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Soviet Culture. Socialist Realism Cult of Personality Futurism. Futurism. Emphasis on exploring the possibilities of the future Influenced visionary utopianism e.g. using architecture to create a new society based on communal living. Aims of Policy. Remove traces of ‘bourgeois’ culture
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Soviet Culture Socialist Realism Cult of Personality Futurism
Futurism • Emphasis on exploring the possibilities of the future • Influenced visionary utopianism e.g. using architecture to create a new society based on communal living.
Aims of Policy • Remove traces of ‘bourgeois’ culture • Use culture to instil socialist values • Present positive images of achievement • Support government policy At the end of 1930 two added: • Promote cult of Stalin • Encourage patriotism in face of war
Origins • Socialist Realism – term appeared in an article in the Literary Gazette in May 1932. It stated: "The masses demand of an artist honesty, truthfulness, and a revolutionary, socialist realism in the representation of the proletarian revolution." • Cultural Revolution – After 1924 concerted effort to use culture to their own ends • Culture became instrument of Party Leadership
Writers • 1932 – closed down RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers) • Works rooted in the people conveying a sense of reality. • Theme of heroes connected to the party. • Low cost of literature like this allowed it to be bought and read by more people • Some writers conformed, others were sent to the Gulag or left the USSR.
Music • Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) • Well received by the public but not by the party. • 1935 Lady Macbeth of Mtensk. Stalin walked out in shock during the bedroom scene where trombones were used. It was better to stick to well-worn themes. • Condemned by Stalin he wrote music censored by the regime.
Cult of Personality Vozhd – The Boss • Turned into almost like a Hollywood star, with statues and portraits. • Marfa Kriukova’s The Tale of Lenin – a folk tale with representations of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin