Alexandra Selivanova, Nadezhda Plungian. Surrealism in the Land of the Bolsheviks

  • Year2025
  • LanguageRussian
  • BindingHardcover
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Did surrealism really exist in the USSR of the 1920s to 1940s? Was it a secondary or an independent phenomenon? How can we detect and describe its elements?

Surrealism in the Land of the Bolsheviks is a partly scientific, partly artistic exploration of the subject based on the exhibition of the same name at the Avant-Garde Center and Na Shabolovke Gallery in 2017 (curated by Nadezhda Plungian and Alexandra Selivanova). The exhibition celebrated the 90th anniversary of the OBERIU avant-garde collective, which is often compared to the European surrealist artists. Like the exhibition, the book brings together painting, poetry, and prose to present a picture of surrealist movements and impulses in literary and artistic circles in Moscow and Leningrad. 

The illustrated section features extensive comments on particular works and academic contributions from Irina Karasik, Alexandra Selivanova, Maria Silina, and Nadezhda Plungian covering surrealism in architecture and painting of the 1920s–1940s, the sometimes blurred boundary between surrealism and socialist realism, mysticism, philosophy, museum building, and the surrealist outcomes of Russian symbolism. Many of the works in the book have not been previously published. Like other publications in the series, the book offers a new and comprehensive approach to the history of Soviet art of the early twentieth century and will be of interest to both professionals and the general reader. 

This book is the second publication in the series LISI–TsA (Avant-Garde Center Laboratory for the Study of Soviet Art) by Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, which presents the findings of ten years of research at the Center. Each book focuses on one of its exhibitions and includes research articles, historical texts, archival documents, artworks, and installation views.

Authors

Nadezhda Plungian (b. 1983, Moscow) is an art historian, curator, critic, and writer specializing in Soviet and contemporary art. She is a Candidate of Sciences in Art History and is the author of numerous books and articles. From 2009 to 2019, she was a Senior Research Fellow at the State Institute for Art Studies, and from 2017 to 2021 she edited the Art section of Colta.ru. Since 2007, she has been a member of New Moscow, an independent association of scholars of Soviet art. She was the lead curator of Modernism Without a Manifesto: The Roman Babichev Collection (Moscow Museum of Modern Art, 2017–2018) and the academic editor of the accompanying book series. She curated Wandering Stars: Soviet Jewry in Prewar Art (2021) and co-curated the research exhibitions Surrealism in the Land of the Bolsheviks (2017), Soviet Antiquity (2018), and Beetles and Caterpillars: Insect Culture in the 1920s–1940s (2021) at Shabolovka Gallery. She also co-curated VKhUTEMAS 100: The School of the Avant-Garde (Museum of Moscow, 2020) and co-authored the project The Feminist Pencil (2011, 2013). Since 2019, she has taught in  the School of History at the Higher School of Economics, Moscow. She lives and works in Moscow.


Alexandra Selivanova has a Candidate of Architecture degree and is a curator and the author of books and articles on Soviet architecture and art of the 1920s and 1930s. Since 2023 she has been a researcher at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Exhibitions include: The Avant-Garde and Aviation, Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow (2014); Ladovsky’s Experiment and Agit Trains, Na Shabolovke Gallery, Moscow (2017); Factory of Happy People, Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2018); Meer Aizenshtadt: Toward a Synthesis of the 1930s, Na Shabolovke Gallery, Moscow (2019); and Gastev. How to Work, Na Shabolovke Gallery, Moscow (2019). Together with Nadezhda Plungian she created a series of research-based exhibitions at Na Shabolovke Gallery: Surrealism in the Land of the Bolsheviks (2017), Soviet Antiquity (2018), and Beetles and Caterpillars. Insect Culture, 1920–1940s (2021). Together with Marina Krasnova she created the exhibitions Bulgakov vs. Mayakovsky (2016) and A Universal Response to Note-Takers (2018) for Na Shabolovke Gallery. She made a number of projects at the Museum of Moscow. She was the lead curator of the project VKhUTEMAS 100. The School of the Avant-Garde (2020) and co-curator of the exhibitions Moscow Thaw (with Evgenia Kikodze, 2016), Fabrics of Moscow (with Ksenia Guseva, 2019), and Electrification. The Centenary of the GOELRO Plan (with Katerina Telegina, 2021). Since 2021 she has been a member of the creative community MIR and co-curator of the museum Gasteva, 1 (Suzdal).

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