This monograph is dedicated to three Leningrad artists representing the same generation as them in the 20th century: Solomon Gershov, Gavriil Glikman, and Felix Lembersky. By the mid-1960s, the work of these artists—realists by education and conviction—was united by common themes and a language defined here as a unique version of expressionism. Expressionism is not a style or method, but rather an inclination toward the rebellious spirit of freedom engendered by the city on the Neva itself, a sense of anxiety and an overwhelming draught that prevents one from losing oneself in a thorough, 'tasty,' picturesque hedonism; a piercing sense of humanity—humanity—small, absurd, courageous, and heroic. Expressionism is 'the very poetics of art, always remaining an outsider in the larger cultural space, always experiencing its marginality as its own artistic language.' The research focused on extensive collections of artists in St. Petersburg, Munich, and Boston, works from museum collections, and archival sources.