey 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…

image link - Power station, Moscow - 115.9 KBPower station, Moscow
(Dec 1991) From my Гостиница Можайский window again, this time looking at a distant power station — the billowing steam clouds give … (more)

... a rough indication of how cold it was (-27°C the day I arrived).

image link - Street vendor, Moscow - 153.5 KBStreet vendor, Moscow
(Dec 1991) Art and "biznes" on Ulitsa Gorkogo ("Tverskaya-Yamskaya"), in central Moscow. Street vendors were all over the place, and by now … (more)

... I was thoroughly sick of them. Of course at the time I was unaware that many of the vendors were desperate to raise cash, to compensate for inflation wiping out their state pensions and wages [1].

image link - Women street vendors, Moscow - 129.1 KBWomen street vendors, Moscow
(Dec 1991) Women hawk their wares on Ulitsa Gorkogo ("Tverskaya- Yamskaya"), only 200m from the Kremlin. Many were wives of smugglers and … (more)

... truck drivers trying to unload stolen goods, many others were former state employees made redundant by the New Economy [1]. There was a big crowd blocking my view that day, so I had to wait for over 45 minutes in freezing weather to get this shot. I discovered only later (when safely back in Hungary) that women like these used to routinely beat up anyone who tried to film them…

image link - Inner city businessman, Moscow - 151.6 KBInner city businessman, Moscow
(Dec 1991) Freed of the shackles of the past, a бюджетники strides heroically towards a Post Demokratizatsiya Consumer Paradise… (more)

 

image link - Sunday housing estate, Moscow - 168.8 KBSunday housing estate, Moscow
(Dec 1991) The only way to house ten million people [1] within a 25km radius, is to do so in large apartment … (more)

... blocks. Unfortunately many of these 1970's Новостройки were built so hastily that the construction quality is less than optimal [2].

image link - Ulitsa Gorkogo, Moscow - 138.3 KBUlitsa Gorkogo, Moscow
(Dec 1991) A Day In The Life Of The Neo-Proletariat: Christian Dior in the morning; Yves Rocher in the afternoon; a park … (more)

... bench at night…		  
Rumania

image link - Bus queue, Bucharest - 115.7 KBBus queue, Bucharest
(Dec 1991) Welcome to sunny Bucharest, queueing on what was still the Boulevard n Bâlcescu. (more)

 

image link - Produce market, Bucharest - 135.5 KBProduce market, Bucharest
(Dec 1991) Optimizing cabbages at an open air market in Bucharest. (more)

 

image link - Southwestern housing estate, Bucharest - 159.3 KBSouthwestern housing estate, Bucharest
(Dec 1991) Belfast '72 = Beirut '85 = Bucharest '91. Smashed up, half completed housing estates; people lining up at communal water … (more)

... taps; crowds shoving each other when a food-aid truck arrives; children playing among the ruins … Welcome to Eastern Europe.

image link - Older suburbs, Bucharest - 166.3 KBOlder suburbs, Bucharest
(Dec 1991) An older part of Bucharest which managed to escape Nicolae's bulldozers. "Paris of the East" eh? As yet there weren't … (more)

... too many street kids or wild dogs [1]…

image link - Ceausescu Palace - 140.3 KBCeausescu Palace
(Dec 1991) Nic 'n Ele's modest townhouse — twelve storeys, 6000 rooms, the third largest building in the world. Known variously as … (more)

... "The Palace of the Parliament" (Palatul Parlamentului [1]) or "Palace of the People" (Casa Poporului [2]), the cars give some idea of its scale…

image link - Ceausescu Palace + Dept of Foriegn Affairs, Bucharest - 119 KBCeausescu Palace + Dept of Foriegn Affairs, Bucharest
(Dec 1991) The Ceausescu Palace in the background, the Department of Foreign Affairs & Economics on the right. The immediate foreground shows … (more)

... 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 they showed me around after hours, and 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.

image link - Uranus District + Centru Civic, Bucharest - 170.9 KBUranus District + Centru Civic, Bucharest
(Dec 1991) In order for Ceausescu [1] to build his "first socialist capital for the new socialist man", hundreds of buildings in … (more)

... the Uranus District had to be bulldozed. Fortunately the revolution in '89 put a halt to the madness. Thus if you went around to rear of the new apartment blocs on Centru Civic, you could still see some of the original buildings.

