A History of Eastern Europe is a series of videos that tell a broad history that includes episodes about early Soviet Russia, life during totalitarian regimes, the Cold War, and post-1989 eastern Europe.
The Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection has some watercolor scenes of life in the early Soviet period.
Chechnya: War Without Trace is a documentary that explores the decades of silencing political dissent in the Chechen Republic.
The author, Anthony Marra speaks about the use of humor in dealing with tragic subject matter at Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C. The full book talk can be viewed here.
Brat [Brother] and Brat 2 [Brother 2]: These two films from the late 1990s/early 00’s (’97 and 2000, respectively) have cult classic status as representations of this period in post-Soviet history. The main character is a veteran of the First Chechen War who finds a career as a hitman after returning home. The first film was a surprise commercial hit, and the second is a much more big-budget action affair that takes place in Russia as well as Chicago.
Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich: Perhaps a timely inclusion, since Alexievich was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2015. This is her ethnography of the early post-Soviet period, originally published in 2013 and available in English translation at the Brown University Library.
GULAG: A History by Anne Applebaum: This is a good exploration of the GULAG system and its history, the way the camps were built and run, and what prisoners’ lives were like. Anne Applebaum is a frequent contributor to WaPo, the NY Review of Books, Slate, etc.
Garden of Broken Statues: Exploring Censorship in Russia by Marianna Tax Choldin: Choldin is a librarian and a scholar of Soviet censorship. This book, published last year, is more of a memoir, but it fuses both the contemporary and historical content that The Czar addresses.