Moscow '93, by José Alaniz
MOSCOW ‘93
Russia in the 1990s: what better place for 20-something Chicano journalist José Alonzo to make his name? At the opening of a New York-style night club on Red Square, the free libations are flowing, the floor show is raunchy, and all of expat Moscow is wheeling and dealing. But things are never what they seem in this new post-Soviet country striving for freedom, democracy and … whatever — and falling far short. In fact, these party-goers will soon have a life-or-death national crisis blow up in their faces.
Recalling the techniques of Hunter S. Thompson and Oscar Zeta Acosta, Moscow ’93 is a gonzo autofictional account of the author’s experiences before, during and after the 1993 “October events,” when a violent revolt against President Boris Yeltsin erupts in the capital. By the time it’s over, army tanks will shell the parliament building (aka “White House”), reducing it to a burned-out husk. And a hung-over Alonzo is right in the middle of it, dodging bullets like everyone else. All this and a Michael Jackson concert!
Blending horror and farce, mashing up Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights Big City and Venedikt Erofeyev’s Moscow to the End of the Line (with a real-life armed insurrection thrown in), Moscow ’93 presents Russia in the first decade after communism through the lens of a sordid expat scene. A scene that, one day, exploded into a war zone.
MOSCOW ‘93
Russia in the 1990s: what better place for 20-something Chicano journalist José Alonzo to make his name? At the opening of a New York-style night club on Red Square, the free libations are flowing, the floor show is raunchy, and all of expat Moscow is wheeling and dealing. But things are never what they seem in this new post-Soviet country striving for freedom, democracy and … whatever — and falling far short. In fact, these party-goers will soon have a life-or-death national crisis blow up in their faces.
Recalling the techniques of Hunter S. Thompson and Oscar Zeta Acosta, Moscow ’93 is a gonzo autofictional account of the author’s experiences before, during and after the 1993 “October events,” when a violent revolt against President Boris Yeltsin erupts in the capital. By the time it’s over, army tanks will shell the parliament building (aka “White House”), reducing it to a burned-out husk. And a hung-over Alonzo is right in the middle of it, dodging bullets like everyone else. All this and a Michael Jackson concert!
Blending horror and farce, mashing up Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights Big City and Venedikt Erofeyev’s Moscow to the End of the Line (with a real-life armed insurrection thrown in), Moscow ’93 presents Russia in the first decade after communism through the lens of a sordid expat scene. A scene that, one day, exploded into a war zone.
MOSCOW ‘93
Russia in the 1990s: what better place for 20-something Chicano journalist José Alonzo to make his name? At the opening of a New York-style night club on Red Square, the free libations are flowing, the floor show is raunchy, and all of expat Moscow is wheeling and dealing. But things are never what they seem in this new post-Soviet country striving for freedom, democracy and … whatever — and falling far short. In fact, these party-goers will soon have a life-or-death national crisis blow up in their faces.
Recalling the techniques of Hunter S. Thompson and Oscar Zeta Acosta, Moscow ’93 is a gonzo autofictional account of the author’s experiences before, during and after the 1993 “October events,” when a violent revolt against President Boris Yeltsin erupts in the capital. By the time it’s over, army tanks will shell the parliament building (aka “White House”), reducing it to a burned-out husk. And a hung-over Alonzo is right in the middle of it, dodging bullets like everyone else. All this and a Michael Jackson concert!
Blending horror and farce, mashing up Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights Big City and Venedikt Erofeyev’s Moscow to the End of the Line (with a real-life armed insurrection thrown in), Moscow ’93 presents Russia in the first decade after communism through the lens of a sordid expat scene. A scene that, one day, exploded into a war zone.
José Alaniz, a native of Edinburg, Texas, is a professor at the University of Washington specializing in Slavic languages, literatures, cinema, media, and comics studies. A celebrated author of fiction and comics, his recent works include Puro Pinche True Fictions (2023, FlowerSong Press), The Phantom Zone and Other Stories (2020, Amatl Comix), and The Compleat Moscow Calling (2023, Amatl).