Metro station (photo by Joe DeMarie)

Metro station (photo by Joe DeMarie)

Monument to the Conquerors of Space

Monument to the Conquerors of Space

Renovation

Renovation

Worker and Kolkhoznitsa (photo by Joe DeMarie)

Worker and Kolkhoznitsa (photo by Joe DeMarie)

St. Basil's Cathedral

St. Basil's Cathedral

Yuri Gagarin Monument

Yuri Gagarin Monument

Sarah, Jon, Arline

Sarah, Jon, Arline

Gorky Park

Gorky Park

Russia

Moscow

1996 • Boris Yeltsin's reelection was the background music during six months in a still staggering, post-Soviet Russia. Stayed the entire time with Jon and Arline, and worked at the Moscow Times as a copyeditor and at Reebok Russia as an English teacher. Even with two jobs and no rent, I came back to the U.S. deep in the hole. Highest cost of living I've ever experienced. Yeltsin disappeared in the final stretch of the campaign—suffering either a massive heart attack or a stroke—yet that drunken old clown still managed to win by a huge margin. Most people just rolled their eyes at the whole thing, because democracy and free-market enterprise hang on Russia like an ill-fitting suit. 

Metro station (photo by Joe DeMarie)

Monument to the Conquerors of Space

Renovation

Worker and Kolkhoznitsa (photo by Joe DeMarie)

St. Basil's Cathedral

Yuri Gagarin Monument

Sarah, Jon, Arline

Gorky Park