Photos of a Russian woman who spent years in a psychiatric hospital of the USSR for her activities are found

Some artists do not live long enough to experience the sweetness of recognition. Masha Ivashintsova became one of those who did not know fame during her lifetime. This Russian artist and theater critic was an active participant in the poetic and photographic underground movement of Leningrad in the 1960s and 80s. Masha loved photography, and this type of art has always played an important role in the mysterious and painful life of a woman. Nevertheless, Ivashintsova hid all her pictures in the attic, never showing them even to her relatives. Until this day.

Recently, her daughter Asya Ivashintsova-Melkumyan, sorting through her mother’s things, found an amazing collection of 30 thousand photographs. After studying and developing the films, Asya was shocked by the accuracy and atmosphericity of these photographs depicting the life of her mother and the essence of the everyday existence of people in the Soviet Union.

“Of course, I knew that my mother takes pictures all the time. It was amazing that she never shared her work with anyone, not even her family, - tells Asya about the work of his mother. - She collected her films in the attic and rarely showed them, so no one could appreciate the fruits of her passion. After her death in 2000, these films remained in the attic of our house in Pushkin (St. Petersburg), where she originally kept them ".

The darkest period of Masha’s life took place in a psychiatric hospital of the USSR. There she gradually died, being forced to take drugs. The purpose of the Soviet regime was to "standardize" people in order to make them live according to communist rules. The inhuman system had a huge impact on Masha. This is clearly visible in her works. As her daughter says: "Masha had a difficult relationship with communism. In the end, she was burned by the party and put into the hands of a psychiatric hospital against her own will, because she could never assimilate with the comprehensive, deafening world of socialism.".

Now, after the publication of the works of Masha Ivashintsova, many call her "Russian Vivian Mayer."