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Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Socialist realism is characterized by the depiction of communist values, such as the emancipation of the proletariat. Despite its name, the figures in the style are very often highly idealized, especially in sculpture, where it often leans heavily on the conventions of classical sculpture. Although related, it should not be confused with
social realism Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...
, a type of art that realistically depicts subjects of social concern, or other forms of "realism" in the visual arts. Socialist realism was made with an extremely literal and obvious meaning, usually showing an idealized
USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
. Socialist realism was usually devoid of complex artistic meaning or interpretation. Socialist realism was the predominant form of approved art in the Soviet Union from its development in the early 1920s to its eventual fall from official status beginning in the late 1960s until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. While other countries have employed a prescribed canon of art, socialist realism in the Soviet Union persisted longer and was more restrictive than elsewhere in Europe.


History


Development

Socialist realism was developed by many thousands of artists, across a diverse society, over several decades.Ellis, Andrew. ''Socialist Realisms: Soviet Painting 1920–1970''. Skira Editore S.p.A., 2012, p. 17 Early examples of realism in Russian art include the work of the
Peredvizhniki Peredvizhniki ( rus, Передви́жники, , pʲɪrʲɪˈdvʲiʐnʲɪkʲɪ), often called The Wanderers or The Itinerants in English, were a group of Russian realist artists who formed an artists' cooperative in protest of academic restr ...
s and
Ilya Yefimovich Repin Ilya Yefimovich Repin (russian: Илья Ефимович Репин, translit=Il'ya Yefimovich Repin, p=ˈrʲepʲɪn); fi, Ilja Jefimovitš Repin ( – 29 September 1930) was a Russian painter, born in what is now Ukraine. He became one of the ...
. While these works do not have the same political connotation, they exhibit the techniques exercised by their successors. After the
Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
took control of Russia on October 25, 1917, there was a marked shift in artistic styles. There had been a short period of artistic exploration in the time between the fall of the
Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...
and the rise of the Bolsheviks. Shortly after the Bolsheviks took control,
Anatoly Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (russian: Анато́лий Васи́льевич Лунача́рский) (born Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov, – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People ...
was appointed as head of
Narkompros The People's Commissariat for Education (or Narkompros; russian: Народный комиссариат просвещения, Наркомпрос, directly translated as the "People's Commissariat for Enlightenment") was the Soviet agency charg ...
, the People's Commissariat for Enlightenment. This put Lunacharsky in the position of deciding the direction of art in the newly created Soviet state. Although Lunacharsky did not dictate a single aesthetic model for Soviet artists to follow, he developed a system of aesthetics based on the human body that would later help to influence socialist realism. He believed that "the sight of a healthy body, intelligent face or friendly smile was essentially life-enhancing."Ellis, Andrew. ''Socialist Realisms: Soviet Painting 1920–1970''. Skira Editore S.p.A., 2012, p. 21 He concluded that art had a direct effect on the human organism and under the right circumstances that effect could be positive. By depicting "the perfect person" (
New Soviet man The New Soviet man or New Soviet person (russian: новый советский человек ''novy sovetsky chelovek''), as postulated by the ideologists of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was an archetype of a person with specific ...
), Lunacharsky believed art could educate citizens on how to be the perfect Soviets.


Debate within Soviet art

There were two main groups debating the fate of Soviet art: futurists and traditionalists.
Russian Futurists Russian Futurism is the broad term for a movement of Russian poets and artists who adopted the principles of Filippo Marinetti's "Manifesto of Futurism," which espoused the rejection of the past, and a celebration of speed, machinery, violence, ...
, many of whom had been creating abstract or leftist art before the Bolsheviks, believed communism required a complete rupture from the past and, therefore, so did Soviet art. Traditionalists believed in the importance of realistic representations of everyday life. Under
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
's rule and the
New Economic Policy The New Economic Policy (NEP) () was an economic policy of the Soviet Union proposed by Vladimir Lenin in 1921 as a temporary expedient. Lenin characterized the NEP in 1922 as an economic system that would include "a free market and capitalism, ...
, there was a certain amount of private commercial enterprise, allowing both the futurists and the traditionalists to produce their art for individuals with capital.Ellis, Andrew. ''Socialist Realisms: Soviet Painting 1920–1970''. Skira Editore S.p.A., 2012, p. 22 By 1928, the Soviet government had enough strength and authority to end private enterprises, thus ending support for fringe groups such as the futurists. At this point, although the term "socialist realism" was not being used, its defining characteristics became the norm. According to the Great Russian Encyclopedia, the term was first used in press by chairman of the organizing committee of the
Union of Soviet Writers The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers (russian: Союз писателей СССР, translit=Soyuz Sovetstikh Pisatelei) was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded ...
, Ivan Gronsky in ''Literaturnaya'' ''Gazeta'' on May 23, 1932. The term was approved upon in meetings that included politicians of the highest level, including
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
.Ellis, Andrew. ''Socialist Realisms: Soviet Painting 1920–1970''. Skira Editore S.p.A., 2012, p. 37
Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в;  – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...
, a proponent of literary socialist realism, published a famous article titled "Socialist Realism" in 1933. During the Congress of 1934, four guidelines were laid out for socialist realism. The work must be: # Proletarian: art relevant to the workers and understandable to them. # Typical: scenes of everyday life of the people. # Realistic: in the representational sense. # Partisan: supportive of the aims of the State and the Party.


