On December 25, 1991, at 7:35 p.m., soldiers lowered the Soviet Empire’s red hammer-and-sickle flag flying over the Kremlin and raised the Russian national tricolor. The abrupt collapse of Soviet communism gave rise to a decade of glittering opportunity, poignant suffering, and brutal upheaval. Gerd Ludwig’s photographic presentation, “Russia – The Wild, Wild East”, shows the Soviet society's warp-speed transformation to Wild West Capitalism, and is being presented as part of the George Eastman House lecture series, "Wish You Were Here", at the Dryden Theatre in Rochester, N.Y. on November 2, 2006. For additional information: http://www.eastmanhouse.org/inc/programs_events/lectures.php