USSR

Question 1

Lenin Quote

Answer 1

‘Art belongs to the people. It must have its deepest roots in the broad mass of workers… it must arouse and develop the artist within them’.

Question 2

Uses of music

Answer 2

Compositions intended for mass use and mass participation
Writing for choirs and ensembles
Music commissioned for Red Army
Music as a response to new social/patriotic themes
Thought art and music should be used as a device for cultural transformation of people - Bolsheviks were the ‘vanguard of the revolution’

Question 3

Types of music used by Communist Party

Answer 3

Classical - to improve musical education of workers

‘Light’ or popular music - widespread appeal but didn’t spread ideology - Q of art for the sake of art being acceptable

Question 4

Pre 1920s

Answer 4

1917 - People’s Commissariat of Enlightenment formed shortly after Bolsheviks took power - effectively cultural industry, had control of everywhere music was taught/played
1919 - nationalised all film companies, recording studios, cinemas, music halls, etc. This shut down all privately owned entertainment
Music more important for enlightening/propagandist function than commercial according to party - had to be ideologically correct but also have mass appeal so supported party to largest % of people.
As most Soviets were peasants, main focus to mobilise them and persuade them to join cause - most peasants resented landowners, but collectivisation was unpopular. Used Agitprop trains/boats

Question 5

Agitprop trains/boats

Answer 5

Artists and musicians sent to different regions to spread messages as it’s difficult to reach far off villages otherwise

Question 6

1920s

Answer 6

Avant-garde modernism - 1920s revolutionary Utopian, lots of experimental composers/music
Tension between what public responded to and what musicians/communist party believed the public should want
NEP restored some private trade - private theatres, etc. - to improve transport of goods through economy. Dance halls and private theatres coming back was a side-effect
Jazz bands and light (popular) music on revolutionary themes - e.g. Kirpichi by Pavel German. Communists still suspicious of light music, so youth organisations would go undercover to see what jazz musicians were doing

Question 7

Arsenij Avraamov

Answer 7

Composed Symphony of Sirens (1922) using ships’ sirens, factory whistles etc. as instruments
Idea that music of ‘utopia’ had to be created in a way the Russian Bourgeoisie could not have imagined
Was incorporated anthem of National Communist Party

Question 8

Lev Theremin

Answer 8

Invented the theremin - electronic instrument used through moving hands around instrument’s magnetic field

Question 9

Five-Year Plans: General

Answer 9

Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians - raising workers’/party members educational/cultural level

Question 10

Five-Year Plans: First

1928-1932

Answer 10

Attacks on bourgeois musical genres - jazz, tango, ‘romances’ (Russian balances with Romani influences)
1928 - Maskim Gorsky essay on ‘Music of the Fat’
Politics of denunciation and anonymous critique common
Focus on Stalin, heroic levels of production, marching songs, ballads
Much of this reversed by second FYP

Question 11

Five-Year Plans: Second

1933-1938

Answer 11

Focus on reorienting cultural policy
1932 - RAPM dissolved
Romances and jazz returned, as did star system (*****)
Romance singer Vadim Kozin very popular

Question 12

1930s

Answer 12

‘Mass song’ - distinctive form of Soviet music, where anyone could join in chorus. Good for factory and military choirs
1932: Promoted ‘high culture’ but had to address masses. Lectures to explain music to workers, and Bolshoi Theatre had to adapt for them
1937: Festival of Soviet Music set precedent for many similar annual and commemorative events - major composers wrote songs, prizes had important material benefits
Musical comedies in film (Volga, Volga)
Music for children - Peter and the Wolf (Prokofiev), showed children how an orchestra worked
Composers and musicians frequently visited other parts of country, such as collective farms and Red Army units. Both to spread music and collect folk songs

Question 13

Censorship and purges

Answer 13

Structure of musical profession rewarded those who did as the party wanted
Censorship existed - most so after performances through Pravda editorials ordered by Stalin/a central member of Party. Had to self-criticise to avoid this
Glavrepertkom approved theatre/concert performances
1937-8: Great Purges. Classical musicians worked for cultural elite, and were generally safer than light musicians (very few famous classicals arrested, while quite a few very famous light musicians were). Light musicians more under suspicion due to nature of music, but no musician would know whether they were/not safer than others
1944: Vadim Kozin sent to gulag for being gay/refusing to write song for Stalin

