Proletkult, Avant Garde, and Socialist Realism (17-53)

• • Avant-Garde artwork used to promote revolution, often featured Lenin.
  • Proletkult used to celebrate working class art.
  • Agitprop used to support government artwork.
  • Lenin encouraged development of cinema, eg Eisenstein was a famous cinema director.
• • Stalin encouraged Socialist Realism, a straightforward depiction of socialism.
  • Anti-Stalin artists praised Lenin, such as Dziga Vertov.
  • Stalin banned bad news of all forms.
• Lunacharsky and Proletkult

  • New Revolutionary Society should be dominated by Proletarian Culture; art should be made by workers to reflect experiences of workers.
  • Proletarian Culture; focus on collective experience; encouraged workers to develop artistic talent.
  • Proletkult; proletarian culture movement; by 1920, had 84K members working in over 300 studios.
  • Published 'Gorn'; a monthly magazine that showcased Proletarian art.
  • Independent of Communist Party.
  • Bukharin promoted Proletkult in Pravda Magazine.
• Lenin's views on Revolutionary Culture

  • Critical of Lunacharsky's idea of Proletkult; argued best culture was universal; all art reflects the human spirit; defended Bourgeois culture and said that workers should learn from Bourgeois artists.
  • Disliked Proletkult; argued it was akin to searching for a new culture; encouraged artists to embrace Futurism.
  • Anti-Futurism; viewed as degenerate; celebrated individual self-expression; most working people could not understand it.
• Agitprop under Lenin

  • Department of Agitation Propaganda; art could be used to inspire people to support the new Government.
  • Commissar of Enlightenment; both departments organised propaganda to support the Government.
  • Avant-Garde; Agitprop artwork often produced by avant-garde artists working for the government; this style was far more experimental than Lenin was happy with.
• Painting and Sculpture under Lenin

  • Avant-Garde artists helped government make posters, sculptures and paintings to encourage support for communism.
  • El Lissitzky created the poster 'Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge'; uses geometric shapes to represent the two armies; formed the basis of a sculpture unveiled in Moscow in October 1918 which showed a red wedge splitting a white stone block.
  • Over 100 Agitprop Posters produced during Civil War.
  • ROSTA; Russian Telegraph Agency; hung posters on trains.
  • Posters; Vladimir Mayakovsky created graphic posters reminding people of Tsarist atrocities.
• Revolutionary Cinema

  • Lenin believed cinema most important form of media.
  • Dziga Vertov; rejected Hollywood Style; reject scripts, sets and actors; filmed people as they worked or had fun; Futurism led him to speed film up and use montages for special effects; placed cameras on trains to capture feeling of speed; famous movie was 'A man with a movie camera' told the story of life in a Soviet city; Pravda called his movies 'insane'.
  • Eisenstein; unlike Vertov, used scripts and actors; films about October Revolution such as 'Strike'; by late 1920s, criticised as not understandable for workers.
• Art under the NEP

  • Initially loose control of artists; Lenin focus on winning Civil War.
  • End of Civil War; Lenin enforced tighter control of artistic expression; officials claimed peasants could not understand avant-garde art; artists such as Kazimir Malevich attacked, adopted traditional styles; Petrograd State Institute of Artistic Culture closed following Pravda Campaign against Avant-garde artwork.
  • Moral Problems; American clothing associated with 'Flapper Style'; jazz music popular in Soviet cities; rhythmic music caused sexual promiscuity and drunkenness; OGPU broke up Jazz Parties.
• Art and Culture under Lenin

  • Lunacharsky and Proletkult.
  • Lenin's views on revolutionary culture.
  • Agitprop under Lenin.
  • Painting and Sculpture under Lenin.
  • Revolutionary Cinema.
  • Art under the NEP.