What Russia was like in 1992 (PHOTOS)

Alexander Sentsov/TASS
The USSR had just collapsed and Russia was turning the page, entering its modern historical era. Many changes, increasing openness to the rest of the world and a hope for new, better life.

The Federal Treaty, signed in Moscow in 1992, formed the new country, the Russian Federation, which included 89 federal subjects (there are now 85 subjects, due to some uniting and reorganizing).

Boris Yeltsin and George H. W. Bush meeting to sign documents ending the Cold War.

A folk leader - Yelstin meeting people up close and casually was in stark contrast to the Soviet leaders who always remained on their high tribunes.

Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin made tennis an incredibly popular sport.

After finishing his work as the first (and only) president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev headed the non-profit Gorbachev Foundation focused with researching the history of Perestroika.

Markets and these bags were true icons of the 1990s.

The latest trends.

The Coca-Cola era had also arrived.

The country faced freedom: of speech, policy and, of course, art. Pictured below is a performance by Andrei Bartenev in front of the Kremlin.

Sixty-seven-year-old ballet star Maya Plisetskaya performing the Dying Swan dance on the Red Square.

The bathing of horses in Krasnodar.

An artist creating a handicraft with Fedoskino folk pattern.

Matryoshka dolls pictured in front of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius.

After many years of being in exile during Soviet times, the Russian Orthodox Church saw a true resurrection. Pictured is Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II speaking on the occasion of arrival of the Inextinguishable Lamp pilgrim mission from Jerusalem to Moscow via Europe.

Beach fashion reached new levels.

Traffic on Moscow’s Mayakovsky Square.

Furs on a catwalk.

The handover of a helicopter made by the U.S. Bell Helicopter Textron company to Moscow police on Manege Square.

A huge musical concert was held right on Red Square.

Singer Valery Leontiev, representative of the new wave of celebrities (in their brand new stage attire), performing.

Celebrating Navy Day in St. Petersburg, that recently got back its historical title, renamed from Leningrad.

International runners participating in the annual Moscow Marathon.

Mum and her son during the celebration of the anniversary of the 1812 War against Napoleonic France.

The trial of Andrei Chikatilo, one of the most notorious serial killers in the USSR.

Employes of the Moscow Kremlin museums preparing some Romanov jewelry held in the Diamond Fund collection for a photo.

One of the first supermarkets and the first venue of the Danone dairy company opened in central Moscow. People lined up for foreign yogurts. 

Kids playing in Kaluga Region.

The Intercession Church on the Nerl river in Vladimir Region, one of Russia’s most beautiful small churches, resumed service again.

Tatar girls laughing.

Chechen men debating.

An Evenki girl from Yakutia in a traditional costume.

Processing salmon caviar at the Yuzhno-Kurilsky fish-processing factory.

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