Volume 38, Number 8 · April 25, 1991
Chaplygin Street Blues
By David Remnick
Alexander Nevzorov is the Soviet empire's video warrior. An ex–movie stuntman, Nevzorov hosts 600 Seconds, an immensely popular program on Leningrad television that features gruesome true-crime stories and propaganda in the service of the Mother-land. Wearing his black leather jacket and trademark sneer, he is equal parts Geraldo Rivera and Leni Riefenstahl. Until recently, 600 Seconds was a semiharmless distraction for hard times, the Soviet equivalent of a few minutes with the New York Post. Now, sadly, it is Nevzorov who has become the televised face of Mikhail Gorbachev's latest allies in the defense of empire: the army and the KGB. As the semioticians might say, he is the sign of the times.
Feature, 3008 words
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