image link - Empty fountain, Bucharest - 156.2 KBEmpty fountain, Bucharest
(Dec 1991) Centru Civic, a fountain emptied for winter, office and apartment blocks for the élite (security police, commie hacks, aparachiks etc.) … (more)

... 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].

image link - Monica Stáiculescu + Mirela Pop - 135.5 KBMonica Stáiculescu + Mirela Pop
(Dec 1991) At the Otopeni International airport [1], just outside Bucharest. I befriended M&M towards the end of my five-day visit. Despite … (more)

... 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.

image link - Former Central Commitee Building, Bucharest - 122.1 KBFormer Central Commitee Building, Bucharest
(Dec 1991) The balcony where Nicolae Ceausescu [1] made his farewell speech to a warm and appreciative audience, just before the shooting … (more)

... started [2]. Speaking of which — in '91 most downtown buildings still had their upper levels riddled with bullet holes, from people firing up at security police on the roof.

image link - Pedestrian crossing, Bucharest - 93.7 KBPedestrian crossing, Bucharest
(Dec 1991) Pedestrians crossing the road outside the Economics faculty. (more)

 

image link - Ceausescu Palace + boy skaters, Bucharest - 117.9 KBCeausescu Palace + boy skaters, Bucharest
(Dec 1991) Another view of the gargantuan Ceausescu Palace, with a couple of boys roller-skating by. (more)

 

image link - Union Hotel, Bucharest - 109.9 KBUnion Hotel, Bucharest
(Dec 1991) Where I stayed in Bucharest. Pretty good, but had trouble sleeping due to the Noisy Horizontal Exertions of a couple … (more)

... 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 elsewhere.		  
Polska

image link - WWII ruins, Warsaw - 183.2 KBWWII ruins, Warsaw
(Oct 1991) Warsaw really copped it during World War Two [1]. Thanks to decades of communist neglect, you could still find small … (more)

... pockets of destruction in the early '90s.

image link - Warsaw Palace of Culture + Science - 116.3 KBWarsaw Palace of Culture + Science
(Oct 1991) 230m tall and opened July 1955, the "PKiN" [1] is a Socialist Realist skyscraper [2] in the middle of the … (more)

... city. Warsaw natives loathe the place, not only for its architectural ugliness, but also for being a reminder of four decades of Communist occupation and rule.

image link - Filharmonia boys queue, Warsaw - 143.8 KBFilharmonia boys queue, Warsaw
(Oct 1991) A group of school boys wait enthusiastically to enter the Warsaw Filharmonia. (more)

 

image link - Marszalkowska Street, Warsaw - 81 KBMarszalkowska Street, Warsaw
(Nov 1991) A young girl waits for a bus on Marszalkowska Street, across the road from the ubiquitous PKiN [1]. (more)

 

image link - Marszalkowska Street, Warsaw - 102.9 KBMarszalkowska Street, Warsaw
(Nov 1991) A few minutes later, an older lady also waits for the same bus. The buildings in the background were State … (more)

... clothing and department stores.

image link - Cigarette Kiosk, Warsaw - 149.9 KBCigarette Kiosk, Warsaw
(Nov 1991) International corporate brands make their presence felt at a Swietokrzyska Street cigarette kiosk. (more)

 

image link - Wilanów Housing estate, Warsaw - 47.4 KBWilanów Housing estate, Warsaw
(Nov 1991) The view from the Budzynska [1] apartment balcony, in southern Warsaw. Notice the satellite dishes — Communism wasn't defeated so … (more)

... much by ICBMs or Reaganomics [2], but rather "Dynasty" and "Dallas"!

image link - Jewish Ghetto suburbs, Warsaw - 137.9 KBJewish Ghetto suburbs, Warsaw
(Oct 1991) Geometric street patterns in the old Jewish Quarter of Warsaw. (more)

 

image link - Jewish Ghetto ruins, Warsaw - 154.7 KBJewish Ghetto ruins, Warsaw
(Oct 1991) After WWII, so much of Warsaw lay in ruins [1] that it was easier to flatten the rubble and build … (more)

... on top of it, rather than cart it all away. This photo depicts some of the 1940's "strata" I saw during a walk around the old Jewish Ghetto.

