Khovanskoye Cemetery, January 27, two o'clock in the afternoon. A group of four people stands by a black minivan. They are dressed in identical black jackets and hats. Next to them, on metal trestles, is a four-sided coffin with no handles. People in work uniforms are nailing the base of the coffin. About 5 meters from the coffin—just one grave away—stand several gravediggers, ready to take the coffin in their hands and lower it into the grave. We only need to cover those 5 meters. But three out of the four people in black take turns falling, bumping the bottoms of the coffin into the grave fences. Only the fourth one managed to stay on his feet. That was me.

#WarinUkraine #lifeinRussia #everydayculture #personalexperience #Moscow #society #precariat #reportage #deathinRussia #LaborandCapital

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I wandered through neighborhoods of new developments, trying to at least convince myself that selling such a future to living, thinking people, with a 30-year mortgage, wasn’t a crime. I honestly tried to break myself and become a successful person against my own nature. Here’s how it went—and here’s how it ended.

#lifeinRussia #mortgage #acrisis #personalexperience #violence #theproperty #newbuildings #punks #realtors #StPetersburg #Ethics

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One of the most high-profile political assassinations in modern Russian history took place on January 19, 2009. On that day, Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer from the Moscow Human Rights Center, and Anastasia Baburova, a freelance correspondent for Novaya Gazeta, were shot dead by an activist from the far-right group BORN (Combat Organization of Russian Nationalists). They were killed because they supported the anti-fascist movement. And a recent accomplice in this crime was recently released from prison.

#2000s #antifascists #EvgeniyaKhasis #lifeinRussia #historicalmemory #leftandright #Moscow #Shuyne #NikitaTikhonov #society #reportage #ultraright

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Near Lesnaya metro station in St. Petersburg, at 61 Lesnoy Prospekt, stands a building with columns. This is the «house of specialists,» built in the 1930s in the style of Stalinist neoclassicism. Creative and scientific intelligentsia lived here, including artist Nathan Altman, radio engineer Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich, and writer Alexander Kuprin. It was from here that many were taken during the «Great Terror.» Now, plaques of the «Last Address» project are installed on the house for former residents who became victims of political repression in the USSR. The last two names appeared on the facade on Sunday, December 14 — on the day of remembrance for academician Andrei Sakharov. A «Most» correspondent attended the ceremony for installing the memorial signs.

#WarinUkraine #lifeinRussia #historicalmemory #cultureofmemory #society #Petersburg #Thelastedge #Putin #reportage #repressions #Stalin

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Few people know about the possibility of getting a deferral from military service for registered candidates for deputy. In practice, only a handful use this method, since electoral commissions easily weed out all non-party and unaffiliated candidates using the signature barrier. However, with the right legal preparation, it is still possible to dodge the draft using election laws. A student from a Moscow university, who asked to remain anonymous, shares his successful personal experience.

#army #elections #lifeinRussia #personalexperience #politicaltechnologies #Regions #WedBageno #Students #tatarstan

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Teachers are being fired, students expelled from universities, schoolchildren interrogated by the FSB, and criminal cases are being opened against their parents. Since February 2022, all this has been happening thanks to informing within educational institutions. The scale of today’s persecutions cannot be compared to Stalin-era purges: millions suffered then, while now it’s hundreds and thousands. But the logic of today’s repressions in Russia increasingly resembles that of the 1930s and 1940s in the USSR.

#Rhombus #WarinUkraine #state #childrenandparents #lifeinRussia #education #society #repressions #specialservices #theUSSR #Stalinism #school

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Two years ago, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation declared the «international LGBT social movement» an extremist organization. Since then, simply having a certain sexual orientation or gender identity can be used as grounds to accuse anyone who draws the state’s attention of extremism. LGBT people are afraid to go to the police or court, even if they themselves are the victims of crimes. Here are the stories of three people who have gone through such experiences.

#state #lifeinRussia #LGBT #personalexperience #violence #intolerance #society #humanrights #thatone #repressions

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On National Unity Day, a correspondent from «Most» visited Vologda for the unveiling of a monument to the most famous dictator of Russian medieval times. A monument to Stalin has long been there

#lifeinRussia #IvantheTerrible #historicalmemory #society #Regions #reportage #Stalin

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Dictatura is a settlement in the Plavsky District of the Tula Region. A correspondent from «Most» visited there and spoke with local residents about their living conditions and self-identification.

#WarinUkraine #lifeinRussia #society #Regions #reportage

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Recently, the Russian project «Word of the Year — 2025» summed up the results of the interim voting. In the nomination «National Word,» the leader was «anxiety» (25%). Why has this happened only now?

#WarinUkraine #state #drones #lifeinRussia #society #psychology #fear #Economy #language

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On the walls here, you can see gigantic portraits of Putin, icons, and vinyl records of Vysotsky and Okudzhava (all in one office), lower-level employees are scolded with quotes from Pasternak and Zabolotsky, and TV host Ekaterina Andreeva gives advice on how to properly cope with the anger of superiors at a «Znanie» society lecture.

#WarinUkraine #state #women #lifeinRussia #career #Crimea #Kurskregion #mincult #patriarchy #Patriotism #aftertheUSSR #propaganda #reportage #svo #Officials

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Two autocrats – and Chairman Xi – talked last week in Beijing about the perception of age (at 70, still boys) and eternal life, which will soon become possible thanks to organ transplants; in any case, living to 150 is not a problem at all. However, in the Russian case, the Constitution will have to be changed once again so that the presidential terms of the current head of state are not limited to 2036 but extend much further in time. But that is definitely not a problem.

#autocracy #future #VladimirPutin #WarinUkraine #gerontocracy #state #dictatorship #longevity #lifeinRussia #conformism #society #XiJinping #Utopia #futurology #essay

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Last week, during the Eastern Economic Forum, acknowledged problems with the slowdown of the Russian economy but added that victory over inflation is more important – supposedly, it's better for the people. However, the issue is not the welfare of the citizens. The continuation of the war requires increased spending on it. And here, strict monetary policy is unavoidable. This will result in the labor of the majority of Russian citizens becoming cheaper.

#Analytics #VladimirPutin #militaryKeynesianism #WarinUkraine #GermanGref #state #monetarypolicy #lifeinRussia #society #Economy #ElviraNabiullina

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In the center of Moscow, near Paveletsky Station, there is a kind of ghetto. In Soviet times, workers from other regions moved here, to Derbenevskaya Street — local factories needed them. Those factories have long since closed, but the workers still live in the local dormitory and communal apartments. Here they raised children, tried to build their lives in the capital, many began to abuse alcohol, and now they are waiting to be relocated under the renovation program.

#lifeinRussia #Moscow #inequality #aftertheUSSR #reportage #LaborandCapital

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At the end of February 2025, journalist and film critic Ekaterina Barabash was detained in Moscow. For social media posts about the war in Ukraine, the Russian Investigative Committee accused her of spreading «fakes» about the Russian army out of hatred. In Russia, this charge carries a prison sentence of five to ten years. Fortunately, Ekaterina managed to escape from house arrest and reach Europe. Today, we can finally tell the story of how it happened.

#WarinUkraine #dictatorship #lifeinRussia #KaterinaBarabash #personalexperience #repressions

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