Unlike numerous critical texts that question the ethical andinstitutional characteristics of Ilya Khrzhanovsky’sDauproject, in this paper I explorethe project’s genesis as acultural and ideological phenomenon. I reveal the project’s bondswith its cultural predecessors, such as Anatoly Vasiliev, BorisYukhananov, Yuri Mamleev, Vladimir Martynov,and Vladimir Sorokin. I research not only the study of Soviettotalitarianism inDau(which the project meticulously reenacts)but also the genealogy of dissident and postsocialistnon-conformist cultural codes, which,despite their critique of totalitarianism,often fall into the trap of reproducing those totalitarian features.Mapping artistic devices used inDau,the paper then focuses at length on the issues of power distribution in the organization of performative process enactedby the project’s participants.