The article deals with the activity of the so-called Leningrad “Philological School” or “Mikhail Krasilnikov’s circle”, a company of poets formed in the mid-1950’s and including eminent names such as Lev Loseff, Vladimir Uflyand, Mikhail Eremin, Aleksandr Kondratov and others. United above all by friendship and characterised by several stylistic differences, these poets are nowadays recognized as one of the first and most meaningful expressions of the Soviet underground. The neo-avantgarde aesthetic of many of them, in which public demonstrative gestures can be included as well, establishes a link to the Russian and Western tradition of the first half of the century and represents at the same time a groundbreaking assertion of artistic freedom.