The "thaw" era ended quickly, when in 1962, Khrushchev attended the public Manezh exhibition at which several nonconformist artists were exhibiting.

Furthermore, participation in these groups was fluid as the community of nonconformist artists in Moscow was relatively small and close-knit.

In an attempt to circumvent the law, the Lianozovo group proposed an open air exhibition in 1974, inviting dozens of other nonconformist artists also to exhibit.

And many nonconformist artists evidently have yet to figure out what it means, in a sense, to be conformist.

The story of a Maryland economics professor who amassed the world's largest collection of artworks by nonconformist Soviet artists.

Not long ago, the government regularly made displays of driving nonconformist artists into foreign and Siberian exile for offending the standards of Soviet realism.

She was a nonconformist artist, playing also male or grotesque characters.

Equally familiar is the work of Lew Nussberg, a nonconformist Soviet artist who emigrated in 1976.

All were nonconformist Russian artists under Communist rule, from the aftermath of Stalin's death in 1953 into the era of glasnost in the late 80's.

Unique to this museum is its exhibit of 'nonconformist' artists from the 1950s and '60s - those whose work was not acceptable to the Soviet regime.