Yet, despite all of this, there are budding signs that the worst may be over and that Russia may have turned the corner.

"The worst is behind us," said Michael McFaul, analyst for the Hoover Institute. "What we're seeing now is a bottoming out."

The evidence is clear, on everything from re-stocked food markets to soaring stock markets. But perhaps the most inspiring event for most people was the fact that a recent anti-drug concert, which was to feature Russia's top pop stars, was cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

"There's no doubt that the [anti-drug] concert's canceling is a good sign," McFaul said. "It means that Russians are no longer going to subsidize bankrupt messages. The crisis has taught them a valuable lesson: drug use can help numb the population through difficult times."

But the signs of recovery stretch far beyond the pale of pop culture. For well over a month now, the ruble has remained essentially stable at about 16 to the dollar, a remarkable achievement considering the dire prognoses that the ruble would crash to 50 or more. More tellingly, the stock market shot up nearly 60% in October, making it the best performing market in the world. The Moscow Times Index, a leading stock market gauge, rocketed from 185.84 on October 1st to 290 on October 30th. And this may be just the beginning.

The Templeton Fund, the world's largest emerging markets equity funds company, recently added a new Russian equity fund to take advantage of the low prices, while Beth Hebert, director of the Pallada Fund, recently called for Russians who still have money to invest in the market.

"Confidence is returning," said Hebert. "They can look themselves in the mirror and say, 'Hey, you know something? I like me.' And that's when they start to invest."

Charles Blitzer, analyst for Donaldson, Lufkin, agreed. "Russia today is one of the great buying opportunities of the century," said the former World Bank chief, who is presently working on an innovative study on the link between weather cycles and emerging markets. "It's no coincidence that Hurricane Mitch hit the very same week as markets around the world soared. Forget all this empty talk of investors' rights and defaults and the like. What I want to know is, will this really be a cold winter as many Russians are predicting, and how will that affect my clients' portfolios."

Politically, the situation in the country has never been more stable-or democratic.

"For the first time since Communism collapsed, the presidential authority is sharing power with the legislative authority," McFaul said. "This balancing of branches of power is a sign of the maturing of Russia's democracy. The gloom-and-doom school overlooks this small fact."

Everyday life is also improving. Most nightclubs now let girls in for free, while the prices of drinks have fallen in dollar-terms.

"Things are definitely getting cheaper," said Jean MacKenzie, who writes a column from the perspective of a single middle-aged American woman's point of view for the Moscow Times. "Cab rides are a third of what they used to be, while chicken, or 'bush legs,' as they were once called here, are even more affordable. It's still not as cheap as in 1990, but it's getting there."

MacKenzie noted that while her sex life hasn't improved, the crisis has provided her with a wealth of ideas and inspired her to look at Russia through fresh eyes. "For the first time I realized that Russia drives me crazy, yet I'm hopelessly addicted to it," she laughed.

"Russians are definitely happier," said McFaul. "I can just feel it."