The bars that remained, hidden away from public view, were dingy dens of sorrow frequented by hardcore drinkers eager to escape the troubles of everyday life with little care for their surroundings.

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Vitaly Korotich is former editor of Ogonyok, or Little Flame, magazine, which helped revolutionize Russian journalism in the 1980s by printing articles about the grim realities of everyday existence under communism.

NPR: Russia Under Putin: Echoes of the Soviet Era