image link - Plac Konstytucji, Warsaw - 124.2 KBPlac Konstytucji, Warsaw
(Nov 1991) Plac Konstytucji in Warsaw, across the road from the fun-fun-fun retro-Stalinist MDM Hotel [1], where I stayed. Also visible are … (more)

... 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, then you either had to get a kiosk or rent a hotel suite [2].

image link - Tram, Warsaw - 141.2 KBTram, Warsaw
(Oct 1991) High-tech Warsaw. Contrast the satellite dish on the balcony (third floor from the top) with the window washer dangling from … (more)

... a rope, two balconies to the right.

image link - Budzynska girl, Warsaw - 99.4 KBBudzynska girl, Warsaw
(Oct 1991) One of the highlights of my trip was hanging out with the three-year old daughter of Svavek and Magda Budzyńska. … (more)

... 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. (Sigh) and then in December we parted, and I never saw her again.

image link - Tram + PKiN, Warsaw - 89 KBTram + PKiN, Warsaw
(Nov 1991) Neo Comecon Globalism. (Clockwise from left) The American Marriott hotel [1], Russian PKiN [2] and Hungarian FVV trams [3]… (more)

 

image link - Street re-cabling, Warsaw - 154.5 KBStreet re-cabling, Warsaw
(Oct 1991) Tearing up Warsaw to lay electrical cables. (more)

 

image link - Entrance Gate, Auschwitz - 174.6 KBEntrance Gate, Auschwitz
(Jan 1992) Welcome to Europe. The entrance gate to the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau [1] in Oświecim. (more)

 

image link - Gas Chamber, Auschwitz - 122.8 KBGas Chamber, Auschwitz
(Jan 1992) One bullet fired in Sarajevo in 1914 [1], passed through millions of Europeans [2] before ending up here, in the … (more)

... gas chambers of Auschwitz.
Cesko

image link - Saints Peter + Paul Cathedral, Brno - 106.6 KBSaints Peter + Paul Cathedral, Brno
(Jan 1992) Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Brno — a gothic monster of a building which dominates the entire town [1]. (more)

 

image link - Construction site, Brno - 113.5 KBConstruction site, Brno
(Jan 1992) A building site in Brno, at the edge of the main Námesti Svobodytown square. (more)

 

image link - Kvetna Street golden fog, Brno - 77.4 KBKvetna Street golden fog, Brno
(Jan 1992) The golden fog of mid-morning, looking along tramlines towards Námesti Svobody square. (more)

 		  

Personal Vignettes

Budapest

  • The decommissioned radio tower in Csepel, used during the Cold War to block radio broadcasts from the west.
  • The hundreds of Gypsy street-vendors alongside the Danube, or inside every underpass or Metro entrance, selling amazingly shoddy goods (three banana chillies, a broken porcelain doll, a left shoe etc.)
  • 10cm of show drops in an afternoon and all of Budapest is paralysed. Like it has never snowed in Hungary before, right?…
  • Trying to shake off my (elderly) relatives so I can have more than five minutes alone.
  • Every meal starts with an argument about me wanting to drink plain water: "Just 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.
  • The Post-Com Magyar retail business model: first set up a used-car dealership; then sell fur coats and leather jackets; then TV's and video recorders; then (finally) confectionary and soft-drinks.
  • For weeks on end the only time I see the sun is when the plane rises through the cloud over Ferihegy airport.
  • Every time I re-enter the country (I had a one-year unlimited-entry visa), being asked more and more questions by customs officials until I was finally detained and interrogated at length. Lucky (?) I could speak fluent Hungarian…
  • The Failure Of Contracts: Weeks wasted trying to get IBUSZ to book accommodation in Moscow for December. Eventually had to give up and fly to Warsaw over the weekend to book from there.
  • A ninety minute trip to an outlying suburb to walk forever down a long street to find a US law firm which was not there. Then wandering through the corridors of the Ministry of Justice and Law Enforcement, then the US Embassy, then the Budapest office of Baker & McKenzie — all to obtain the Moscow B&M office address.
  • BTW taking photos of Marines outside the US Embassy is unbelievably forbidden!
  • Riding through the countryside in a Trabant with a couple of relatives. Who needs excess leg or elbow room? The mighty two-stroke engine had a lot of "oomph" as well (sort of).
  • At the movies: (1) Fritz Lang's Metropolis — increasing anxiety-attacks over having to speed-read silent-movie title cards in Hungarian. (2) A forró porno-film — badly dubbed by voice actors who were obviously bored, shown on a standard TV in a darkened basketball court, seated on fold-up wooden chairs.
  • Every time I was introduced as a visitor from Sydney, I'm greeted with: "Wow! Did you go to see Fernando?…" Instead of the soppy Abba song, it transpired "Fernando" was actually an obscure Hungarian yachtsman who visited Sydney in '91.
  • The Failure Of Contracts: A month after I leave Hungary, IBUSZ apply pressure on my uncle and aunt to get them to pay an extra amount for the rail ticket I bought to travel to Czechoslovakia.