Question 14

Stalinist cultural politics

Answer 14

Socialist Realism
Attack on formalism
Folk music

Question 15

Socialist Realism

Answer 15

Introduced 1934 Writers’ Congress. Art had to be made to help create socialist consciousness among masses, with optimistic representation of Soviet structure and future
Most recognisable in visual arts, but existed in all
Krushchev (1958): ‘Soviet musicians are called upon to reflect reality in moving, beautiful, poetic images… all that distinguishes the Soviet people’s perception of the world’
‘Occasional music’ celebrating specific events
Songs often about Soviet war heroes, pilots breaking aviation records, etc.

Question 16

Attack on ‘Formalism’

Answer 16

Formalism - only thing that matters is music’s ‘form’ (art for art’s sake) - wanted to do exciting things with tone, structure, etc. instead of focusing on pro-Communism message. This went against party’s emphasis on content of music and ideological focus

Two official anti-formalism campaigns (1936, 1948).

Example: Shostakovich’s opera The Lady Macbeth of Mtensk (1936), received a hostile review in Pravda after Stalin saw it, and was not performed again until revised in 1962. No actual punishment though - set an example to other compoers

Question 17

Folk Music

Answer 17

1930s Soviet classical music often based on folk songs/dances of nationalities in USSR
1934 Party directive- ‘the development of cultures national in form and socialist in content’
State/Party sponsored amateur folk ensembles, composer visits to collect folk songs
Factories made 1.5 balaikas and domras/year
New operas and classical music based on folk themes - e.g. Katchaturian’s Sabre Dance 1942
Long-term impact on musical culture in USSR

Question 18

Musicians in Great Patriotic War

Answer 18

Tomoff: ‘Musicians served the Soviet war effort as perhaps no other artistic group did’
Many musicians volunteered to fight or join civil defence units
Most created songs inspired by war efforts - 100s of new songs created
Number of male musicians of military age killed in battle significantly lower than Soviet pop in general - value high enough some could get military exemption
Songs mostly based not on reality but instead focused on triumph and patriotism
Concert brigades held performances for Red Army - well-known Soviet songs from WW2 sang. 60,000 concerts on front line during early stages of wear
Light musician still at risk of persecution - 1944 imprisonment of Vadim Kozin
Many musicians gained prestige, elite status improving
Radio used for connectedness- Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony written and performed in Leningrad during siege

Question 19

After the war - attacks (2)

Answer 19

Campaign against ‘formalism’

Purge against ‘cosmopolitanism’

Question 20

Post-war attack against formalism

Answer 20

Ideological purges of cultural bureaucracy (Zhdanov period)
1946 - arrest of Eddie Rosner
1948 - attack on classical music
Split between populist and highbrow groups in musical profession, internal rife caused issues
Said there was too mush symphonic music, inaccessible to public

Shostakovich and others lost jobs, many stopped writing opera (riskiest) until after Stalin’s death. Shostakovich worked on choral music with Party themes, and many other musicians did similarly

Question 21

Purge against ‘cosmopolitanism’

Answer 21

Purge also affected musicians
1949 - Pravda editorial accused theatre critics of ‘rootless cosmopolitanism’ (Stalin either wrote or endorsed the editorial)
Anti-cosmopolitanism - fear of foreign influence. Anti-Semitic. Preferred Russian popular forms to foreign ones

Light music fared worse than classical - purge of jazz, saxophones banned 1949. Singer Lydia Ruslanova arrested 1950 because husband in circle with Stalin’s rival General Zhukov
Imprisoned musicians could keep playing in camps. Theatre at Magadan featured both Rosner and Kozin, as they had both been sent to gulags around the town

Question 22

Post-Stalin

Answer 22

Continuation of mass song, revival of Soviet jazz, some imprisoned musicians released
Fears of western music’s influence on young people did continue - rock, disco, etc.

Question 23

Tomoff quote

Answer 23

‘Musicians served the Soviet war effort as perhaps no other artistic group did’

Question 24

Pavel German

Answer 24

Wrote song ‘Little Bricks’, one of the very most popular light music songs on revolutionary themes