Criticism of the soviet reality of the post-Stalin period by means of graphic artefacts and audiovisions (from loyalty to the power to recusancy)

This paper explores the attempts of the dissenting Soviet intelligentsia of post-Stalin time to establish the freedom of artistic creativity and democratic dialog between the State and civil society. The author uses as a case study the concepts and artifacts of Lianosovo school of painting, conceptualism, fiction and documentary art house. He deliberately avoids binary opposition in assessing the opposing parties. He calls for the change in intellectual paradigm and rejection of perceiving the Soviet history as a fight between totalitarian and non-totalitarian segments of the society. He asserts that in the future more sophisticated research techniques will be developed, which will stop reducing the picture of social relationship between social and political opponents to repression.