The Manege Affair was an episode when Nikita Khrushchev together with other Party leadership visited an anniversary art exhibition "30 Years of the Moscow Artists' Union" at Moscow Manege on December 1, 1962.
It resulted in Khruschev's angry rant against "filth, decadence and sexual deviations" he saw along with the traditional works of Socialist Realism.
[1] The episode is covered in detail in the book Unofficial Art in the Soviet Union by Paul Sjeklocha and Igor Mead[2] and in other publications.
Speaking to Ely Bielutin, the exhibition host, Khrushchev said:[3] Don't you know how to paint?
That's it, Belyutin, I'm telling you as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers: The Soviet people don't need all this.
Ülo Sooster's widow narrated: "Khrushchev walked around the room, went up to Yulo's blue painting and asked: "What is this?"
"[4]From many memoirs there is an impression that Khrushchev genuinely believed that it was an exhibition of homosexualists (who were criminalized in the Soviet Union).