RUSSIA Culture and the Arts Flashcards
What did Lenin think about culture?
Vital but subordinate to class conflict and the retention of power
What were Lenin’s personal cultural tastes?
Conservative, with a liking for classical Russian conflict
What did Lenin implement early after the seizure of power to support and encourage artists?
Commissariat of Englightenment
Prolekult
‘Proletarian Culture’
What was prolekult a direct challenge to?
High culture
When did the government start to impose restrictions on prolekult?
By the early 1920s
Why did the government begin to impose restrictions on prolekult?
They were concerned at the variety of viewpoints expressed through this culture from the people
Who promoted the prolekult originally?
Alexander Bogdanov; Anatoly Lunacharsky
What was a key strand of prolekult?
Constructivists
What was the emphasis of the Constructivists to be on?
The collective of the workers as a class, rather than individualism
Constructivists
Wished to create a new proletarian culture based on the worker and industrial technology
Why did the Bolsheviks put so much emphasis on visual art?
The country had low literacy rates
What was the RAPP replaced with?
Union of Soviet Writers
When was the RAPP replaced?
1932
What marked the end of the Cultural Revolution?
The replacement of the RAPP with the Union of Soviet Writers
What did Stalin call writers and artists?
‘Engineers of human souls’
Which cultural movement followed the cultural revolution?
Socialist Realism
Socialist Realism
Presented idealised images of life under socialism to inspire the population towards its achievement
Who policed Socialist Realism?
Union of Soviet Writers
Who is an example of a writer who conformed to the rules of Socialist Realism but whose work suffered as a result of this?
Mikhail Zoshchenko
Who are examples of writers who fed into the ‘genre of silence’ during the Socialist Realism movement?
Boris Pasternak; Anna Akhamatova
What was art like under Socialist Realism?
No experimentation with form; avant-garde styles were rejected
What was Socialist Realist art often fused with?
Cult of personality
What was literature like under Socialist Realism?
Change of emphasis away from the cult of the ‘little man’ to heroes connected to the Party
What was the standard plot of novels in the 1930s?
A hero from the people was guided by the Party to greater things
What was ‘lowbrow’ literature in the 1930s usually concerned with?
Heroes from Russian history; war stories; detective novels where a police agent thwarts the evil capitalists
What ensured that the population had easy access to literature under Socialist Realism?
Low price of ‘lowbrow’ books; tenfold growth in library acquisitions
Which musical instrument did the Soviet government ban in the 1940s?
Saxophone
Under Socialist Realsim, what did the government favour in popular music?
Military songs more than jazz
Why did the Soviet government fear jazz music in the 1930-40s?
Its perceived decadent associations
What did music suffer from under Socialist Realism?
Pressure to toe the line
What style of architecture did Socialist Realism promote?
‘Stalinist Baroque’
What was ‘Stalinist Baroque’ architecture better known as?
‘Wedding cake’ architecture
What did ‘Stalinist Baroque’ architecture make use of?
Classical lines
What are the best examples of ‘Stalinist Baroque’ architecture?
Moscow University; Moscow metro system
When was Moscow University rebuilt?
After 1945
When was Socialist Realism popular?
1920-60s
Which popular Socialist Realist film presented the heroic version of the storming of the Winter Palace in 1917?
Eisenstein’s ‘October’ (1927)
What was shocking about the production of Eisenstein’s ‘October’?
More people died in the making of the film than in the actual events themselves
How was cinema used during WW2?
To promote patriotism in defence of both Mother Russia and socialism
What was one of the most popular wartime Russian films?
‘Alexander Nevsky’
Why is it easy to criticise Socialist Realism?
It was so out of touch with reality
What were the positives of Socialist Realism?
Inspired some people to work harder; provided escapism
When were there signs that the government was prepared to allow artists and writers greater freedom?
Immediately after WW2
What is an example of artists and writers being given greater freedom?
Boris Pasternak and Anna Akhamatova were allowed to give public readings of their unorthodox poetry in Moscow in 1946
When was a campaign launched to remove all aspects of ‘bourgeois’ culture from the West?
1946
How were the signs of greater freedom quickly dispelled post-WW2?
Elements of Western culture were condemned in a campaign referred to as the Zhdanovschina
What provided hope for artists and writers who wished to express themselves freely?
De-Stalinisation
What is an example of Khrushchev’s more relaxed approach to culture and the arts?
Works by Isaac Babel, a writer who had been shot during the purges, were published
When did jazz music make a reappearence?
Under Khrushchev
What new themes did writers begin to explore under Khrushchev?
Spiritual concerns; bleakness of rural life; problems of adultery, divorce and alcohol abuse
When was nonconformity starting to have an important impact on youth culture in the USSR?
By the late 1950s
What were the youth groups who listened to pop and rock’n’roll music and wore Western fashions labelled by the authorities?
Stilyagi
What was tape recorder self-publishing called?
Magnitizdat
What was a notable development in popular music under Khrushchev?
Guitar-poet
Who was the leading figure of the guitar-poets?
Alexander Galich
What did the guitar-poet often address?
Feelings of the individual
Who did the guitar-poet often speak to?
Socially alienated
How did the replacement of Khrushchev with Brezhnev affect culture and the arts?
Narrowed the boundaries of what was acceptable after the cultural thaw of the Khrushchev years
Why did many artists and writers find that it was easier to work in the new cultural climate created by Brezhnev?
More certainty over what was permissible
When did Soviet culture become conservative?
1970s
Which school of village prose, made popular under Brezhnev, highlighted the value of a simple rural life?
Derevenshchiki
Who emerged as an influential guitar-poet during the Brezhnev years?
Vladimir Vysotsky
What were Vladimir Vysotsky’s songs about?
Sex and delinquency
What indicated the growing alienation of young people from Soviet society in the Brezhnev years?
Outpouring of grief at Vladimir Vysotsky’s funeral in 1980
What was the government’s control over record production and radio airtime during the Brezhnev years undermined by?
Development of the cassette recorder
When did a Soviet audience become skilled at grasping subtext?
In the Brezhnev years
What were the limits of Khrushchev’s cultural thaw shown by?
Treatment of Boris Pasternak over his novel ‘Doctor Zhivago’
What was Pasternak awarded for ‘Doctor Zhivago’?
1958 Nobel Prize for Literature
What was an area of art in which nonconformity was not encouraged by Khrushchev?
Abstract art
What type of music did Khrushchev have a problem with?
Jazz
Who was employed to patrol the streets and dance halls to report on young people whose behaviour was deemed unacceptable?
Komsomol groups
When did the government hold a conference that decided on which dance moves were permissible?
1961
How did Khrushchev’s cultural policy reflect his personality?
Subject to mood swings
When did Khrushchev become less tolerant of cultural nonconformity?
In his last months as leader
What indicated that there were limits to what Brezhnev’s government was prepared to tolerate?
The trial of Joseph Brodsky, 1964
What was Brodsky sentenced to?
Five years of hard labour in prison
Due to the campaigning of fellow writers abroad and at home, how long was Brodsky actually imprisoned for?
2 years
Why was Brodsky arrested?
He was not licensed as a poet under the Writers’ Union
What is an example of a further clampdown from Brezhnev on cultural nonconformity?
The trial of Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel, 1966
What were the clashes between nonconformist artists and the government the cause of in the West?
Much bad publicity for the Soviet Union
How were nonconformist artists often viewed by the general public?
Self-indulgent; out of touch with the harsh realities of daily life
How much airtime did the government agree to give to songs not composed by official Soviet composers in the 1980s?
20%
Why did propaganda and control over culture become so important?
Use of terror lessened