Characteristics

The purpose of socialist realism was to limit popular culture to a specific, highly regulated faction of emotional expression that promoted Soviet ideals.Nelson, Cary and Lawrence, Grossberg. ''Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture''. University of Illinois Press, 1988, p. 5 The party was of the utmost importance and was always to be favorably featured. The key concepts that developed assured loyalty to the party were '' partiinost''' (party-mindedness), ''ideinost'' (idea- or ideological-content), ''klassovost'' (class content), ''pravdivost'' (truthfulness).Ellis, Andrew. ''Socialist Realisms: Soviet Painting 1920–1970''. Skira Editore S.p.A., 2012, p. 38 There was a prevailing sense of optimism, as socialist realism's function was to show the ideal Soviet society. Not only was the present glorified, but the future was also supposed to be depicted in an agreeable fashion. Because the present and the future were constantly idealized, socialist realism had a sense of forced optimism. Tragedy and negativity were not permitted, unless they were shown in a different time or place. This sentiment created what would later be dubbed "revolutionary romanticism". Revolutionary romanticism elevated the common worker, whether factory or agricultural, by presenting his life, work, and recreation as admirable. Its purpose was to show how much the standard of living had improved thanks to the revolution. Art was used as educational information. By illustrating the party's success, artists were showing their viewers that sovietism was the best political system. Art was also used to show how Soviet citizens should be acting. The ultimate aim was to create what Lenin called "an entirely new type of human being": The ''
New Soviet Man The New Soviet man or New Soviet person (russian: новый советский человек ''novy sovetsky chelovek''), as postulated by the ideologists of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was an archetype of a person with specific ...
''. Art (especially posters and murals) was a way to instill party values on a massive scale. Stalin described the socialist realist artists as "engineers of souls".Overy, Richard. ''The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia''. W. W. Norton & Company, 2004, p. 354 Common images used in socialist realism were flowers, sunlight, the body, youth, flight, industry, and new technology. These poetic images were used to show the utopianism of communism and the Soviet state. Art became more than an aesthetic pleasure; instead it served a very specific function. Soviet ideals placed functionality and work above all else; therefore, for art to be admired, it must serve a purpose. Georgi Plekhanov, a Marxist theoretician, states that art is useful if it serves society: "There can be no doubt that art acquired a social significance only in so far as it depicts, evokes, or conveys ''actions, emotions and events that are of significance to society''." The themes depicted would feature the beauty of work, the achievements of the collective and the individual for the good of the whole. The artwork would often feature an easily discernible educational message. The artist could not, however, portray life just as they saw it because anything that reflected poorly on Communism had to be omitted. People who could not be shown as either wholly good or wholly evil could not be used as characters. This was reflective of the Soviet idea that morality is simple: things are either right or wrong. This view on morality called for idealism over realism. Art was filled with health and happiness: paintings showed busy industrial and agricultural scenes; sculptures depicted workers, sentries, and schoolchildren. Creativity was not an important part of socialist realism. The styles used in creating art during this period were those that would produce the most realistic results. Painters would depict happy, muscular peasants and workers in factories and collective farms. During the Stalin period, they produced numerous heroic portraits of Stalin to serve his cult of personality—all in the most realistic fashion possible. The most important thing for a socialist realist artist was not artistic integrity but adherence to party doctrine.


Important groups

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines socialist realism as "a Marxist aesthetic theory calling for the didactic use of literature, art, and music to develop social consciousness in an evolving socialist state". Socialist realism compelled artists of all forms to create positive or uplifting reflections of socialist utopian life by utilizing any visual media, such as posters, movies, newspapers, theater and radio, beginning during the Communist Revolution of 1917 and escalating during the reign of Stalin until the early 1980s.
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
, head of the Russian government 1917–1924, laid the foundation for this new wave of art, suggesting that art is for the people and the people should love and understand it, while uniting the masses. Artists
Naum Gabo Naum Gabo, born Naum Neemia Pevsner (23 August 1977) (Hebrew: נחום נחמיה פבזנר), was an influential sculptor, theorist, and key figure in Russia's post-Revolution avant-garde and the subsequent development of twentieth-century scul ...
and
Antoine Pevsner Antoine Pevsner (12 April 1962) was a Russian-born sculptor and the older brother of Alexii Pevsner and Naum Gabo. Both Antoine and Naum are considered pioneers of twentieth-century sculpture. Biography Pevsner was born as Natan Borisovich P ...
attempted to define the lines of art under Lenin by writing "The Realist Manifesto" in 1920, suggesting that artists should be given free rein to create as their muse desired. Lenin, however, had a different purpose for art: wanting it functional, and Stalin built on that belief that art should be agitation. The term ''Socialist Realism'' was proclaimed in 1934 at the Soviet Writer's congress, although it was left not precisely defined. This turned individual artists and their works into state-controlled propaganda. After the death of Stalin in 1953, he was succeeded by
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
who allowed for less draconian state controls and openly condemned Stalin's artistic demands in 1956 with his "
Secret Speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...
", and thus began a reversal in policy known as "
Khrushchev's Thaw The Khrushchev Thaw ( rus, хрущёвская о́ттепель, r=khrushchovskaya ottepel, p=xrʊˈɕːɵfskəjə ˈotʲ:ɪpʲɪlʲ or simply ''ottepel'')William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, London: Free Press, 2004 is the period ...
". He believed that artists should not be constrained and should be allowed to live by their creative talents. In 1964, Khrushchev was removed and replaced by
Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and ...
, who reintroduced Stalin's ideas and reversed the artistic decisions made by Khrushchev. However, by the early 1980s, the Socialist Realist movement had begun to fade. Artists to date remark that the Russian Social Realist movement as the most oppressive and shunned period of Soviet Art.


Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AKhRR)

The Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (
AKhRR The Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (russian: Ассоциация художников революционной России, ''Assotsiatsia Khudozhnikov Revolutsionnoi Rossii'', 1922–1928), later known as Association of Artists ...
) was established in 1922 and was one of the most influential artist groups in the USSR. The AKhRR worked to truthfully document contemporary life in Russia by utilizing "heroic realism". The term "heroic realism" was the beginning of the socialist realism archetype. AKhRR was sponsored by influential government officials such as
Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
and carried favor with the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
. In 1928, the AKhRR was renamed to Association of Artists of the Revolution (AKhR) in order to include the rest of the Soviet states. At this point the group had begun participating in state promoted mass forms of art like murals, jointly-made paintings, advertisement production and textile design.Ellis, Andrew. ''Socialist Realisms: Soviet Painting 1920–1970''. Skira Editore S.p.A., 2012, p. 35 The group was disbanded April 23, 1932 by the decree "On the Reorganization of Literary and Artistic Organizations" serving as the nucleus for the Stalinist USSR Union of Artists.


Studio of military artists named after M. B. Grekov

Studio of military artists was created in 1934.


The Union of Soviet Writers (USW)

The creation of
Union of Soviet Writers The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers (russian: Союз писателей СССР, translit=Soyuz Sovetstikh Pisatelei) was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded ...
was partially initiated by
Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в;  – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...
to unite the Soviet writers of different methods, such as the "proletarian" writers (such as Fyodor Panfyorov), praised by the Communist Party, and the ''poputchicks'' (such as Boris Pasternak and
Andrei Bely Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev ( rus, Бори́с Никола́евич Буга́ев, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ bʊˈɡajɪf, a=Boris Nikolayevich Bugayev.ru.vorb.oga), better known by the pen name Andrei Bely or Biely ( rus, Андр� ...
). In August 1934, the union held its first congress where Gorky said: One of the most famous authors during this time was Alexander Fadeyev. Fadeyev was a close personal friend of Stalin and called Stalin "one of the greatest humanists the world has ever seen." His most famous works include ''The Rout'' and '' The Young Guard''.


Impact

The impact of socialist realist art can still be seen decades after it ceased being the only state-supported style. Even before the end of the
USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
in 1991, the government had been reducing its practices of censorship. After
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
's death in 1953,
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
began to condemn the previous regime's practice of excessive restrictions. This freedom allowed artists to begin experimenting with new techniques, but the shift was not immediate. It was not until the ultimate fall of Soviet rule that artists were no longer restricted by the deposed Communist Party. Many socialist realist tendencies prevailed until the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s.Evangeli, Aleksandr. "Echoes of Socialist Realism in Post-Soviet Art", ''Socialist Realisms: Soviet Painting 1920–1970''. Skira Editore S.p.A., 2012, p. 218 In the 1990s, many Russian artists used the characteristics of socialist realism in an ironic fashion. This was completely different from what existed only a couple of decades before. Once artists broke from the socialist realist mould, there was a significant power shift. Artists began including subjects that could not exist according to Soviet ideals. Now that the power over appearances was taken away from the government, artists achieved a level of authority that had not existed since the early 20th century. In the decade immediately after the fall of the USSR, artists represented socialist realism and the Soviet legacy as a traumatic event. By the next decade, there was a unique sense of detachment. Western cultures often do not look at socialist realism positively. Democratic countries view the art produced during this period of repression as a lie. Non-Marxist art historians tend to view communism as a form of
totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regu ...
that smothers artistic expression and therefore retards the progress of culture. In recent years there has been a reclamation of the movement in Moscow with the addition of the Institute of Russian Realist Art (IRRA), a three-story museum dedicated to preserving 20th-century Russian realist paintings.


Notable works and artists


Music

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artisti ...
composed many workers' songs, marches, and ballads on current political topics such as ''Song of Solidarity'', ''Song of the United Front'', and ''Song of the Comintern''. He was a founder of a new style of revolutionary song for the masses. He also composed works in larger forms such as ''Requiem for Lenin''. Eisler's most important works include the cantatas ''German Symphony'', ''Serenade of the Age'' and ''Song of Peace''. Eisler combines features of revolutionary songs with varied expression. His symphonic music is known for its complex and subtle orchestration. Closely associated with the rise of the labor movement was the development of the
revolutionary song Revolutionary songs are political songs that advocate or praise revolutions. They are used to boost morale, as well as for political propaganda or agitation. Amongst the most well-known revolutionary songs are "La Marseillaise" and "The Internatio ...
, which was performed at demonstrations and meetings. Among the most famous of the revolutionary songs are ''
The Internationale "The Internationale" (french: "L'Internationale", italic=no, ) is an international anthem used by various communist and socialist groups; currently, it serves as the official anthem of the Communist Party of China. It has been a standard of t ...
'' and ''
Whirlwinds of Danger Whirlwinds of Danger (original Polish title: Warszawianka) is a Polish socialist revolutionary song written some time between 1879 and 1883. The Polish title, a deliberate reference to the earlier song by the same title, could be translated a ...
''. Notable songs from Russia include ''Boldly, Comrades, in Step'', ''Workers' Marseillaise'', and ''Rage, Tyrants''. Folk and revolutionary songs influenced the Soviet mass songs. The mass song was a leading genre in Soviet music, especially during the 1930s and the war. The mass song influenced other genres, including the art song, opera, and film music. The most popular mass songs include Dunaevsky's ''Song of the Homeland'', Isaakovsky's '' Katiusha'', Novikov's ''Hymn of Democratic Youth of the World'', and Aleksandrov's '' Sacred War''.


Film

In the early 1930s, Soviet filmmakers applied socialist realism in their work. Notable films include ''Chapaev'', which shows the role of the people in the history-making process. The theme of revolutionary history was developed in films such as '' The Youth of Maxim'' by Grigori Kozintsev and
Leonid Trauberg Leonid Zakharovich Trauberg (russian: Леонид Захарович Трауберг, 17 January 1902 – 14 November 1990) was a Ukrainian Soviet film director and screenwriter. He directed 17 films between 1924 and 1961 and was awarded the S ...
, '' Shchors'' by Dovzhenko, and ''We are from Kronstadt'' by E. Dzigan. The shaping of the new man under socialism was a theme of films such as ''A Start Life'' by N. Ekk, ''Ivan'' by Dovzhenko, ''Valerii Chkalov'' by M. Kalatozov and the film version of ''Tanker "Derbent"'' (1941). Some films depicted the part of peoples of the Soviet Union against foreign invaders: '' Alexander Nevsky'' by Eisenstein, ''Minin and Pozharsky'' by Pudovkin, and ''Bogdan Khmelnitsky'' by Savchenko. Soviet politicians were the subjects in films such as Yutkevich's trilogy of movies about Lenin. Socialist realism was also applied to
Hindi films Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
of the 1940s and 1950s. These include Chetan Anand's ''
Neecha Nagar ''Neecha Nagar'' () is a 1946 Indian Hindi-language film, directed by Chetan Anand, written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and Hayatullah Ansari, and produced by Rashid Anwar and A.Halim. It was a pioneering effort in social realism in Indian cinema a ...
'' (1946), which won the Grand Prize at the 1st Cannes Film Festival, and
Bimal Roy Bimal Roy (12 July 1909 – 8 January 1966) was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such as '' Do Bigha Zamin'', '' Parineeta'', '' Biraj Bahu'', ''Devdas'', ''Madhumati'', '' Sujata'', '' ...
's '' Two Acres of Land'' (1953), which won the International Prize at the 7th Cannes Film Festival.


