‘The only place nudity was tolerated’: stripping off on Soviet beaches – in pictures

Nikolay Bakharev, born in Siberia in the late 1940s during a time of strict artistic regulation, captured intimate snapshots of everyday life at Cheryomushki lake beach in the early 1980s as it emerged from the Soviet Union's collapse. These unguarded images, taken in public spaces where nudity was tolerated, show parents embracing children, couples hugging close together, and friends sipping coffee under sunny skies, offering a rare glimpse into a bygone era of ordinary life.