
Jan Gray
Photography
a photographer..........wandering the south downs, often into abstraction
Memories of Russia, 1991
_____________________________
Imperial Russia, Holy Russia, Tsarist Russia, Revolutions, Bolsheviks, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, The Five Year Plans, Soviet Propaganda Posters, The Cold War, Perestroika, Glasnost....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I was 19 there was a TV ad for Vladivar vodka that featured a rather gorgeous Russian man, smouldering, despite being dressed in Cossack gear ,with fake frost everywhere. Around the same time, my boyfriend formed The Slavic Society at college. He believed he was Slavic despite looking like Morrissey, speaking with a very heavy Swansea accent and having the surname Evans. However, we both were fascinated by all things Russian and Soviet. This continued long after 'we' didn't and I finally found myself visiting Russia on my own in March '91 at the time of the Soviet Union Referendum.
The public were asked: Do you consider necessary the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics in which the rights and freedom of an individual of any ethnicity will be fully guaranteed?
The public approved the question.
1991, the year the USSR dissolved.
























Memories of Russia, 1991
_____________________________
Imperial Russia, Holy Russia, Tsarist Russia, Revolutions, Bolsheviks, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, The Five Year Plans, Soviet Propaganda Posters, The Cold War, Perestroika, Glasnost....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I was 19 there was a TV ad for Vladivar vodka that featured a rather gorgeous Russian man, smouldering, despite being dressed in Cossack gear ,with fake frost everywhere. Around the same time, my boyfriend formed The Slavic Society at college. He believed he was Slavic despite looking like Morrissey, speaking with a very heavy Swansea accent and having the surname Evans. However, we both were fascinated by all things Russian and Soviet. This continued long after 'we' didn't and I finally found myself visiting Russia on my own in March '91 at the time of the Soviet Union Referendum.
The public were asked: Do you consider necessary the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics in which the rights and freedom of an individual of any ethnicity will be fully guaranteed?
The public approved the question.
1991, the year the USSR dissolved.