Paintings

The painter Aleksandr Deineka provides a notable example for his expressionist and patriotic scenes of the Second World War, collective farms, and sports. Yuriy Pimenov,
Boris Ioganson Boris Vladimirovich Ioganson (russian: Борис Владимирович Иогансон, – 25 February 1973) also commonly known as B. V. Johanson, was a Russian and Soviet painter and educator. Biography Ioganson was born on in Mosco ...
and Geli Korzev have also been described as "unappreciated masters of twentieth-century realism". Another well-known practitioner was Fyodor Pavlovich Reshetnikov. Socialist realist art found acceptance in the Baltic nations, inspiring many artists. One such artist was Czeslaw Znamierowski (23 May 1890 – 9 August 1977), a
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
Lithuanian painter, known for his large panoramic landscapes and love of nature. Znamierowski combined these two passions to create very notable paintings in the Soviet Union, earning the prestigious title of Honorable Artist of LSSR in 1965. Born in Latvia, which formed part of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
at the time, Znamierowski was of Polish descent and Lithuanian citizenship, a country where he lived for most of his life and died. He excelled in landscapes and social realism, and held many exhibitions. Znamierowski was also widely published in national newspapers, magazines and books. His more notable paintings include ''Before Rain'' (1930), ''Panorama of Vilnius City'' (1950), ''The Green Lake'' (1955), and ''In Klaipeda Fishing Port'' (1959). A large collection of his art is located in the Lithuanian Art Museum.


Literature

Martin Andersen Nexø developed socialist realism in his own way. His creative method featured a combination of publicistic passion, a critical view of capitalist society, and a steadfast striving to bring reality into accord with socialist ideals. The novel ''Pelle, the Conqueror'' is considered to be a classic of socialist realism. The novel ''Ditte, Daughter of Man'' had a working-class woman as its heroine. He battled against the enemies of socialism in the books ''Two Worlds'', and ''Hands Off!''. The novels of Louis Aragon, such as ''The Real World'', depict the working class as a rising force of the nation. He published two books of documentary prose, ''The Communist Man''. In the collection of poems ''A Knife in the Heart Again'', Aragon criticizes the penetration of
American imperialism American imperialism refers to the expansion of American political, economic, cultural, and media influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright military conques ...
into Europe. The novel ''The Holy Week'' depicts the artist's path toward the people against a broad social and historical background.
Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в;  – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...
's novel ''
Mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...
'' (1906) is usually considered to have been the first socialist-realist novel. Gorky was also a major factor in the school's rapid rise, and his pamphlet, ''On Socialist Realism'', essentially lays out the needs of Soviet art. Other important works of literature include Fyodor Gladkov's ''
Cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...
'' (1925),
Nikolai Ostrovsky Nikolai Alexeevich Ostrovsky (russian: Никола́й Алексе́евич Остро́вский; uk, Мико́ла Олексі́йович Остро́вський; 29 September 1904 – 22 December 1936) was a Soviet socialist realist w ...
's ''
How the Steel Was Tempered ''How the Steel Was Tempered'' (russian: Как закалялась сталь, ''Kak zakalyalas' stal) or ''The Making of a Hero'', is a socialist realist novel written by Nikolai Ostrovsky (1904–1936). With 36.4 million copies sold, it is ...
'' (1936) and Aleksey Tolstoy's epic trilogy '' The Road to Calvary'' (1922–1941). Yury Krymov's novel ''Tanker "Derbent"'' (1938) portrays Soviet merchant seafarers being transformed by the
Stakhanovite movement The term Stakhanovite () originated in the Soviet Union and referred to workers who modeled themselves after Alexey Stakhanov. These workers took pride in their ability to produce more than was required, by working harder and more efficiently, thu ...
. ''Thol'', a novel by D. Selvaraj in Tamil is a standing example of Marxist Realism in India. It won a literary award ( Sahithya Akademi) for the year 2012.


Sculptures

Sculptor Fritz Cremer created a series of monuments commemorating the victims of the
National Socialist Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
regime in the former concentration camps Auschwitz,
Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or sus ...
, Mauthausen and Ravensbrück. His bronze monument in Buchenwald, depicting the liberation of this concentration camp by detainees in April 1945, is considered one of the most striking examples of socialist realism in GDR sculpture for its representation of communist liberation. Each figure in the monument, erected outside the campsite, has symbolic significance according to the orthodox communist interpretation of the event. Thus communists were portrayed as the driving force behind self-liberation, symbolized by a figure in the foreground sacrificing himself for his sufferers, followed by the central group of determined comrades through whose courage and fearlessness is encouraged. The German Democratic Republic used these sculptures to reaffirm its claim to the historical and political legacy of the anti-fascist struggle for freedom. Bruno Apitz's novel '' Nackt unter Wölfen'', a story that culminates in the vivid description of the self-liberation of the detainees, was deliberately chosen to take place on the same day as the formal opening of the Buchenwald Monument in September 1958.


