Boris Mikhailov’s Diary is dedicated to the “Blaue Horse,” a group of young people, many from his Ukrainian hometown of Kharkov, who were persecuted and jailed by Soviet authorities at the end of the 1950s for “pornography,” a catchall accusation that could accommodate crimes like loving the Beatles and dancing to rock and roll.

Mikhailov took up photography in the shadow of Soviet-era repression, aware that almost all of his subjects and images would run foul of the party line. In this 900-image magnificent artist book, Mikhailov’s photographs―showing daily life in the USSR in the unblinking style for which the artist is known―are presented without further comment, arranged in an intimate scrapbook style.