I do criticize how KGB regime depicts 90s, its dishonest and misleading. However, a lot of time have passed since 90s. A new generation, who have not experienced it, have grown up and know nothing about it but what Putin's liars tell them to. So, I decided to write a separate article about actual realities of 90s, not tarred and marred by Kremlin's propaganda.
To begin with, elephant of the room, bandits. Yes, bandits did exist in 90s and occasionally they killed people, mostly each other, but sometimes other people too. Murder is a big news, unlike someone importing computers or TVs, so stories about bandits circulated around and got exacerbated. Listening to them know one might imagine it was like Fist of North Star or something, it was not. For most people life was peaceful, and all the scary stuff was only on TV.
Even among bandits not all were equally outrageous, some did wild things, but majority tried to not attract undue attention to themselves. Use common sense here, if you are breaking laws then undue attention will do you no good, police and public will be after you and before long you will either be killed or in prison. Most bandits did not do anything wild; they just rode their Mercs and BMW to settle disputes with other bandits and kept quiet. Mind you only some of these disputes resulted in shootouts and someone dying. 1% of people who did most outrageous stuff got remembered and their deeds retold over and over. The remaining 99% were all but forgotten. Those who really went wild were either idiots who died soon after, or some people with government connections, like police undercover, military or KGB, someone who really had nothing to fear. Now those very same KGB people claim they ended the "banditism" of "wild 90s".
Mind you, murders did not end when KGB took over, they just changed targets, instead of bandits killing each other now the regime kills wonderful people like Nemtsov, Politkovskaya, Navalny and many others. People who could actually improve Russia, unlike KGB-an dwarf and his henchmen who only drag it down back in Soviet monk-like ascetic misery. KGB killed some, other fled and Russia lost is best people. At least during 90s its people few would miss, who killed each other, and afterwards it the best and brightest who are destroyed by KBG regime. Also joining mafia, they knew what could happen to them, victims of KGB did not have the same choice, they are purely innocent victims.
Now to the real heroes of the 90s, the businessmen. They by far outnumber the bandits. For every one bandit there were hundreds of businessmen, big and small. Together they rebuild ruins of USSR into a modern country. They imported awesome foreign goods, TVs, computers, mobiles, clothes, music, movies and more. Together they transformed drab post-Soviet reality into something classy comfortable and stylish.
Businessmen of 90s are the only reason Russia is not as backward and dilapidated as Cuba or North Korea, Upper Volta with nukes. Without them there would be no computers, phones or internet. Russia would be a stone age country.
In fact, without businessmen of 90s there would not even be food to eat or clothes to wear. All Soviet era production was not enough to actually feed or cloth the population. The monk-like austerity nuts in Soviet Gosplan thought people can survive with one pair of trousers per year and on a starvation diet. For normal people that was not enough but Soviet state refused to do anything about it. It was not until businessmen of 90s could import foreign goods, that people could finally have access to good food and clothes.
Businessmen of 90s did all that while fighting against ridiculous outdated Soviet era regulations as well as useless government bureaucrats who not only did nothing to help but actively interfere to extort bribes and generally be a nuisance. These guys were real chads of business, unlike modern Western small businesses who cry "help government" when they could not afford even paying their employees their salaries and government then think of something, like importing migrants or unpaid apprenticeships to keep these losers solvent.
While there were jokes about "Novyi Russki" with kitsch looks and low intelligence, most told by businessmen themselves. This was far from what an average businessman was. Most were classy people with awesome sense of style and fashion. They build themselves truly marvelous homes with cool design, state of art appliances and more. Sure, few got to see it as most businessmen were secretive and kept their prosperity under wraps, only inviting people from fellow business circles. You cannot blame them for being so secretive, Russian people are naturally envious and fuelled by Commie hysteria about "bandits robbing people" would not hesitate to steal or just vandalise out of spite.
Finally common people. Unlike commie and KGB propaganda tells you, people did not struggle or were robbed, at least not all of them. Employees of government owned factories and other people paid by government like doctors, teachers, military and police were in trouble, but that was only because government bureaucrats were not paying them their salaries or not increasing these salaries with inflation, essentially government fault. Government nonetheless blamed it on nefarious mythical "bandits" while in reality bureaucrats were simply pocketing salaries of common people and using them to buy themselves Mercs and other luxuries.
Government paid sector, betrayed by government they trusted, ended up blaming bandits for their misfortunes, because commies like Zyuganov told them its bandits. In reality it was government who robbed them in the first place.
People who worked in trade, retail and other sectors paid by other people or employed by businessmen of 90s did well, not as well as their bosses but much better that people in these sectors did under Soviet rule. USSR used to shit on retail and trade professions and called them second class compared to factory workers or teachers. 90s got this reversed, USSR era government darlings were now in shit and people who sell stuff were new cool.
Government paid sector did not took it well. That is why there were so many communist protests, all waving red flags and blaming Yeltsin for everything. Part of it was not even that government fucked them, but that people government always told them were lesser and less deserving than they are somehow ended up owning more and living better than the "good Soviets" who did everything government told them was right and end up poor and unpaid anyway.
Yet when election came Yeltsin won and not because it was rigged, but because people who sell food, clothes and every other consumer good imaginable voted for Yeltsin to keep Zyuganov and his commies out.
Finally, freedom. During 90s, TV was the most awesome it ever was in Russia. No censorship from government allowed many awesome shows to flourish on TV. Some were critical of government or system, but most were original, creative and genuinely entertaining to watch. Newspapers and other media too were allowed anything they wanted.
All that gradually came to an end after Putin seize power, now government destroyed all creativity and imagination. Only retarded sycophants who lick KGB's ass are allowed on TV and no one interesting have been on TV since 1999.
Freedom of speech took a fall too, now insane KGB regime jails people for saying obvious common-sense things. The regime completely lost sanity and common sense.
Finally, relationships with the west. Nowadays it might be hard for some to believe that Americans and Western Europeans were very friendly to Russia back then, but it was true. They all just decided to forgive and forget years of Cold War, and all helped Russia to recover from collapse of USSR. They actually hoped and believed that Russia can be their friend in emerging world.
All these hopes were betrayed when Putin took over and started his purges. Even then they sometimes hoped that increasing rift can be mended somehow and they could be friends again. Now that looks silly considering war in Ukraine and Kremlin rhetoric about mythical Nazis.
This time around common people might end up suffering consequences for all the aggression and evil, Kremlin did and continue doing.
So, this is how real 90s really were. Not how Kremlin told you they were, covered with thick coat of tar and bile, but how they really were. A few KGB agents disguised as bandits did all the nasty stuff and everyone else was trying to live and make things better. Some even managed to.
Some more information here and pictures too. There is more if you research it better.
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