tonight, jeffrey brown talks to "my perestroika" director robin hessman about children growing up as the soviet union fell apart. >> for every individual, it was a complicated process and still is today. there are many conflicting feelings on the changes and the effects of those changes on their everyday lives. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i mean, where would we be without small businesses? >> we need small businesses. >> they're the ones that help drive growth. >> like electricians, mechanics, carpenters. >> they strengthen our communities. >> every year, chevron spends billions with small businesses. that goes right to the heart of local communities, providing jobs, keeping people at work. they depend on us. >> the economy depends on them. >> and we depend on them. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was mad

the film maker is robin hessman, an american who lived in moscow in the 1990s. welcome to you. hi. >> brown: why did you decide to tell this story this way through real them? what were you after? >> i lived in russia from '91 to i 99 and there were extraordinary changes that were happening everyday. when i moved back to the states at the end of '99 it seemed that despite the fact that the cold war had ended and my impression had been that that entire decade there has been a lot of free- flowing investigation to the states it still seemed that none of my friends back home had really any idea of what it had been like for ordinary people. they had seen the gangsters and oligarchs and destitute people and short news clip bus it seemed that there were no opportunity for them to hear that real voices of the more quote/unquote ordinary people and the people i had lived there with. >> brown: and what did you want people to know about what you experienced and what has happened in russia. >> well, that's ate very complicated thing to make that transition. there's no one sentence conclusi