I guess that I should have initially specified the nation in question to be America in reference to, like were there giant parties all around the states.
My bad for the post wording and it is very informative to know regarding internal affairs of the USSR at time of collapse. Gives an idea over the motivation for Putin being an asshole to America.
In the USA? Nope, no giant parties. I think a lot of us were mostly holding our breath, as the news seemed almost too good to be true that the USSR was finally falling -- there was also fear, though. The actual collapse of the Soviet government was a very touch and go situation for a while, and it looked like there was a chance that a military junta would end up taking over and preventing the Cold War from finally fucking ending (
Gorbachev's decision was controversial, to say the least). Plus, there was the whole worry about some psycho die hard (not Gorbachev) either deliberately launching nukes to go out in a blaze of glory rather than letting things end, or, more likely, that there could be an accidental launch. I was glued to every news source that had any legit coverage when this went down in 1991-1992, until things finally resolved. After that, I remember feeling a lot like I did when I watched the Berlin Wall come down -- amazed, excited, and hopeful. I thought we'd do a repeat of the Marshall Plan for Eastern Europe, and we'd have Eastern Eurobros to go with our Nipponbros. Was sad how things actually ended up playing out, I wish that whole decade had gone differently, geopolitically.
As for the Russian side, a friend of mine from Moscow said the chaos and danger were, of course, frightening -- both from the violence during the attempted coup, and the surge in crime from the burgeoning organized crime syndicates afterwards, but it was also exciting and hopeful. The old, frozen order was gone, and for a while there, it seemed like possibilities were endless, good as well as bad. Him and his friends nicknamed it the "Crazy 90s" or the "Wild 90s". If you want a taste of pop culture from the region that captures some of the spirit, look for Russian
chanson music from the 80s and 90s. To my friend, it was where a lot of the vibe of the era was captured the most strongly.
EDIT -- Also, if you can find a copy, check out a Russian TV show from the era called "
Brigada". It's pretty good, and it was another time capsule of the period he recommended to me.
