In recent years, there has been a growing number of artistic ventures about the lives of LGBTQ+ people in Russia. One of them is the art project PASHA. Though he doesn’t reveal his real name or the details of his biography, the artist behind the project regularly publishes new works on Instagram under the handle @go_pasha_go. The account’s bio describes the author as an “Anonymous Artist. Born gay in the Soviet Union, living gay in Russia.” And his works range from collages of Soviet politicians and Disney characters alongside homophobic slurs, to anonymized self-portraits, and a combination “LGBT USSR” flag. Meduza sits down with the author of the art project PASHA to find out the story behind these works. “I had the idea of making works about gay themes a long time ago. But I only made up my mind last year. Before that it was scary, and it was impossible to collect [my] scattered thoughts and ideas into something whole,” the author behind PASHA says to Meduza, when asked how the art project began.