What you describe sounds like 1918, not 1998.
Didn’t know that western Russia was still that backward.
I was deployed to Uzbekistan in 2004. Along the road to Samarkand we saw villages, power lines, tractors, and houses with electricity. More trucks on the road than cars. Even schools, factories and farmers’ markets. Yet Central Asia was said to be much poorer than Russia proper.
I couldn’t believe it, either.
But that’s what we saw.
St. Petersburg and Moscow, however, were somewhat modern. No skyscrapers in 1998. The tallest building in Moscow in 1998 was the Moscow State University building with 36 floors.
The apartment we stayed at in Moscow was tiny. The elevator was so small, we could only fit one person and the luggage in it. The rest of us used the stairs, which were pretty much single-file.
There was no concept of zoning. The same street had the apartment complex, a factory, a school, and an electric power plant.
The hot water only ran twice a day: from 7 to 10 AM and from 7 to 10 PM. The toilet was what I like to call, a “presentation toilet”. It had a curious shelf above the water line where your “deposits” would land.
When I discovered that our driver had a masters degree in physics, I asked why he wasn’t working as an engineer. He responded, “As an engineer, I would make the equivalent of thirty dollars per month in roubles. As your driver, I make fifteen dollars American per hour.” He shared with me a little Russian motto. “They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work.”
However, the 7 story subterraenean shopping mall and subway station complex under Red Square was thoroughly modern, complete with big name American and European chain stores and a massive food court.