In 1995, a Russian tabloid ran a story about the video game habits of politicians. The findings were predictable—many professed a fondness for Tetris, one member of parliament was rumoured to play arcades, and most claimed they were far too busy for such frivolities. But the real prize came at the end: an unnamed Kremlin source mentioned that, in his rare spare moments, President Yeltsin liked to play Civilization.
It’s a statement that raises more questions than it answers. Did he play as Russia, or did he prefer to rewrite history as Rome or the Germans? Was he a benevolent builder, ushering in a golden age of culture, or did he discover the joys of the nuclear option? One imagines late-night sessions in the Kremlin, a glass of something strong at hand, as advisors hesitantly knocked on the door: “Mr. President, we have a situation.”
“Yes, yes,” Yeltsin might have muttered. “Just one more turn.”
I couldn’t find the original Komsomolskaya Pravda piece online, but a similar report appeared in Kommersant in 1997, stating—according to confidential sources in the Moscow mayor’s office—that city officials preferred playing Doom over a local network and the more “constructive” Civilization. Most federal officials, on the other hand, claimed they had never touched a computer game, citing two main reasons: a lack of computers and overwhelming workloads that left them with splitting headaches by evening.
Elia Kabanov is a science writer covering the past, present and future of technology (@metkere).
Illustration by Elia Kabanov feat. Midjourney.
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