Soviet Union

In conjunction with the Socialist Classical style of architecture, socialist realism was the officially approved type of art in the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
for more than fifty years. All material goods and means of production belonged to the community as a whole; this included means of producing art, which were also seen as powerful propaganda tools. In the early years of the Soviet Union, Russian and Soviet artists embraced a wide variety of art forms under the auspices of Proletkult. Revolutionary politics and radical non-traditional art forms were seen as complementary. In art,
Constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
flourished. In poetry, the non-traditional and the
avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
were often praised. These styles of art were later rejected by members of the Communist Party who did not appreciate modern styles such as
Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
and Cubism. Socialist realism was, to some extent, a reaction against the adoption of these "decadent" styles. It was thought by Lenin that the non-representative forms of art were not understood by the proletariat and could therefore not be used by the state for propaganda. Alexander Bogdanov argued that the radical reformation of society to communist principles meant little if any bourgeois art would prove useful; some of his more radical followers advocated the destruction of libraries and museums. Lenin rejected this philosophy, deplored the rejection of the beautiful because it was old, and explicitly described art as needing to call on its heritage: "
Proletarian culture Working-class culture is a range of cultures created by or popular among working-class people. The cultures can be contrasted with high culture and folk culture, and are often equated with popular culture and low culture (the counterpart of high ...
must be the logical development of the store of knowledge mankind has accumulated under the yoke of capitalist, landowner, and bureaucratic society." Modern art styles appeared to refuse to draw upon this heritage, thus clashing with the long realist tradition in Russia and rendering the art scene complex. Even in Lenin's time, a cultural bureaucracy began to restrain art to fit propaganda purposes.
Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
's arguments that a " proletarian literature" was un-Marxist because the proletariat would lose its class characteristics in the transition to a classless society, however, did not prevail. Socialist realism became state policy in 1934 when the First Congress of Soviet Writers met and Stalin's representative
Andrei Zhdanov Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov ( rus, Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Жда́нов, p=ɐnˈdrej ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈʐdanəf, links=yes; – 31 August 1948) was a Soviet politician and cultural ideologist. After World War ...
gave a speech strongly endorsing it as "the official style of Soviet culture". It was enforced ruthlessly in all spheres of artistic endeavour. Form and content were often limited, with erotic, religious, abstract, surrealist, and expressionist art being forbidden. Formal experiments, including internal dialogue, stream of consciousness, nonsense, free-form association, and cut-up were also disallowed. This was either because they were "decadent", unintelligible to the proletariat, or
counter-revolutionary A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revolut ...
. In response to the 1934 Congress in Russia, the most important American writers of the left gathered in the First American Writers Congress of 26–27 April 1935 in Chicago at meetings that were supported by Stalin. Waldo David Frank was the first president of the League of American Writers, which was backed by the Communist Party USA. A number of novelists balked at the control, and the League broke up at the invasion of the Soviet Union by German forces. The first exhibition organized by the Leningrad Union of Artists took place in 1935. Its participants – Mikhail Avilov, Isaak Brodsky,
Piotr Buchkin Piotr Dmitrievich Buchkin (russian: Пё́тр Дми́триевич Бучки́н; 22 January 1886 – 21 June 1965) was a Soviet and Russian painter, watercolorist, graphic artist, illustrator, and art teacher, Honored Arts Worker of the RSFS ...
, Nikolai Dormidontov, Rudolf Frentz, Kazimir Malevich,
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin, (; November 5, Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._24_October.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>O._S._24_October">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Old_Styl ...
, and Alexander Samokhvalov among them – became the founding fathers of the Leningrad school, while their works formed one of its richest layers and the basis of the largest museum collections of Soviet painting of the 1930s-1950s. In 1932, the Leningrad Institute of Proletarian Visual Arts was transformed into the Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (since 1944 named Ilya Repin). The fifteen-year period of constant reformation of the country's largest art institute came to an end. Thus, basic elements of the Leningrad school – namely, a higher art education establishment of a new type and a unified professional union of Leningrad artists, were created by the end of 1932. In 1934 Isaak Brodsky, a disciple of Ilya Repin, was appointed director of the National Academy of Arts and the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. Brodsky invited distinguished painters and pedagogues to teach at the academy, namely Semion Abugov, Mikhail Bernshtein,
Ivan Bilibin Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin ( rus, Ива́н Я́ковлевич Били́бин, p=ɪˈvan ˈjakəvlʲɪvʲɪt͡ɕ bʲɪˈlʲibʲɪn; – 7 February 1942) was a Russian illustrator and stage designer who took part in the ''Mir iskusstva'', contr ...
,
Piotr Buchkin Piotr Dmitrievich Buchkin (russian: Пё́тр Дми́триевич Бучки́н; 22 January 1886 – 21 June 1965) was a Soviet and Russian painter, watercolorist, graphic artist, illustrator, and art teacher, Honored Arts Worker of the RSFS ...
, Efim Cheptsov, Rudolf Frentz,
Boris Ioganson Boris Vladimirovich Ioganson (russian: Борис Владимирович Иогансон, – 25 February 1973) also commonly known as B. V. Johanson, was a Russian and Soviet painter and educator. Biography Ioganson was born on in Mosco ...
, Dmitry Kardovsky, Alexander Karev, Dmitry Kiplik, Yevgeny Lansere, Alexander Lubimov,
Matvey Manizer Matvey Genrikhovich Manizer (russian: Матвей Генрихович Манизер, – 20 December 1966) was a prominent Russian sculptor. Manizer created a number of works that became classics of socialist realism. Life Manizer wa ...
, Vasily Meshkov, Pavel Naumov,
Alexander Osmerkin Alexander Alexandrovich Osmerkin (; - June 25, 1953) was a Russian painter, graphic artist, stage designer, and art teacher. He was a member of the Knave of Diamonds avant-garde group, AKhRR, and ''Society of Moscow Artists'' (OMKh) groups. Si ...
, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Leonid Ovsyannikov, Nikolai Petrov, Sergei Priselkov,
Nikolay Punin Nikolay Nikolayevich Punin (russian: link=no, Никола́й Никола́евич Пу́нин; – August 21, 1953) was a Russian art scholar and writer. He edited several magazines, such as ''Izobrazitelnoye Iskusstvo'' among others, and w ...
, Nikolai Radlov, Konstantin Rudakov, Pavel Shillingovsky, Vasily Shukhaev, Victor Sinaisky, Ivan Stepashkin,
Konstantin Yuon Konstantin Fyodorovich Yuon or Juon (russian: Константи́н Фёдорович Юо́н; – April 11, 1958) was a noted Russian painter and theatre designer associated with the Mir Iskusstva. Later, he co-founded the Union of Russian A ...
, and others. Art exhibitions of 1935–1940 serve as counterpoint to claims that the artistic life of the period was suppressed by the ideology and artists submitted entirely to what was then called "social order". A great number of
landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the p ...
,
portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...
, and genre paintings exhibited at the time pursued purely technical purposes and were thus ostensibly free from any ideology. Genre painting was also approached in a similar way. In the post-war period between the mid-fifties and sixties, the Leningrad school of painting was approaching its vertex. New generations of artists who had graduated from the academy ( Repin Institute of Arts) in the 1930s–50s were in their prime. They were quick to present their art, they strived for experiments, and were eager to appropriate a lot and to learn even more. Their time and contemporaries, with all its images, ideas, and dispositions found it full expression in portraits by Vladimir Gorb, Boris Korneev, Engels Kozlov, Felix Lembersky, Oleg Lomakin, Samuil Nevelshtein, Victor Oreshnikov, Semion Rotnitsky, Lev Russov, and Leonid Steele; in landscapes by Nikolai Galakhov, Vasily Golubev, Dmitry Maevsky, Sergei Osipov, Vladimir Ovchinnikov,
Alexander Semionov Alexander Mikhailovich Semionov (russian: Александр Михайлович Семёнов; 18 February 1922 – 23 June 1984) is a Soviet Russian painter, a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists and representative of the Leningrad Scho ...
, Arseny Semionov, and Nikolai Timkov; and in genre paintings by Andrey Milnikov, Yevsey Moiseenko,
Mikhail Natarevich Mikhail Davidovich Natarevich (russian: link=no, Михаи́л Дави́дович Натаре́вич; September 29, 1907 in Vitebsk, Russian Empire – February 23, 1979 in Leningrad, USSR) was a Soviet, Russian painter who lived and work ...
, Yuri Neprintsev,
Nikolai Pozdneev Nikolai Matveevich Pozdneev (russian: Никола́й Матве́евич Поздне́ев; 28 September 1930 – 10 June 1978) was a Soviet Russian painter, living and working in Leningrad, a member of the Leningrad Union of Artists, repr ...
, Mikhail Trufanov, Yuri Tulin,
Nina Veselova Nina Leonidovna Veselova (russian: Ни́на Леони́довна Весело́ва; January 6, 1922, Petrograd, Soviet Russia – March 3, 1960, Leningrad, USSR) was a Russian Soviet realist painter and graphic artist, Doctor of art-criticis ...
, and others. In 1957, the first all-Russian Congress of Soviet artists took place in Moscow. In 1960, the all-Russian Union of Artists was organized. Accordingly, these events influenced the art life in Moscow, Leningrad, and the provinces. The scope of experimentation was broadened; in particular, this concerned the form of painterly and plastic language. Images of youths and students, rapidly changing villages and cities, virgin lands brought under cultivation, grandiose construction plans being realized in Siberia and the Volga region, and great achievements of Soviet science and technology became the chief topics of the new painting. Heroes of the time – young scientists, workers, civil engineers, physicians, etc. – were made the most popular heroes of paintings. In this period, life provided artists with plenty of thrilling topics, positive figures, and images. The legacies of many great artists and
art movements An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defi ...
became available for study and public discussion again. This greatly broadened artists' understanding of the realist method and widened its possibilities. It was the repeated renewal of the very conception of realism that made this style dominate Russian art throughout its history. Realist tradition gave rise to many trends of contemporary painting, including painting from nature, "severe style" painting, and decorative art. However, during this period
impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
,
postimpressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction aga ...
, cubism, and expressionism also had their fervent adherents and interpreters. The restrictions were relaxed somewhat after Stalin's death in 1953, but the state still maintained strict control over personal artistic expression. This caused many artists to choose to go into exile, for example the Odessa Group from the city of that name. Independent-minded artists that remained continued to feel the hostility of the state. In 1974, for instance, a show of unofficial art in a field near Moscow was broken up and the artwork destroyed with a water cannon and bulldozers (see Bulldozer Exhibition). Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika facilitated an explosion of interest in alternative art styles in the late 1980s, but socialist realism remained in limited force as the official state art style until as late as 1991. It was not until after the
fall of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
that artists were finally freed from state censorship.


