Annotation: The Mitki art collective is an important and still underexamined page from the turbulent history of Russian non-conformist art in the 1980s. Through their satirical poetry and prose, pop music, films and performances, the Mitki created a dissident and politically polyvalent art comparable to the European avant-garde and American counterculture movements. Without the Mitki, the author argues, there would be no modern Russian protest actionism—a legacy from which have emerged the likes of Pyotr Pavlensky and Pussy Riot. The author of the book relies not only on literature, journalism and art history scholarship, but also on his own extensive interviews with members of the Mitki collective (Dmitry Shagin, Vladimir Shinkarev, Olga and Alexander Florensky, Viktor Tikhomirov and others). His book reveals how the Mitki’s art touches upon the issues of state authoritarianism, militarism and social restrictions, from the Brezhnev era to the present day.