Moscow

  • The "Shuttle Traders" in 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 cardboard VCR player boxes.
  • On just about every street corner in September, small groups of young men nervously gambling on shell-games or three card monte, on cardboard boxes or old suitcases.
  • Opposite every lift entrance, the Бабущка-дежурная knitting or reading on every floor of the Moscow Hotel Belgrad.
  • The large number of young women wearing bright blue eyeshadow.
  • The '70s era Pepsi vending machines which didn't dispense cans, just the liquid soft-drink. A few machines provided (amazingly soiled) perspex cups secured with a string, for others you had to bring your own cup.
  • Bribing a waiter at the Moscow Hotel Ukraina so I could have lunch during a private WWII reunion. $5 USD got me a small table at the side of a dining room, and I spent the entire meal being stared and pointed at by veterans with medals (and pinned-up sleeves or deeply scarred faces). Приятного аппетита…
  • Being mobbed by a dozen street-urchins outside the Hotel Ukraina. It started out friendly enough, but a dark-eyed girl reached down my jeans to grab my wallet, while the others grabbed my arms to stop me from fighting or running away.
  • The plain-clothes policeman who ran towards us and fired his pistol into the air to make the brats scatter.
  • Security guards outside the Moscow Baker & Mckenzie office, shouting and waving guns until I produce my Australian passport.
  • The smell of diesel-truck fumes when walking beside the main ring roads.
  • Shop assistants using wooden abacuses to total purchases.
  • The ice-cream vendors along the Prospekt Kalinina in the dead of winter. Any flavour you like so long as it was vanilla.
  • The Бомж with a long matted beard silently begging a piece of pizza out of my hands.
  • Muscovites always seeking me out for guidance when travelling on the Metro. As if I knew where we were, or where to go, or what the hell they were saying!
  • December '91: some hotels run out of food, making you pay black-market prices until EU aid trucks arrive. For a week the city also runs out of foreign exchange. This closes banks to foreigners and makes traveller's cheques useless, so you have to change dollars via shady doormen, taxi drivers or miscellaneous Крыша in leather jackets.
  • The realisation that a man alone with a Nikon is also a bulls-eye for prostitutes.
  • The young bloke who followed me around one morning and kept insisting on buying my wristwatch/ camera/ boots.
  • The famous State Tretyakov Gallery. I was hoping to see Kandinsky's, 1920's agitprop and Stalinist "socialist realist" works… but instead found two rooms of (boring) icons and not much else. It turned out the rest of the museum was closed for extensive renovations, for an entire year.
  • At the movies: a spy-caper dubbed in Russian; the КИНО half-empty, teenagers walking around during the film, socialising and yelling at each other.
  • The kindly taxi driver who dodged on-coming traffic and reversed 500m up a one-way road, at full speed, to get me to Sheremetyevo airport on time (!)
  • Bribing a custom's bloke $5 USD so he would stamp my passport with his red "CCCP" exit stamp.

Warsaw

  • The roads torn to shreds due to the never-ending Metro construction.
  • The congress of nocturnal prostitutes 100m from the Hotel Marriott.
  • As evening falls, hopping onto a bus to "get around town", and being driven out to an empty field and left there.
  • The "friend of a friend" lady GP who did a house-call and treated me for Bronchitis, with a level of competence and friendliness unheard of in Australian white-coats!
  • Every leather-jacketed male you pass on the street is a money-changer. They walk towards you, rub their fingers and quietly say "Change money, Change money…"
  • The Failure Of Contracts: The Budzynska's endless arguments with their builders about the agreed cost and completion date to refurbish their new restaurant.
  • The Failure Of Contracts: Buying an airline-ticket from a "friend of a friend" travel-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 disappeared, so the flight ends up being free :?)

