Clashes between artists and government (60-85)

• • Khrushchev ended use of terror, released 2M political prisoners by 1960.
  • Allowed culture of criticism, said 'If Stalin was here he would have you shot!'.
  • Condemned dissidents to psychiatric hospitals.
• Art and culture under Brezhnev

  • Critical of Khrushchev's willingness to publish works that exposed difficulty of Soviet life.
  • Nostalgia; Brezhnev attempt to revive faith and interest in the heroic days of the revolution.
  • Cultural conservatism; during 1970s and 1980s, Soviet Ballet in demand worldwide; Bolshoi Ballet was a source of national pride; ballet 'Spartacus' was a Soviet cultural triumph; story of a slave revolt kept with Soviet ideology.
  • Types of dissidents; obedient functionaries; loyal oppositionists; dissidents.
• The Sinyavsky-Daniel Trial

  • Ended hopes for a cultural thaw; authors Sinyavsky and Daniel, arrested for 'anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda'.
  • Clear Message that Cultural Thaw was over; KGB Report revealed 1292 anti-Soviet authors who wrote almost 10,000 anti-Soviet documents; new leadership ordered arresr and trial of Daniel and Sinyavsky.
  • Essentially a Show Trial; only evidence presented against them was their own writings; Daniel's 'This is Moscow Speaking' and Sinyavsky's 'The Trial Begins'; both writers enjoyed freedom and fame under Khrushchev.
  • Fears of Stalinist revival by Brezhnev.
• The impact of international pressure

  • International Outrage; persecution of writers and artists provoked international outrage; Brodsky released in 1965.
  • Change in tactics; international pressure led to change in approach; after Sinyavsky-Daniel Trial, show trials and imprisonment became rare.
  • Emigration; Brodsky and other dissident artists emigrated to the USA, Brodsky won Nobel Prize for Literature.
  • Lesser-Known artists; 7000 to 8000 still received 'psychiatric treatment'.
• The impact of the Prague Spring

  • Cultural Hardening; Czech reformers attempt to liberalise Communist rule via 'socialism with a human face'; greater artistic freedom; led to popular pressure within Czechoslovakia to break away from USSR; Brezhnev responded with armed invasion.
  • Increasing Pressure on Artists to conform; cultural libealisation threat to communist rule; Tvardovsky, editor of 'New World' magazine, forced to resign in 1970.
  • Nostalgia; Soviet films such as 'Liberation' celebrated the Soviet victory in WW2.
• Failure to limit Dissident Artists, 1968-1985

  • Dissident Artists still defy Brezhnev, publish into the 1980s.
  • Goriunova's 'Forest Ritual' was a naked performance in a forest; direct attack on nudity ban in Soviet art; statement about female beauty independent of male desires.
  • Moscow Conceptualists; made art that was 'rebellion against everyday life'; Kabakov's 'Ten Characters' showed dullness of Soviet life
  • Mitki Collective; Shagin wrote on absurdities of Soviet life; rejected system by wearing old army shirts and drinking cheap wine; 1974 Mitki Exhibit destroyed by police bulldozers.
• Brezhnev's Art and Culture

  • Art and Culture under Brezhnev.
  • Sinyavsky-Daniel Trial.
  • Impact of international pressure.
  • Impact of Prague Spring.
  • Dissidents, 1968-85.