Control Art Flashcards
What were initial Bolshevik thoughts on cultural policy?
Divided:
- some thought art should be used as control method
- others thought art should be allowed to develop, especially among workers
Not enough urgency though
What was the ministry of culture called?
Commissariat of Enlightenment
When was the commissiariat for enlightenment established
1917
What did the C of Enlightenment do?
- encouraged artists to work with regime
- same ideas and values
Art in the old regime:
- heavy art censorship
- hope that the bolsheviks would be more lenient
Were the Bolsheviks more lenient than the old regime?
Yes - shown by tolerance of fellow travelers, freedom in style in Avant Garde and encouragement to create a new culture of the proletariat of prolekult
Fellow travelers:
- coined by Trotsky
- tolerated non communist artists
- artists were inspired by the revolution and changing times
- artists non communist but sympathetic to Bolshevik values
Were fellow travelers accepted by all communists
No
What was the first Bolshevik cultural movement?
Prolekult
Who promoted and designed prolekult?
Bogdanov and lunacharsky
Who was head of the commissariat of enlightenment?
Lunacharsky
What was prolekults aim?
- challenge high culture and bourgeoise influence
- create proletarian artists, nurturing art among working people
- use new tech and influence of factories to inspire culture for the proletariat
- reflect values of new society - collectivism
Constructivists
Members of the assembled proletarian group of artists who wanted to create proletarian culture
Examples of peasant created culture
- festivals on socialism (rations given out to increase popularity
- workers write own stories and make own production
- smithy magazine to publicise proletarian poetry
- 1920 anniversary of rev = 8000 person reenactment of storming the winter palace
Issues with prolekult
- too much freedom of expression - could the proletariat be trusted? Not controlled by party
- Lenin disagreed with strictly proletarian art - art should be universal in society
- some art too difficult to understand
What is avant garde?
Abstract art which represents the changing times of revolution
What were the key art styles of avant garde?
- abstract
- futurism
- modernism
- changing times, optimism and new ideas represented
Did the government use avant garde?
Artists teamed up with the government to produce propaganda art - however fellow travelers were still tollerated
Example of govt. using propaganda artist
- Mayakovsky
- poet and playrite
- slogans and graphic posters for propaganda - especially useful in the civil war
Fellow traveller avant garde artists
Malevich and Kandinsky
Failure of avant garde theatre
- meyerhold
- ‘mystery Bouffe’ pageant
- workers defeating their exploiters = revolutionary and communist sentiment
- too complex and cancelled after one performance
Cinema in avant garde
Sergei Einstein:
1924 - strike
1925 - Battleship Potemkin
- sometimes imagery too experimental
Successful director in the Soviet Union:
Sergei einstein
Stalins views on avantgarde and prolekult
- criticised freedom that was allowed
- thought was too experimental and didn’t achieve sweeping away old, bourgeoise influence
Why did Stalin introduce the cultural revolution?
- freedom under Lenin criticised
- 5yp and collectivisation meant the END of the bourgeois and kulak classes (so their culture needed to be gone too)
- to motivate workers in industrialisation effort
- finally sweep away bourgeois influence
Did the cultural revolution support fellow travelers and traditional artists?
No - it was an attack
How was Komsomol used in the Cultural revolution
- youth organisation of the communist party
- used to root out and snitch on old “bourgeoise elements’
- eg: booed theatre productions that were too bourgeois
What was introduced in the cultural revolution to monitor literature?
RAPP:
- Russian Association of Proletarian Writers
What did RAPP do:
- condemn fellow travelers
- didn’t like writers who focused on individualism
- didn’t like experimental technique
- opposed bourgeoise writing
What did RAPP like?
- books on workers achievements:
- the cult of the little man
- glorified achievements of workers and farmers
( fit in with 5YP and collectivisation )
Example of a Cult of The little man
Time Forward:
Katev - 1932
- record breaking shift at Magnitogorsk - 5YP influence, showing achievements of building Magnitogorsk
When was RAPP closed down?
1932
What was RAPP replaced with
- union of soviet writers
What did the union of soviet writers do?
- policed the socialist realism movement
- rewarded conformation
- restricted others
What did closing down of RAPP coincide with?
Start of socialist realism movement
what happened to quality of work inter socialist realism?
Zoshchenko - conformed but work suffered
Stalin on writers and artists on socialist realism:
Artists and writers are ‘engineers of human souls’
- shows he places the role of art high
- shows he thinks art is incredibly influential
What were the aims of socialist realism?
- produce idealised images of socialist life
- inspire people to achieve
- convince that 1935 statement of ‘life had become more joyous’ was true
- provide escapism - not official but could be interpreted this ways due to awful working conditions
Art under socialist realism:
NO EXPERIMENTATION:
- contrasted freedom under AVANT GARDE
- reflected 5YP, workers and peasants
- Stalin as the benefactor of human happiness - the Cult was engrained in socialist realism - propaganda
Socialist realism literature
- move away from the cult of the little man - highlight socialist Heroes
- high brow mirrored traditional folk stories: Sholokovs ‘As the Don Flows’
- low brow detective and war stories, thwart capitalists
- publishing was monitored by the party
How was literature infiltrated by socialist thought made widely available?
- tenfold in number of library acquisitions
- low priced books
Even the poor could be indoctrinated
Film in socialist realism
Eg: Einsteins revolutionary films praised - October 1927 -
- 10 yr anniversary
- mass movement recreated - deaths
- used as propaganda especially in WWII
Aims of socialist realism:
- accessible - indoctrinate all
- out of touch BUT provided: escapism, inspiration, education, wide culture
- propaganda
- mobilise support for 5YPs at many levels
Were restrictions raised/lowered after the war?
Lowered - more freedom
Also Stalin getting old, also rebuilding is the bigger fish to fry so control of culture can take the back seat
Examples of relaxation of rules after the war:
Pasternak and Akhmatova allowed to give public readings of their poetry in Moscow
Relaxation of rules after war BUT what was too far?
- western influences
- condemned in Zandovschina
What was Zandovschina?
1946
- removal of post war emergence of relaxed restrictions
- said to be ‘western influence’
- xenophobic=ophobic na fuelled by cold war
Example of Zandovschina:
- Shostakovich pianist
- tunes getting too experimental;
- so Zandovschina showed him acceptable tunes - caused humiliation
- he restricted himself to film scores thereafter
What did Akhamatova and Pasternak decide to do because of the socialist realism restrictions provided by the Union of Soviet Writers?
Gave up writing : Genre of Silence
- Mayakovsky committed suicide
What did destabilisation under Khrushchev mean for rules
- relaxation of general rules
- decreasing surveillance and terror
Means people hopeful for relaxation for artists
How did Khrushchev personally damage Stalins view on art?
- criticised him directly
- published banned work personally like the work of BABEL (Babel was previously shot in the purges)
Example of relaxation of rules under Khrushchev
- publication of ‘one day in the life of Ivan Denisovich’ by Solshenitsyn - reported on gulags and terror
- this work criticised Stalin - showed dark sides of the regime under him SO supported destabilisation - and Khrushchev power
However restrictions on art still applied
Music and poetry:
- experimental poetry allowed under Khrushchev
- jazz reappeared after being banned under Stalin
Sholokov on soviet culture
‘Grey trash’
Writers in Khrushchev era writing to speak out:
- new themes emerged - spiritual concerns
- adultery, divorce, alcoholism, rural life
- did not adhere to socialist realism and the ‘idealised life’
LITERATURE OF THE CONSCIENCE
Low brow criticisms in Khrushchev era
- science fiction criticised soviet system
- critiqued society
Youth culture 1950s:
- western music
- rock and roll, pop
- western fashion - tight suits and skirts stilyagi
- described as ‘rude and ignorant freaks’
- 1955 = voice of America station allowed
Magnitizdat
Tape recorder - spread underground music to wider audiences
Did Brezhnev return to strict rules and monitoring of culture?
No, however narrowed leniency seen under Khrushchev
Easier for some artists as there’s clear lines on permissible and non permissible
Official culture under Brezhnev
- propaganda
- achievements of socialism (continuation from Stalinist era)
- the population liked this! But artists found it BORING
What dies Richard states call culture by Brezhnev era
‘The graveyard of ideas, openness and free expression’
1970s writers nonconformity
- Soviet culture now conservative
- writers more trouble for sexual themes, not political ones
- derevenshchiki school of village prose highlighted values of simple rural life
- could be seen as critique of city life - govt didn’t fully approve
Music in the 1970s:
Increasing western influence
- Vladimir vystotsky - guitar poet who sung of sex and delinquency
- died in 1980 = huge grief from young people - worried govt
- politburo saw influence of rock and pop inevitable
- controlled by limiting radio airtime (undermined by cassette recorder in 80s)
Pasternak
Clash with Khrushchev
- novel Doctor Zhivago - civil war story and critiqued revolution
- banned text before reading fully!
- smuggled abroad to Italy - 1957
- positive reception AND 1958 Nobel Prize for literature
- Khrushchev banned him from receiving it
= international embarrassment, regretted actions later
Khrushchev and Abstract art
HATED IT!
- 1962 exhibition in kremlin hall
- ‘a donkey could smear better art with its tail’
- artists harangued publically and left afraid of imprisonment
- no official action against them!
1961 conference
To decide which dance moves permissible - Komsomol patrolled streets and dance halls to snitch!
Why did Khrushchevs tolerance fluctuate
- mood swings
- worse in later years
- that was preserved in Brezhnev and so on
trial of Joseph Brodsky - 1964
- poet encouraged by Akhmatova
- poems read at secret gatherings
- SP became aware
- 5 years hard labour!
Clearly sending an example to other poets!
Controversy when trial records sent abroad - release granted after 2 years
Showed Brezhnev had increased limits than Khrushchev
Sinyavsky and Daniel
1966 -
- published short novels showing harsh realities of the Soviet Union
- arrested and accused of anti Soviet propaganda - article 70
- protests from students and 63 intellectuals , 200 letters to 23rd party congress asking to review the case
Sinyavsky - 7 years
Daniel - 5 years
Warning
Control under Brezhnev
- awards and privileges
- employment withdrawal
- stern talks (usually enough)
Solzhenitsyn
- expelled from writers union 1969
- then from Soviet Union 1947
- ‘the gulag archipelago’ - condemned
Andropov dealing with pop culture:
- difficult as a lot underground
- accommodated some pop
- only 20% radio airtime
- commission to vet all rock groups
- Komsomol AGAIN
How did the public view nonconformist artists
- self indulgent - non communist
- successful indoctrination
Overview
- Lenin = much freedom, some worries but bigger fish to fry
- Stalin = terror to suppress
- Khrushchev = relaxation, got tighter towards end but no HUGE terror or persecution
- Brezhnev = made examples of ‘extremist artists’, more clear boundaries
From beginning of regime, propaganda by artists utilised BUT became more important as terror lessons
