Transformation

Ukraine and Russia in the age of wild capitalism

   
Petersburg
   
Petersburg
     
  
Petersburg
   
Minsk
   
Chisinau, Moldova
     
  
   
Babi Yar
   
Sevastopol, Hero City
     
  
UkraineFelix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the KGB, created the Soviet system of state orphanages (internats) that provided a loyal source of cannon fodder for the Red Army during WWII. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, these orphanages were left in a vacuum. The children are often under-developed intellectually and socially due to lack of parental care, with little hope of advancement or employment after they leave.
  
HIV orphan, Ukraine
   
Minsk
     
  
Minsk
   
Yalta
   
Casino, Petersburg
     
  
Leningrad, Hero City
   
"A person without a document has no right to exist" - Bulgakov, Heart of a Dog
   
     
  
   
  
     
  
The Soviet Union used the internal passport - a kind of identity card - as a key way of controlling the population. Central to that concept was the 'propiska' - each citizen had to register the address where they lived. Away from that address, they had no right to work, to be educated, to have access to health and social services, and no access to a myriad of other rights. In essence, if they moved to a different city, they became illegal immigrants in their own country.After the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia's constitutional court ruled the propiska system illegal and directed the government to abolish it. The system was however critical to controlling population flows - in particular allowing police in Moscow and St Petersburg to eject interlopers from outside those cities, helping to preserve the privileges of the economic elite. The response of the authorities to the court decision was to rename the 'propiska' as a 'registration', and carry on with in essence the same system as before.The result is that each city in Russia and Ukraine now has two classes of society - those who are living in the city legally, and an underclass of those who have no right to basic state welfares, and have no right to legal work.
   
Kiev, the "Truba"
   
     
  
   
  
     
  
   
  
     
  
Cook, serving porridge to HIV+ children.
   
  
"Let's look after the environment"
     
  
Girl adopted by her aunt, with cousins, Ukraine
   
Petersburg
   
Here in this Trust Room I conduct before and after testing consultation for HIV/AIDS. It’s difficult when someone receives a positive diagnosis, you yourself live through it with that person.
     
  
Moldova, bread and beer factory
   
Outdoor cafe, Sevastopol