About the book: 2021 / What is gender in an environment where gender identity was hardly articulated? How were sexuality, physicality, marriage, and childbearing and child-rearing reflected in uncensored art? In this book, the history of the Soviet artistic underground is shown for the first time through the prism of gender studies. With the help of this optics, art historian Olesya Avramenko builds new principles for a comparative analysis of the works of Western and Soviet artists, starting with the process of formation of a parallel culture in the USSR, its existence during times of stagnation and ending with its splitting during the years of perestroika. Particular attention in the monograph is paid to the history of Soviet gender policy, its influence on society and art. Avramenko’s research is valuable not only for the depth of its study of the problems posed, but also for its unique material - a series of interviews with participants in the artistic process and its eyewitnesses: Joseph Backstein, Irina Nakhova, Vera Miturich-Khlebnikova, Andrei Monastyrsky, Georgy Kiesewalter and others.