Russia - Was there a cultural revolution?

• What is the question asking?

  How far did Stalin manage to control culture?

  How far did Stalin manage to change culture?

  Difference between before and after Stalinist Rule

  NOTE: Was there a cultural change during Leninism instead of Stalinism?
• CENSORSHIP AND CONTROL OF PROPAGANDA

  Tsar - Strictly censored

  Lenin - Commissariat of popular enlightenment in charge of propaganda

  Stalin = RAPP = used to control soviet literature + A decree of 1932 = abolished competing artistic and literary organisations and unified under one banner = Socialist Realism "as it would be not as it was"
• CENTRED AROUND/DIRECTED TO WHO (TSAR)

  · Images of great leaders and religious iconography

  · Reflects exclusory and paternalistic nature of tsarist society

  · Those is power were more sophisticated than the masses and so position was justified.

  centred around current royal (Nicolas)
• CENTRED AROUND/DIRECTED TO WHO (LENIN)

  Encouraged “Proletkult” where workers and peasants produced own culture, 1920 – 400,000 – closed down in 1922 (NEP, ban on factions, civil war ending = attempting to control power internally = became to independent) 

  Move away from high art to popular art (produced by masses)
• CENTRED AROUND/DIRECTED TO WHO (STALIN)

  VERY SIMILAR TO LENIN

  Still aimed at proletariat for example.

  Centred more around Stalin = Cult of Personality
• ARTISTIC STYLE (TSAR)

  Realism = artistic style
• ARTISTIC STYLE (LENIN)

  • Encouragement of “Futurism” (machines and technology)  = industrialisation and working class
  • “constructivism” based on straight lines and geometric shapes = rigid brutish.
  • Agitational Art = used to educate the proletariat in basic Marxism = stir up class hatred, celebrate leaders and revolution
• ARTISTIC STYLE (STALIN)

  • Told a story, and was easy to understand (heroes were ordinary people)
  • Showed life as it would be and implied any who did not behave would be punished (if propaganda doesn’t mirror you (vulnerable and in minority)
  • Patriotism
  • Agitational Art continued
• OTHER TYPES OF CULTURAL CONTROL (TSAR)

  Favoured “high art/culture” (opera ballet etc)
• OTHER TYPES OF CULTURAL CONTROL (LENIN)

  Street art and theatre “re-enacting”  things like the Storming of the Winter Palace.
• OTHER TYPES OF CULTURAL CONTROL (STALIN)

  ·Agitational Art in theatre = broke down barriers and encouraged audience to response vocally to actions of play

  ·Statues = Marx and Engels unveiled in Moscow on 1st anniversary of October revolution

  ·Slogans = Moscow city soviet draped with banner “proletariat has notbing to lose but its chains

  Proletkino formed in 1923 = created political firms in line with part ideology, Eisenstein produced films for central committee (October)  = Magnitogorsk = 600,000 cinema seats sold/yea
• How much did culture actually change?

  Stalin = some change = cult of personality, socialist realism however only developing from Lenin

  Could be argued more cultural changed occurred during Lenin's regime in lines with change in government and ideology for Russia.
• AIMS OF THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION

  • Trofim Lysenko = human beings could acquire new characteristics which can be passed down generationally – influenced Stalin.
  • For this reason = focus on youth = disseminating propaganda, attacking old values and reporting parents to regime.
  • decline in other influences or beliefs that weren't communist (religion)
  • "New" Soviet Man and Woman

  many features existed under Lenin however Stalin = more extreme (totalitarian control)
• LENIN AIM FOR RELIGION

  replace religion with scientific education - "let the peasent pray to electricity, he is going to feel the power of central authorities more than that of heaven"
• LENIN RESTRICTION OF RELIGION

  • freedom of worship allowed but power of Orthodox church Restricted, 1918 = "Decree on the Separation of Church and State"
  • church lands seized, birth, marriages and deaths secularised, priests persecuted, atheist propaganda, RE banned, and clergy lost right to vote in 1918 constitution
  • 1921 - Union of the Militant Godless = held debates to prove inexistence of God = ridiculed icons/relics.
  • 1922 - nearly 1250 priests murdered - communism promoted as new religion
  • HOWEVER - 55% of peasants still active Christians - survey not everyone will come forward.
• STALIN RELIGIOUS AIM

  aim continued from Lenin however more radical
• STALIN RELIGIOUS POLICIES

  churches raided, church bells melted and heavy taxation against church, holy day abolished and no churches built in new towns or cities.

