Foreword by V. Pribilovskiy
Moscow, Europe Publishing House, 2006, pp 344

This book belongs to the testimony genre. Non-formal organizations (not to be confused with human rights groups) at first were candid in their aspirations for «correct» socialism, yet later, with equal sincerity, reconstructing ideologies from old books, some of them were attracted by anarcho-syndicalism, others by the constitutional democrat line, or something else.

Members of non-formal organizations played an important role in the tumultuous days of the late perestroika, when they took to the streets and secured success of mass actions. Their older comrades efficiently exploited the energy of the rapt youth, and later with equal efficiency moved them aside, taking over key positions in the Interregional Group of the almost forgotten Congress of People’s Deputies. The author found himself in the midst of the short-lived movement of non-formal idealists in the late 1980s – early 1990s and has lived through all stages of that movement.