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ЗА
2021
The property around a house is always surrounded by some kind of fence. In the mid-1990s, it was considered normal to pilfer a few strips of reinforcing mesh from a construction site and enclose "your" lawn.
Fencing in Russia is more than just a fence: over the past quarter century, citizens have erected over 2.5 million kilometers of fencing, and it's hard to even imagine how many the state has built. Moreover, property protection is far from the primary function of domestic fencing.
Vladimir Ruvinsky, article "Native Fences"
The work is dedicated to the era when Russia experienced a boom in fence construction. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the monopoly on fence construction also disappeared. The advent of private property imbued Russians with the fundamental need to fence themselves off from their fellow citizens. Fences were erected around summer cottages—the higher, the better. Steel doors were installed in city apartments.
This desire for self-defense is understandable—for many, the collapse of personal freedom also meant freedom from law and morality, which led to the notorious explosion of crime. The "little man," the ordinary citizen, wanted to feel at least a semblance of, at least relative, security.
However, the turbulent era ended, but the large-scale, widespread, and sometimes absurd construction of fences did not stop.
The term "the wild 90s" was first used in Mikhail Weller's novel "Cassandra," published in 2002. Since then, the cliché has gradually entered propaganda circulation. And in the mid-2000s, it entered discourse as a set phrase (A. Bonch-Osmolovskaya, "It Used to Be Worse").
Under the guise of "security," fences continue to be erected in places and out of place to this day. Despite the fact that public demand has shifted toward a comfortable urban environment and freedom of movement, the maxim remains unwavering. Security trumps comfort and freedom. And along with physical fences, the state is erecting fences in people's minds under the slogan, "What, do you want it like the 90s?"
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