At least in their early incarnation, these Russian artists prefigured Glasnost in their intelligent, open, creative critiques of the Soviet system. They went from being an underground in the 60s and early 70s to being the talk of Moscow by the late 70s - I guess that any observer with their finger really on the pulse at the time would have understood that if your cultural elite is enjoying art like this, then they really neither believe in it nor respect it anymore.