Other countries

After the Russian Revolution, socialist realism became an international literary movement. Socialist trends in literature were established in the 1920s in Germany, France, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Writers who helped develop socialist realism in the West included Louis Aragon,
Johannes Becher Johannes Robert Becher (, 22 May 1891 – 11 October 1958) was a German politician, novelist, and poet. He was affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) before World War II. At one time, he was part of the literary avant-garde, writi ...
, and Pablo Neruda. The doctrine of socialist realism in other
People's Republic People's republic is an official title, usually used by some currently or formerly communist or left-wing states. It is mainly associated with soviet republics, socialist states following people's democracy, sovereign states with a democratic- ...
s was legally enforced from 1949 to 1956. It involved all domains of visual and literary arts, though its most spectacular achievements were made in the field of architecture, considered a key weapon in the creation of a new
social order The term social order can be used in two senses: In the first sense, it refers to a particular system of social structures and institutions. Examples are the ancient, the feudal, and the capitalist social order. In the second sense, social order ...
, intended to help spread the communist doctrine by influencing citizens' consciousness as well as their outlook on life. During this massive undertaking, a crucial role fell to architects perceived not as merely engineers creating streets and edifices, but rather as " engineers of the human soul" who, in addition to extending simple aesthetics into urban design, were to express grandiose ideas and arouse feelings of stability, persistence and political power. In art, from the mid-1960s more relaxed and decorative styles became acceptable even in large public works in the
Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist repub ...
bloc, the style mostly deriving from popular posters, illustrations and other works on paper, with discreet influence from their Western equivalents. Today, arguably the only countries still focused on these aesthetic principles are
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
, Laos, and to some extent
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
. The People's Republic of China occasionally reverts to socialist realism for specific purposes, such as idealised propaganda posters to promote the
Chinese space program The space program of the People's Republic of China is directed by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). China's space program has overseen the development and launch of ballistic missiles, thousands of artificial satellites, manned ...
. Socialist realism had little mainstream impact in the non-Communist world, where it was widely seen as a totalitarian means of imposing state control on artists. The former
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...
was an important exception among the communist countries, because after the
Tito–Stalin split The Tito–Stalin split or the Yugoslav–Soviet split was the culmination of a conflict between the political leaderships of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, under Josip Broz Tito and Joseph Stalin, respectively, in the years following World W ...
in 1948, it abandoned socialist realism along with other elements previously imported from the Soviet system and allowed greater artistic freedom.
Miroslav Krleža Miroslav Krleža (; 7 July 1893 – 29 December 1981) was a Yugoslav and Croatian writer who is widely considered to be the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century. He wrote notable works in all the literary genres, including poetry (''Ba ...
, one of the leading Yugoslav intellectuals, gave a speech at the Third Congress of the Writers Alliance of Yugoslavia held in
Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the are ...
in 1952, which is considered a turning point in the Yugoslav denouncement of
dogmatic Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam o ...
socialist realism. Socialist realism was the main art current in the
People's Socialist Republic of Albania The People's Socialist Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika Popullore Socialiste e Shqipërisë, links=no) was the Marxist–Leninist one party state that existed in Albania from 1946 to 1992 (the official name of the country was the People's R ...
. In 2017, three works by Albanian artists from the socialist era were exhibited at
documenta 14 documenta 14 was the fourteenth edition of the art exhibition documenta and took place in 2017 in both Kassel, Germany, its traditional home, and Athens, Greece. It was held first in Athens from 8 April to 16 July, and in Kassel from 10 June ...
.


