Part I Written discourse -- Function of the Soviet experience in post-Soviet discourse / Maria Litovskaya -- Cycles, continuity and change in contemporary Russian culture / Mark Lipovetsky -- Victor Pelevin and the void / Meghan Vicks -- From homo zapiens o media sapiens : post-Soviet television in Russian fiction / Andrei Rogatchevski -- Part II Visual and popular culture -- Afrika and Monroe : post-Soviet appropriation, East and West / Amy Bryzgel -- Military dandyism, cosmism and Eurasian imper-art / Maria Engström -- Sweet dreams : retro imagery on chocolate packaging in post-Soviet Russia / Bettina Jungen -- Victory day : rituals and practices of war commemoration in Russia / Nataliya Danilova -- Part III Cinematic culture -- A kiss for the KGB : Putin as cinematic hero / Stephen M. Norris -- "Address your questions to Dostoevsky" : privatizing punishment in Russian cinema / Serguei Alex. Oushakine -- Freedom and uncertainty : the cinema of Slava Tsukerman / Peter Rollberg -- Muratova's cinema before and after perestroika : deconstructing and rebuilding film aesthetics / Eugénie Zvonkine -- Place of action must not be changed : Aleksei Balabanov's St Petersburg / Birgit Beumers