 Under §18(2) of the Berne Convention, they should have become copyrighted in 1995 because that article only exempted works that once "were" copyrighted, but on which that copyright already had expired, which didn't apply to pre-1973 foreign works in Russia.The reservation made by Russia used a slightly different phrasing, just stating that works that were in the public domain in Russia in 1995 would not be reprotected.As pre-1973 foreign works were not copyrighted at all and thus in the public domain in Russia in 1995, such works remained in the public domain in Russia.