Gender in socialist realism


USSR


Early Soviet period

In the poster propaganda produced during the
Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...
(1917-1922) men were overrepresented as workers, peasants, and combat heroes, and when women were shown, it was often either to symbolize an abstract concept (Ex.
Mother Russia The personification of Russia is traditionally feminine and most commonly maternal since medieval times. Most common terms for national personification of Russia are: *Mother Russia (russian: Матушка Россия, tr. ''Matushka Rossiya'' ...
, "freedom") or as nurses and victims. The symbolic women would be depicted as femininewearing long dresses, long hair, and bare breasts. The image of the urban proletariat, the group which brought the Bolsheviks to power was characterized by masculinity, physical strength, and dignity and were usually shown as blacksmiths. In 1920, Soviet artists began to produce the first images of women proletarians. These women differed from the symbolic women from the 1910s in that they most closely resembled the aspects of the male workersdignity, masculinity, and even supernatural power in the case of blacksmiths. In many paintings in the 1920s, the men and women were almost indistinguishable in stature and clothing, but the women would often be depicted taking subservient roles to the men, such as being his assistant ("rabotnitsa"). These women blacksmith figures were less common, but significant, since it was the first time women were represented as proletarians. The introduction of women workers in propaganda coincided with a series of government policies which allowed for
divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...
,
abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...
, and more sexual freedom. Peasant women were also rarely depicted in socialist propaganda art in the period before 1920. The typical image of a peasant was a bearded, sandal-shoed man in shoddy clothes and with a
scythe A scythe ( ) is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or harvesting crops. It is historically used to cut down or reap edible grains, before the process of threshing. The scythe has been largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor mac ...
, until 1920, when artists began to create peasant women, who were usually buxom, full-bodied, with a scarf tied around their head. The image of peasant women was not always positive; they often would evoke the derogatory caricature " baba", which was used against peasant women and women in general. As is discussed above, the art style during the early period of the Soviet Union (1917-1930) differed from the Socialist Realist art created during the Stalinist period. Artists were able to experiment more freely with the message of the revolution. Many Soviet artists during this period were part of the constructivist movement and used abstract forms for propaganda posters, while some chose to use a realist style. Women artists were significantly represented in the revolutionary avant garde movement, which began before 1917Lavery, Rena, Ivan Lindsay, and Katia Kapushesky. 2019. ''Soviet women and their art: the spirit of equality''. and some of the most famous were
Alexandra Exter Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "pro ...
,
Natalia Goncharova Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova (russian: Ната́лья Серге́евна Гончаро́ва, p=nɐˈtalʲjə sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡənʲtɕɪˈrovə; 3 July 188117 October 1962) was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter, costume designe ...
,
Liubov Popova Lyubov Sergeyevna Popova (russian: Любо́вь Серге́евна Попо́ва; April 24, 1889 – May 25, 1924) was a Russian-Soviet avant-garde artist, painter and designer. Early life Popova was born in Ivanovskoe, near Moscow, to t ...
,
Varvara Stepanova Varvara Fyodorovna Stepanova (russian: Варва́ра Фёдоровна Степа́нова; – May 20, 1958) was a Russian artist. With her husband Alexander Rodchenko, she was associated with the Constructivist branch of the Russian avant ...
,
Olga Rozanova Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova (also spelled Rosanova, Russian: Ольга Владимировна Розанова) (22 June 1886 – 7 November 1918, Moscow) was a Russian avant-garde artist painting in the styles of Suprematism, Neo-Primiti ...
and
Nadezhda Udaltsova Nadezhda Andreevna Udaltsova (, 29 December 1885 – 25 January 1961) was a Russian avant-garde artist (Cubist, Suprematist), painter and teacher. Early life and education Nadezhda Udaltsova was born in the village of Orel, Russia, on 29 Decemb ...
. These women challenged some of the historical precedents of male dominance in art. The historian Christina Kiaer has argued that the move away from market based forms of art production after the revolution benefited female artists' careers, especially before 1930 when the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AKhRR) was still relatively egalitarian.Kiaer, C. H. (2012). Fairy Tales of the Proletariat, or, Is Socialist Realism Kitsch? In ''Socialist Realisms: Soviet Painting 1920-1970'' (pp. 183-189). Skira. Instead of an elite, individualistic group of disproportionately male "geniuses" produced by the market, artists shared in the creation of a common vision.


Stalin era

The style of socialist realism began to dominate the Soviet artistic community starting when Stalin rose to power in 1930, and the government took a more active role in regulating art creation. The
AKhRR The Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (russian: Ассоциация художников революционной России, ''Assotsiatsia Khudozhnikov Revolutsionnoi Rossii'', 1922–1928), later known as Association of Artists ...
became more hierarchical and the association privileged realist style
oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...
s, a field dominated by men, over posters and other mediums in which women had primarily worked. The task of Soviet artists was to create visualisations of the "
New Soviet Man The New Soviet man or New Soviet person (russian: новый советский человек ''novy sovetsky chelovek''), as postulated by the ideologists of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was an archetype of a person with specific ...
"the idealized icon of humanity living under socialism. This heroic figure encapsulated both men and women, per the Russian word "chelovek", a masculine term meaning "person". While the new Soviet person could be male or female, the figure of man was often used to represent gender neutrality. Because the government had declared the " woman question" resolved in 1930, there was little explicit discourse about how women should be uniquely created in art. Discussions of gender difference and sexuality were generally taboo and viewed as a distraction from the duties people had to the creation of socialism. Accordingly, nudes of both men and women were rare, and some art critics have pointed out that Socialist Realist paintings escaped the problem of women's
sexual objectification Sexual objectification is the act of treating a person solely as an object of sexual desire. Objectification more broadly means treating a person as a commodity or an object without regard to their personality or dignity. Objectification is mo ...
commonly seen in capitalist forms of art production. But the declaration of women's equality also made it difficult to talk about the gender inequality that did exist; Stalin's government had simultaneously banned abortion and homosexuality, made divorce more difficult, and dismantled the women's associations in government (
Zhenotdel The Zhenotdel (), the women's department of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), was the section of the Russian Communist party devoted to women's affairs in the 1920s. It gave women in the Russian Revolution ...
s). The "New Soviet Woman" was often shown working in traditionally male jobs, such as aviation, engineering, tractor-driving, and politics. The point of this was to encourage women to join the workforce and show off the strides the USSR had made for women, especially in comparison with the United States. Indeed, women had expanded opportunities to take up traditionally male jobs in comparison to the US. In 1950, women made up 51.8% of the Soviet labor force, compared to just 28.3% in North America. However, there were also many patriarchal depictions of women. Historian Susan Reid has argued that the cult of personality around male Soviet leaders created an entire atmosphere of patriarchy in Socialist Realist art, where both male and female workers often looked up to the "father" icon of Lenin and Stalin. Furthermore, the policies of the 1930s ended up forcing many women to be solely responsible for childcare, leaving them with the famous "double burden" of childcare and work duties. The government encouraged women to have children by creating portraits of the "housewife-activist"wives and mothers who supported their husbands and the socialist state by taking on unpaid housework and childcare. Women were also more often shown as peasants than workers, which some scholars see as evidence of their perceived inferiority. Art depicting peasant women in the Stalin era was far more positive than in the 1920s, and often explicitly pushed back against the " baba" stereotype. However, the peasantry, still living in feudal society, was generally seen as backwards, and did not hold the same status as the heroic status as the revolutionary urban proletariat. An example of the gender distinction of male proletariat and female peasantry is Vera Muhkina’s statue ''
Worker and Kolkhoz Woman ''Worker and Kolkhoz Woman'' () is a sculpture of two figures with a sickle and a hammer raised over their heads. The concept and compositional design belong to the architect Boris Iofan It is 24.5 metres (78 feet) high, made from stai ...
'' (1937), where the worker is shown as male, while the collective farm worker is female.


