1. Apocalypse Now The Culture of the 90s

2. The Culture of Apocalypse Yury Lotman: Semiotics of Russian Culture. Binary nature of Russian history Absence of purgatoryi in Orthodox Christianity: heaven or hell Culture and Explosion: Russia evolves through a series of catastrophes between prolonged periods of calm.

3. Vasily Kandinsky: Portraits of Apocalypse

4. Vasily Kandinsky

5. Two Sources of Apocalyptical and Utopian Thinking 1. The last book of the Bible: the Revelation of John the Divine. 2. Peasant folk beliefs in a mystical city called Kitezh that sank into the waters of the Lake Svetloyar.

6. The Legendary City of Kitezh

7. Another vision by T. Zubkova

8. Boris Ryzhy Boris Ryzhy (1974-2001) Born in Cheliabinsk Parents moved to Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg) Graduated as geophysicist First poems published in 1994 Committed suicide in 2001

9. Ryzhy’s poetry Gypsy woman In that flat lived ex-convicts Translations of poems Evgeny Mironov reading Boris Ryzhy

10. Liudmila Petrushevskaia (b.1938)

11. “The New Robinson Crusoes” From: There Once Lived a Woman who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby (Penguin Books, 2009) Questions 1. What is the tone of the story? 2. How does it affect you, the reader? 3. How does it end?

12. The New Saviour... Imagining a new Leader to bring Russia out of its suffering. Strong, cool, Robin hood type... Film: Brother (1997)

13. Sergei Bodrov Jr. (1971-2002), “hero of our time” Son of a film director PhD in Art History Iconic actor of late 1990s, star of Balabanov’s films Talk show host Film director Died Sept. 20, 2002: buried by a glacier in the Caucasus, along with the whole crew, while directing a film.

14. Sergei Bodrov’s selected filmography: Actor: Prisoner of the Caucasus (1996) (dir. Sergei Bodrov, snr) Brother (1997) (dir. Aleksei Balabanov) Est-Ouest (1999) (dir. Régis Wargnier) Brother II (2000) (dir. Aleksei Balabanov) War (2002) Other: Sisters (2001) Director Morphine (2008) (dir. Aleksei Balabanov) Scriptwriter

15. Sergei Bodrov’s character Danila Bagrov: the new / old Russian hero, BrotherBrother Common man: ex-soldier, orphan, poor mother, friends with bums and street girls. Restores justice, stands up for the wronged, fights evil “others” (Chechens, black pimps in Chicago, Ukrainian mafia). “Ivan the fool” of Russian folktales– chains of fortunate chances, obstacles overcome. Cyber folk tale, like computer game – kills opponents to get to bag of money; gets help from unexpected quarters (allies include the long-distance truck driver). Random problems quickly solved.

16. Brothers (Brother, 1997)