Bucharest

  • Train carriage interiors unlit due to an electricity shortage — plunging you into terrifying darkness between underground Metro stations.
  • The supermarket in a housing estate with completely empty shelves.
  • Old men and women outside cinemas selling small bags of sunflower seeds.
  • In the University district just about every woman you pass on the street is drop-dead I-don't-believe-it gorgeous!
  • While leaving the Metro, M&M stop to buy me a packet of cigarettes. I thank them, but tell them there is no need as I don't smoke. Am greeted by dumfounded astonishment: "But… But here all men smoke!!"
  • Gate-crashing a funeral at an Orthodox church in a housing estate. Stayed for the entire thing. "Who was that guy who came to uncle Gheorghe's funeral?…"
  • At the movies: A double bill of (i) a "mockumentary" of Ceausescu footage dubbed with animal and fart noises — completely ignored by the audience who talked loudly among themselves. (ii) the feature — some kind of "extended family goes on sunny holidays and eats themselves silly" farce. This time everyone watches in rapt attention.
  • All the abandoned tower cranes in the city, making the place resemble an oversized graveyard with giant rusting crucifixes.

Brno

  • The incredible number of artist's supply stores, more than Sydney!
  • The "me-too" houses straining for attention beside the famous Villa Tugendhat.

Songs

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.

Enter Sandman Metallica Video Lyrics Info
Everybody's Free to Feel Good Rozalla Video Lyrics Info
Wind of Change Scorpions Video Lyrics Info
Smells like Teen Spirit Nirvana Video Lyrics Info
Black or White Michael Jackson Video Lyrics Info
Cream Prince Video Lyrics Info
Diamonds and Pearls Prince Video Lyrics Info
Right Here, Right Now Jesus Jones Video Lyrics Info
You Could Be Mine Guns N Roses Video Lyrics Info
Unbelievable EMF Video Lyrics Info
I've Been Thinking About You Londonbeat Video Lyrics Info
Mysterious ways U2 Video Lyrics Info
Justified and Ancient The KLF (+ Tammy Wynette)     Video Lyrics Info
Losing My Religion R.E.M. Video Lyrics Info
Alive Pearl Jam Video Lyrics Info
Stars Simply Red Video Lyrics Info
The Promise of a new day Paula Abdul Video Lyrics Info
I Do It for You Bryan Adams Video Lyrics Info
Let's Talk about Sex Salt-N-Pepa Video Lyrics Info

Movies

The following depict the locations and capture the mood of the times rather well:

Trzy kolory: Baily (1994)

The second of Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Three-Colours" trilogy. 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.

Das Leben der Anderen (2006)

A moody and serious film about the paranoia of the GDR before the Berlin Wall came down. The filmmakers made a serious effort to avoid anachronisms, so the architecture, fashions and cars are straight out of 1984.

The Russia House (1990)

Okay it's fluff and Michelle Pfeiffer is totally unbelievable as "Московская Женщина" — but it was filmed extensively on location in Moscow and Leningrad in 1989 and features a beautiful film-score by Jerry Goldsmith, with soprano saxophone by Branford Marsalis.

Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

Despite the wild anachronism of one its characters wearing a Matrix t-shirt (!), it's an affectionate satire on the After-The-Wall transition in East Berlin. Also features news and documentary footage of the era.

The Rise And Fall Of The Russian Oligarchs (2005)

Part One of this Canadian TVO/ Human Edge documentary focuses on the economic chaos in Russia following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It also features a lot of contemporary (1991-4) news footage and interviews with the main political players.

Luna Park (1992)

A French-Russian co-production with skinheads, anti-semitism and criminal hijinks in Moscow during the Yeltsin Era.

Sunshine (1999)

A moody period-piece by István Szabó, shot in art-deco and communist portions of Budapest.

Ulysses' Gaze (1995)

176 minutes of ironically pretentious "visual poetry" about 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 strongly disagree.

The Inner Circle (1991)

The other film Tom Hulce made. The first foreign production to shoot inside the administrative parts of the Kremlin and Lubyanka. Also features a few other scenes from Moscow (the Metro etc.)

Welcome to Sarajevo (1997)

Like its stable-mate Harrison's Flowers (2000), it deals with the darker side of the Eastern Bloc transition: the civil collapse and insanely vicious war in former Yugoslavia. BTW the savagery is explored even further in Savior (1998).

