Browse Items (158 total)

“Under the Banner of Lenin - Socialist Construction” is a photomontage poster created by Gustav Klutsis in 1930. It is an artifact of the Soviet propaganda campaign to shift the mindset of every Russian citizen through art. Klutsis’s posters are…

This advertisement is at once bizarre and telling of Russian advertisements as we have experienced them throughout the course. While it begins with a young boy screaming at a poster in his room, it transforms into a cheerful family endeavor to…

The image here is an illustration for an article detailing the memoir published by the former head of IKEA’s Russian Operations, Lennart Dahlgren. Originally from Sweden, Ms. Dalhgren was tasked with the entry of the company into the Russian market…

The items for sale in this photo are ones that portray an easy, affluent lifestyle – the garden chair, popsicle stick molds, fake fruit trees, glass Tupperware containers. The items are featured in bright colors and shining plastic and metals, signs…

Both hilarious and ambiguous, this music video features a cast of assumed IKEA employees who dance to the tune “Party Rock Anthem” composed by the popular American electronic dance music duo, LMFAO. Dressed as a head of broccoli, orange moose, teddy…

Featuring the bold statement, “Welcome to the New Russia,” this cartoon illustration depicts the imagined skyscrapers (in tandem with the ever-present spires of Saint Basil’s Cathedral) in Moscow’s Khimki Park region where IKEA Russia has recently…

This image portrays a somewhat romantic ideal of one of IKEA’s parking lots outside of a megastore as it sits lit up at night, a bright beacon of commerce. Reading more closely, the focus of the image on a parking lot in the first place suggests that…

A fascinating illustration, the clearly photoshopped image here depicts the iconic “IKEA” logo in the Cyrillic alphabet (as it is used in Russia) supporting the spires and domes of the famous Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. It is important to note…

With an economic value that far outweighs its relatively small physical characteristics and unassuming appearance, caviar is an item whose collection, consumption, and commodification has given it one of great historical, cultural, and geopolitical…

This chart shows the yields (on an annually adjusted basis) of Russian short-term, ruble-denominated bonds, called GKO's. During the mid-90s, foreign investors poured money into GKO's driving yields down from over 100% in 1995 to as low as 17.2% in…

This is a graph of the nominal ruble exchange rate over time. The ruble starts at the strongest level and depreciates over time. When the ruble was first allowed to float in 1998, it depreciated by 75% before stabilizing. The ruble depreciated again…

This chart shows the yield of the 10 year ruble denominated bond. The yield on this bond spiked during periods of uncertainty such as 1998 and 2008 and declined in periods of optimism. The yield was particularly low between 2003-2008.