In 1973, he moved to Moscow and within a year was part of a group of artists who used a wooden fence as an exhibition until authorities knocked it down.

During the 1980s, his vigorous artwork was featured on U.S. television news, yet he was not allowed to show his work in official galleries or museums.

He and his wife, Galina Gerasimova, staged periodic hunger strikes, and on 22 October 1987 they chained themselves to a tree outside the gate of the U.S. Embassy.

In 1989, Mr. Zhdanov settled in Washington, where he made haunting, sometimes grotesque, paintings and built a reputation as a serious artist and an often-drunk bohemian.

His favorite hangout was Madam's Organ Blues Bar in Adams Morgan, Washington, D.C. As an artist, Mr. Zhdanov adopted an expressionistic style to depict the stark landscapes he knew during his youth in the southern part of the Soviet Union and Siberia.