Entre chiens et loups (2002)

A trashy, poorly lip-synched French crime-caper, filmed extensively in Bucharest. The rusting tower cranes might be gone, but it's weirdly fascinating (and depressing) to see how little things have changed since '91.

Articles

Travelogs

Leaving Poland, Summer, 1989: A Letter Written To Friends
by Danusha V. Goska PhD
The Lost Border: The Landscape of the Iron Curtain
by Brian Rose
(2004) Princeton Architectural Press
ISBN: 1568984936
Notes: A book and website featuring photographs of the old border between East and West 1985-1990, including the "before" and "after" Berlin Wall.
Red Square Blues: A Beginner's Guide to the Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union
by Kim Traill
(2009) HarperCollins Australia
ISBN: 9780732285661
Notes: The Soviet and post-Soviet travels of a feminist / vegetarian / music-student / backpacker / reality-show contestant / free-lance ABC & SBS journalist / yummy-mummy & inner-city trendie. As you can imagine it's often clueless and glib, but to be fair she also presents a lot of interesting material from her visits to Russia between 1990 and 2007. (See also the Sept 2009 podcast at the ABC website).
Report on a trip to Moscow to attend the International Meeting of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists
by Richard I. Gibson
July 1992
The Tokyo to London Project
by Walter Colebatch and James Mudie
July-November 1994
Notes: A website detailing Colebatch and Mudie's motorcycle ride across China, Siberia and Russia.
Memento Park, Budapest
by architect Ákos Eleöd
1989-90
Notes: The website for the famous park in Budapest where Communist era statues and symbols are displayed.
Across the red unknown: a journey through the new Russia
by George Negus, photographs by Peter Solness
(1992) Weldon Publishing, Willoughby Australia
ISBN: 1 86302 188 4
Notes: A coffee-table book of a film crew's drive from Vladivostok to Moscow in July-August 1991. Most of the photos are pretty Siberian landscapes or posed set-ups of peasants, but there are a few interesting shots of the late Soviet era, especially of run-down infrastructure or improvised street barricades near the "White House" (parliament) in Moscow at the time of the attempted coup.

Journalism

Russia's oligarchs: Their risky routes to riches
Hugh Fraser - BBC World Service
July 2004

Time Magazine Archive

The End Of the U.S.S.R.
by George J. Church
TIME December 23, 1991
Just Why Did Communism Fail?
by Michael Kinsley
TIME November 4, 1991
Into The Void
by George J. Church
TIME September 9, 1991
Post-mortem Anatomy of A Coup
by George J. Church
TIME September 2, 1991
Europe The Bills Come Due
by John Borrell
TIME December 3, 1990
Freedom! The Wall crumbles overnight…
by George J. Church
TIME November 20, 1989
Eastern Europe: Chips off the Old Bloc
by Christopher Ogden
TIME March 27, 1989

National Geographic Magazine

When the Wall fell — Berlin's Ode to Joy
by Priit J. Vesilind, photographs by David Alan Harvey and Anthony Suau
NGM April 1990, pp.105-132
Yugoslavia: A House Much Divided
by Kenneth C. Danforth, photographs by Steve McCurry
NGM August 1990, pp.92-124
The Baltic Nations
by Priit J. Vesilind, photographs by Larry C. Price
NGM November 1990, pp.2-38
Mother Russia on a New Course
by Mike Edwards, photographs by Steve Raymer
NGM February 1991, pp.2-39
Dispatches from Eastern Europe
by Tod Szulc, photographs by Tomasz Tomaszewski
NGM March 1991, pp.2-34
East Europe's Dark Dawn
by Jon Thompson, photographs by James Nachtwey
NGM June 1991, pp.36-70
A Broken Empire: Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine
by Mike Edwards, photographs by Gerd Ludwig
NGM March 1993, pp.2-54
Soviet Pollution
by Mike Edwards, photographs by Gerd Ludwig
NGM August 1994, pp.70-100
Crimea: Pearl of a Fallen Empire
by Peter T. White, photographs by Ed Kashi
NGM September 1994, pp.96-120

Academic Monographs

Ten years since the wall fell
The Economist magazine
Nov 4th 1999, p.22
The Fall of Stalinism: Ten Years On
by Anthony Arnove
International Socialist Review
Issue 10, Winter 2000

What's next / corrections…

In time I may add a few more notes and links, 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 my Feedback Form.