Painting

File:Pionerka kasatkin.jpg, N. Kasatkin. ''Pioneer-girl with book'' (1926) File:Lenin attempt.jpg, Vladimir Pchelin, ''Lenin Assassination Attempt'' (1927) File:Death of a Commissar (Petrov-Vodkin).jpg,
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin, (; November 5, Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._24_October.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>O._S._24_October">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Old_Styl ...
, ''The death of the Political Commissar'' (1928) File:Sergey Malyutin 07.jpg, Sergey Malyutin, ''Partisan'' File:Mitrophan Grekov 01.jpg, Mitrofan Grekov, ''Trumpeter and standard-bearer'' (1934) File:"The Green Lake" by Czeslaw Znamierowski, 145 x 250 cm, 1955.jpg, ''The Green Lake'' by Czeslaw Znamierowski, 145 x 250 cm, 1955 File:Detail of Painting of Female Partisan in Battle - National Historical Museum - Tirana - Albania - 01 (42748115122).jpg, Female Partisan in Battle, National History Museum, Tirana, Albania File:Soviet Socialist Realism We will fulfill.svg, ''"WE WILL FULFILL THE PARTY’S COMMISSION!"'' by
Igor Berezovsky Igor Borisovitch Berezovsky (russian: Игорь Борисович Березовский; September 8, 1942 – February 2, 2007) was a Russian painter, printmaker, and graphic designer. Biography Igor Borisovich Berezovsky was born on 8 Sep ...
, 1957


Sculpture

File:Socrealizm.jpeg, Socialist-Realist allegories surrounding the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw. File:Réalisme socialiste (Vilnius) (7622118328).jpg, Sculpture in
Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
Lithuania, removed in 2015. File:Stone as a weapon of the proletariat.jpg, ''Stone as a Weapon of the Proletariat'' by Ivan Shadr (1947) File:Letna stalin sousosi.jpg, Stalin Monument in
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
-Letná (1955–1962)


Relief

File:Communist relief in Gori, Georgia 2.jpg, Relief in Gori, Georgia, the birthplace of
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
File:Communist relief in Gori, Georgia 1.jpg, Relief in Gori, the birthplace of Stalin


See also

*
Capitalist realism The term "capitalist realism" has been used, particularly in Germany, to describe commodity-based art, from Pop Art in the 1950s and 1960s to the commodity art of the 1980s and 1990s. When used in this way, it is a play on the term "socialist r ...
* Fine Art of Leningrad * Heroic realism *
Propaganda in the Soviet Union Propaganda in the Soviet Union was the practice of state-directed communication to promote class conflict, internationalism, the goals of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the party itself. The main Soviet censorship body, Glavli ...
*
Socialist realism in Poland Socialist realism in Poland ( pl, socrealizm) was a socio-political and aesthetic doctrine enforced by the pro-Soviet communist government in the process of Stalinization of the post-war Polish People’s Republic. The official policy was introduce ...
* Socialist realism in Romania *
Zhdanov Doctrine The Zhdanov Doctrine (also called Zhdanovism or Zhdanovshchina; russian: доктрина Жданова, ждановизм, ждановщина) was a Soviet cultural doctrine developed by Central Committee secretary Andrei Zhdanov in 1946. It ...
* ''''


References


Further reading

* Bek, Mikuláš; Chew, Geoffrey; and Macel, Petr (eds.). ''Socialist Realism and Music''. Musicological Colloquium at the Brno International Music Festival 36. Prague: KLP; Brno: Institute of Musicology, Masaryk University, 2004. * Golomstock, Igor. ''Totalitarian Art in the Soviet Union, the Third Reich, Fascist Italy and the People's Republic of China'', HarperCollins, 1990. * James, C. Vaughan. ''Soviet Socialist Realism: Origins and Theory''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1973. * Ivanov, Sergei. ''Unknown Socialist Realism. The Leningrad School''. Saint Petersburg, NP-Print, 2007 * Lin Jung-hua. ''Post-Soviet Aestheticians Rethinking Russianization and Chinization of Marxism'' (Russian Language and Literature Studies. Serial No. 33) Beijing, Capital Normal University, 2011, No.3. Р.46-53. * Prokhorov, Gleb. ''Art under Socialist Realism: Soviet Painting, 1930–1950''. East Roseville, NSW, Australia: Craftsman House; G + B Arts International, 1995. * Rideout, Walter B. ''The Radical Novel in the United States: 1900–1954. Some Interrelations of Literature and Society''. New York: Hill and Wang, 1966. * Saehrendt, Christian. ''Kunst als Botschafter einer künstlichen Nation'' ("Art from an artificial nation – about modern art as a tool of the GDR's propaganda"), Stuttgart 2009 * Sinyavsky, Andrei riting as Abram Tertz ''"The Trial Begins" and "On Socialist Realism"'', translated by Max Hayward and George Dennis, with an introduction by Czesław Miłosz. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960–1982. * ''The Leningrad School of Painting. Essays on the History.'' St Petersburg, ARKA Gallery Publishing, 2019.
Origin of Socialist Realism in Russia and China
Translation and revised version of �
Las noches rusas y el origen del realismo socialista


External links


Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden: Socialist Realist Art Conference








{{Authority control Leninism Film styles Socialism Realism (art movement) Art movements Propaganda art Soviet painters Censorship in the Soviet Union Propaganda in the Soviet Union