This article describes the results of the pilot stage of qualitative fi eld research on Russian social memory in the second half of the 1980s. The aim of the research was to reveal what is the image of perestroika preserved in today’s social memory of those Russians who remember the events of those years. The main objective of the pilot stage was the identifi cation of the lexicon of terms and the set of concepts used to verbalize the memories of the perestroika period, as well as the caesuras and temporal characteristics related to the memory of this time. The results are outlined in the main topics, terms and concepts that pop up in conversations with respondents.

The article is a case study of human behaviour against the background of political, economic and cultural changes in the 1990s in the countries of the former USSR based on the example of the life of insects depicted by Victor Pelevin. The writer in his book The Life of Insects reduces all human life to the world of insects, constantly trying to find themselves. Pelevin by means of grotesque and allegory, touches upon the issues of human life and the use of culture by the authorities to educate the Soviet people, depriving them of their personal consciousness and independence. The picture presented by the author makes the reader wonder whether people who are deprived of their own consciousness deserve to live?