Note from the editor:

This book contains highlights from Russian artist Vladimir Arkhipov’s collection of unique artifacts. Objects made by ordinary Russians inspired by a lack of immediate access to manufactured goods during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The archive includes hundreds of objects created with often idiosyncratic functional qualities made for both inside and outside the home, such as a tiny bathtub plug carefully fashioned from a boot heel; a back massager made from an old wooden abacus; a road sign used as a street cleaner’s shovel; and a doormat made from beer bottle tops.

Featuring over 220 individual artifacts of Soviet culture, each accompanied by a photograph of the creator, their story of how the object came about, its function and the materials used to create it.