Two of the Sakharov Museum's recent exhibits, "Warning: Religion!" and "Forbidden Art -- 2006" upset the Orthodox Church, became the subject of court cases and ultimately, many believe, led to the resignation of the museum's director on Monday.

Although the current exhibit is unlikely to have such lasting effects, its subject, the magazine A-Ya, certainly did.

A-Ya -- which can be translated as A to Z or What about Me? -- was a magazine published in Paris that was devoted to the Soviet Union's "unofficial art." In all, eight issues came out between the years 1979 and 1986, largely through the efforts of Igor Shelkovsky, a Russian sculptor who emigrated in 1976.

Because it was not subject to Soviet censorship, "A-Ya made it possible for many well-known Russian artists to reveal their works to the public for the first time," said Alina Fedorovich, the exhibition's curator.

The magazine was to serve as a sort of historical document, said Igor Golomshtok, an art historian who regularly contributed articles to A-Ya. "Its purpose was to preserve what was happening in unofficial Soviet art at the time."

Sakharov Center Stalin has a pissing match against a bear.

It seems to have accomplished that goal. More than 20 years after the last issue of A-Ya was printed, the magazine has once again brought together those responsible for the "unofficial art" of the '70s and '80s.

Although the approximately 70 artists who appeared in the magazine could not all be featured, Fedorovich said, the walls of the gallery still manage to showcase an entire era, with works by Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, Erik Bulatov, Leonid Sokov, Dmitry Prigov, Vagrik Bakhchanyan and many others on display.

These works include a dollar sign made up of a hammer and sickle, a sunset in which the sun is represented by the Soviet coat of arms, and a pissing match between Stalin and a bear.

Few of the works on display are originals, Fedorovich said. "Shelkovsky had the idea of exhibiting large reproductions of unofficial Soviet art back in '85, but it never worked out. So when we approached him about doing something with A-Ya, he already had a format in mind."

Sakharov Center The exhibit features original works, excerpts from the magazine and documents from Shelkovsky's archive.

In addition to its impressive collection of artwork, the exhibit contains a number of documents that serve to provide some context. "The exhibit can be enjoyed on multiple levels," Fedorovich said. "The visual effect is obviously the most important, but for those who know something about the magazine, we also have some very interesting things to read."

These include excerpts from the magazine itself along with letters and documents from Shelkovsky's archive. One document, for example, contains a list of material that was supposed to arrive from Russia. Only about a quarter of the items are marked in red, signifying that they made it all the way to Paris.

The letters serve to give a voice to some of the artists whose work is displayed around the room. Some offer congratulations on the publication of a new issue or suggest ways of improving the title's font; others express anger at not being published; still others request that they no longer be published.

Letters of the latter sort, some polite, others laced with profanity, show the danger and fear many of these artists lived with. For some of them, it seemed that while Shelkovsky was playing at politics, they were the ones who would end up paying the price.

"It is true that some of the material Shelkovsky included could have been dangerous for those still in Russia, but he did it out of a conviction that he needed to fight the Soviet system," Golomshtok said. "In a sense, it was heroic -- creating the magazine without money and almost alone."

"The A-Z Magazine History" (Istoriya Zhurnala A-Ya) runs to Sept. 11 at the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Center, located at 57 Zemlyanoi Val, Bldg. 6. Metro Kurskaya. Tel. 623-4401/4420.