1.3c How effective was the Soviet's use of culture and the arts?

Question 1

When was the Prolekult?

Answer 1

1917-20

Question 2

What was prolekult?

Answer 2

A deliberate challenge to high culture by the government

Question 3

What was used as incentives at Prolekult festivals?

Answer 3

Extra rations

Question 4

What was the Prolekult magazine?

Answer 4

Smithy - contained poems about factories and machines

Question 5

Define constructivists

Answer 5

a key strand of the Prolekult culture who focused on the worker and industrial technology

Question 6

Define Avant Garde

Answer 6

Experimental art following WW1

Question 7

When was the Avant Garde period?

Answer 7

Just after WW1

Question 8

Why was Avant Garde not well suited to the Russian peasants?

Answer 8

They couldn’t understand it

Question 9

Give an example of Avant GArde being too advanced for Russian peasants

Answer 9

Mystery Bouffe was cancelled after 1 performance because it was so confusing

Question 10

Give an example of an artist who started creating propaganda for the Government

Answer 10

Mayakovski

Question 11

When was the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 11

1920s-1930s

Question 12

What was the Cultural Revolution

Answer 12

An attempt to sweep away old Bourgeois elements of society

Question 13

What was the slogan of the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 13

Boy meets Girl meets Tractor

Question 14

What was the ‘cult of the little man’?

Answer 14

Glorification of workers achievements

Question 15

What was Komsomol?

Answer 15

the Communist youth organisation used to root out Bourgeois elements

Question 16

What is RAPP?

Answer 16

Russian Association of Proletarian Culture

Question 17

What did RAPP do?

Answer 17

Attacked experimental artists and encouraged cultural activities in factories

Question 18

When was the period of Socialist Realism?

Answer 18

1930s - 1950s

Question 19

What was Socialist Realism?

Answer 19

Presenting idealistic images as Socialist life

Question 20

As part of Socialist realism, what film was produced?

Answer 20

‘October’ depicting the October Revolution

Question 21

What damning statistic is there about the filming of ‘October’ as part of Socialist realism?

Answer 21

More people died in the filming than in the real thing

Question 22

As part of Socialist realism, how did the music industry suffer?

Answer 22

They were pressured to promote the state too much

Question 23

As part of Socialist realism, what instrument was banned?

Answer 23

The saxophone because jazz was associated with decodance

Question 24

As part of Socialist realism, what was the Stalinist architecture called?

Answer 24

Baroque

Question 25

What did murals on the underground show?

Answer 25

Socialist Realism

Question 26

As part of Socialist realism, how did the focus of literature change?

Answer 26

The emphasis switched to party heroes from the cult of the little man

Question 27

As part of Socialist realism, what was the standard plot of literature?

Answer 27

Someone is guided to better things by the party

Question 28

How did Stalin refer to artists?

Answer 28

'Engineers of Human Souls'

Question 29

Under Stalin, why were there signs of a reduction in restrictions on art and culture?

Answer 29

Due to the focus on WW2

Question 30

Under Stalin, which 2 artists were able to give public readings?

Answer 30

Anna Akhmatova & Boris Pasternak

Question 31

What piece of technology, released under Khrushchev, was a huge problem for the government?

Answer 31

Self publishing tape recorder - Magnitizdat

Question 32

From 1955, what radio station began broadcasting US music into the USSR?

Answer 32

'The voice of America'

Question 33

Due to Khrushchev's personal intervention, what book was allowed to be published due to de-Stalinisation

Answer 33

'One day in the life of Denisovic' - told about awful Gulag stories

Question 34

Under Brezhnev, why were writers most likely to get into trouble, rather than messages about government?

Answer 34

For touching on sexual themes

Question 35

Which guitarist became popular due to his focus on sex?

Answer 35

Vgsotsky

Question 36

What happened at Vgsotsky's funeral?

Answer 36

There was a huge outpour of sadness, showing the alienation of young people

Question 37

Why could Derevenschki's 'School of village prose' be seen as criticism of Soviet life?

Answer 37

It longed for a world of the past

Question 38

What did artists who conformed to the government or worked for them become known as?

Answer 38

Russites

Question 39

What art gallery did Brezhnev launch a propaganda campaign against and why?

Answer 39

Novosibirisk - displayed dissident art

Question 40

How did Brezhnev deal with the Novosibirisk art gallery incident?

Answer 40

Employed people to attack it, claiming they were outraged

Question 41

What was the international repercussions of the Novosibirisk gallery attack?

Answer 41

It was broadcast live on TV and so the government were forced to put it back on display

Question 42

Why was Joseph Brodsky arrested?

Answer 42

For reading his poems at secret gatherings

Question 43

Why was the Joseph Brodsky case so significant? (international)

Answer 43

Records of his arrest were smuggled abroad and people campaigned for his release

Question 44

What happened to Joseph Brodsky in the end?

Answer 44

Expelled from the USSR after 2 years

Question 45

What did Khrushchev say about modern art?

Answer 45

'a donkey could smear better art with her tail'

Question 46

What happened with the case of Boris Pasternak?

Answer 46

One of his banned books was smuggled out of the country and won a Nobel prize in Italy which Khrushchev didn't allow him to collect

Question 47

What happened with Andrei Sinyevsky and Yuli Daniel?

Answer 47

They were arrested which sparked protest of students and intellectuals

Question 48

How many students protested for Andrei Sinyevsky and Yuli Daniel?

Answer 48

200

Question 49

How many intelectuals signed the letter for Andrei Sinyevsky and Yuli Daniel?

Answer 49

63

Question 50

To what percentage did Andropov restrict the output of songs by non official composers?

Answer 50

20%

Question 51

Under Stalin, what was Zhandovschina?

Answer 51

An attempt to remove all aspects of Bourgeois culture in 1946 by Zhandov, party leader in Leningrad

Question 52

What did Zhandov do to popular musician, Shostakovich?

Answer 52

Invited him into his office to tap out basic tunes and told him there's no point producing something that can't be hummed to