Igor, 28, was walking in the center of Ulyanovsk wearing a winter hat with the portrait of Nestor Makhno, a Ukrainian anarchist who fought the Red and White armies during the Russian Civil War.
A journalist for a local pro-government newspaper, Igor said he also owns a shirt with the portrait of Stepan Razin, a Cossack rebel that fought the Tsarist government.
Despite admiring the Anarchists, Igor described his own political views in slightly different terms from anarchism: state control over large enterprises, small business in private hands, freedom of speech, free education and free health care. Igor said he thought Gorbachev had the right idea, but that his reforms weren’t carried out as envisioned.
A self-declared patriot, Igor added he wouldn’t be surprised if Russia – and the US – are broken up in a hundred years time. ”As the saying goes, ‘All great empires eventually fall apart.’ Nothing in this world is forever.”
When not working, Igor said he plays the drums in a band that specializes in medieval music. He and his wife recently bought an 18 sqm room in a dormitory building with the help of a mortgage at an 11% interest rate.
