"Surrealism in the Land of the Bolsheviks" is a scientific and artistic reflection on these issues. It is based on the exhibition "Surrealism in the Land of the Bolsheviks" (Avant-garde Center and the "Na Shabolovke" Gallery, curators Nadezhda Plungyan and Alexandra Selivanova, 2017). The exhibition was dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the OBERIU group, whose closeness to the surrealists is often noted by researchers. As in the exhibition, painting, poetry and prose are intertwined in the book, creating an idea of ​​surrealist movements or impulses in the literary and artistic environments of Moscow and Leningrad.

The album section with extensive commentary on individual works is supplemented by scientific articles by Irina Karasik, Alexandra Selivanova, Maria Silina and Nadezhda Plungyan. They talk about surrealism in architecture and painting of the 1920s–1940s, about the sometimes shaky border between surrealism and socialist realism, about mysticism, philosophy, museum construction and surrealist conclusions from Russian symbolism. A significant part of the works is published for the first time. Like other publications of the LISI_CA series, the book offers a new comprehensive approach to the history of Soviet art of the first half of the 20th century and is addressed to both specialists and a wide range of readers.

The book is the second part of the series "Laboratory for the Study of Soviet Art of the Avant-Garde Center (LISI_CA)", launched by the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. The series is designed to collect and present the results of more than ten years of work by the Center. Each book is dedicated to one of the exhibitions and includes a body of scientific articles, historical texts and archival documents, works of art, as well as photographs of the exhibition.