Ezra's Bookshelf

Muppets in Moscow

by Natasha Lance Rogoff · 303 pages · ~5.5 hrs

Society & CultureForeign PolicyMedia & Journalism

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Natasha Lance Rogoff led the team that brought Sesame Street to Russia in the 1990s, creating a local version called Ulitsa Sezam. Her memoir recounts the challenges of producing educational television in a society undergoing chaotic transformation. The practical obstacles were immense: securing funding, building studios, training producers who had worked under Soviet censorship. But the cultural challenges were deeper: adapting American educational methods to Russian traditions, navigating between reformers and nostalgists, and understanding a society where trust had been systematically destroyed by decades of official lies. Rogoff captures the hope of the immediate post-Soviet years, when it seemed Russia might integrate with the West, and the gradual disillusionment as corruption spread and authoritarianism returned. The show's history mirrors Russia's trajectory: Ulitsa Sezam succeeded artistically but eventually closed as the political climate made Western partnership untenable. For readers interested in Russia, media, or cultural diplomacy, the book offers ground-level insight into a pivotal historical moment.

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