Surrounded by erotic toys, half a dozen women of all ages sit in a central Moscow basement facing a whiteboard as a sex coach trains them in speaking openly about their sexual desires.
'I finally want to know what it's like to be a satisfied woman, what sexual pleasure is,' one of the 'students', aged 45 and divorced, told AFP.
Barely spoken about publicly in Soviet times and with the Kremlin pushing conservative values in recent years, sex, as a subject, remains largely an unmentionable in Russia.
A view of a pop-up market of erotic accessories in central Moscow as women attend a course to help them speak more openly about their sexual desires
Sex has been a taboo subject in Russia since the days of the USSR and the Kremlin under Vladimir Putin still promotes highly conservative values. The erotic accessories markets aim to tackle that taboo
To help people overcome their shyness in talking about sexual pleasure, sexologist training courses, psychologists and so-called sex coaches are now appearing in Moscow, adding to TV shows and articles in women's magazines.
Viktoria Ekaterina Frank, a psychologist and sexologist, said that her course at the Sex.rf school did not aim to teach sex techniques but rather 'help women understand the psychological barriers ingrained in their heads'.
Many women are 'so embarrassed to talk about sex, they can barely breathe', she said.
Nearly three decades after the end of the USSR, Russian society remains deeply marked by the aura of taboo around the issue of sex in the Soviet Union, according to sociologists.
Sex coach Yelena Rydkina addresses the audience at the pop-up market of erotic accessories in Russia's capital on February 10
Sex coach Yelena Rydkina said that after an initial 'crazy boom in interest' in sex after the collapse of the USSR, people turned away after it all suddenly it became too much
Soviet authorities primarily promoted the idea that 'the sexual act should serve only for reproduction,' sociologist Yelena Kochkina told AFP.
'This means that sexuality was not talked about in the family or at school,' she said.
A TV interview from the beginning of the Perestroika era immortalised the Soviet prudish and practical attitude to sex, even if it was far from true in practice.
During a 1986 talk show broadcast in the United States and the USSR, an American woman asked a Soviet woman if there was sex in adverts in the Soviet Union.
'There is no sex back home, we are categorically against it,' the Russian replied, in an exchange that has become a part of popular culture.
People browse items on display at one of Moscow's pop-up markets for erotic accessories
Sex coach Yelena Rydkina says she is worried that over the last decade politics has moved away from open sexuality and propagates traditional family values
Russian authorities are increasing their control over the media and internet, often blocking content they disapprove of
Although it was off limits in public discourse in the Soviet era, everyone was having sex and 'maybe even too much', said Dmitry Rogozin, a sociology professor at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Abortion at the time was often used as contraception due to the pill and
