Library Tutorials
Skip to main content
close
Font size options
Increase or decrease the font size for this website by clicking on the 'A's.
Contrast options
Choose a color combination to give the most comfortable contrast.

In the world of post-Soviet media piracy and fan-based localization, few names are as infamous—or as shrouded in mystery—as Aleksandr Novikov . He is most closely associated with a specific type of ozvuchka (amateur dubbing or voice-over) that dominated the Russian-language bootleg video market of the 1990s and early 2000s. Who is Aleksandr Novikov? Unlike professional dubbing actors, Novikov emerged from the underground "pirate" video era. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the demand for foreign films (Hollywood blockbusters, European art-house cinema, Asian action films) exploded, but official distribution and dubbing studios did not exist at scale. Enter the perevodchiki (translators) and zvukovichi (sound engineers) operating out of apartment studios.