The wild nineties

‘The wild nineties’ (Russian: Лихие девяностые, Likhiye devyanostyye) is a term with a negative evaluative connotation, characterising the period of the transition period after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Russian Federation's formation in the 1990s, with social instability and crime rate growth inherent in the change of state political system.

The term could refer not only to the formation of the Russian Federation, but also to other post-Soviet countries, a time when everything was changing rapidly after the fall of communism.