  1930 = 80% village churches were closed.

  Active Orthodox priests fell from 60,000 in 1920s to 5665 in 1941 =

  victims of purges.

  1936 constitution = priests regained right to vote, criminalised publication of religious propaganda.

  Muslims = property and institutions seized, pilgrimages to mecca forbidden Islamic church split with "New Mosque = pro-soviet line.

  Jews = schools and synagogue's closed down
• EVIDENCE THAT SUGGESTS RELIGION DID NOT CHANGE

  • 1941 = 40,000 Christian churches and 25,000 mosques closed down
  • institutions closed but faith remained strong = 1937 census 1/2 million citizens described themselves as religious believers.
• LENIN AIM - WOMAN

  to liberate woman
• LENINS POLICY WOMAN

  • marriage = slavery (1919 USSR = highest marriage rate, mid 1920s highest divorce rate
  • sex discrimination outlawed
  • divorced (only one partner and cost 3 roubles) and abortion legalised (first European country)
  • family seen as relic of bourgeois society.
  • encouraged woman into employment = socialised domestic duties by providing creches, kindergartens, canteens
• PROBLEMS WITH LENINS POLICIES ON WOMAN

  Cost of creches in 1922 = amounted to more then entire national budget = not implemented.

  Ease of divorce backfired on woman = many abandoned when pregnant - 1929 industrial work by 1929 was similar as 1913 (woman single bread winners)
• STALIN AIM WOMAN

  continued with liberation of woman but soon created issues

  Great Retreat (1939) = conscious rejection of social experiments.
• STALIN POLICY WOMAN

  woman again wives/mothers + lives strictly controlled (divorce harder, abortion only allowed on medical grounds)

  laws passed against prostitution and homosexuality, illigetimate children stigmatised.

  Birth rate increases = 25/1000 in 1933 to 31/1000 in 1940.

  shown to be more feminine in propaganda.

  clear lack of equality - paid less, promoted less (managers)
• RESULTS OF STALINS POLICY ON WOMAN

  number of woman working in factories increased as well as large numbers working on collective farms.

  single + divorced woman more likely to be left unemployed and unsupported - no significant improvement for woman in 1930s.

  additional burden had become more severe.

  divorce did decline but so did marriage.
• SUMMARY - cultural revolution in regards to Woman?

  Was Lenin who introduced more revolutionary policies for woman

  In fact, Stalin returned to more pre-communist ideals about woman

  Therefore, despite small culture change for woman during Lenins regime, the issues that came with this meant that Stalin had to return to somewhat Tsarist policy.

  Therefore NO CULTURAL REVOLUTION FOR WOMAN because attitudes about them didnt radically change = still stigmatisation to traditional opionions of the female sex (mothers) - LINK TO DEF OF CULTURE
• what is a cultural revolution

  culture = set of patterns of human activity within society, and how we act, think and behave based on societal values

  revolution = sudden, radical or complete change.
• LENINS AIM - FAMILY

  was to liberate woman and therefore get rid of traditional idea of family.
• LENINS POLICY - FAMILY

  socialisation of the family - children would be the responsibility of whole collective population (creches)
• LENIN PROBLEMS WITH POLICY - FAMILY

  children in gangs, begging, stealing and resorting to prostitution - social instability
• LENIN EFFECT OF POLICY - FAMILY

  1920s - 7-9 million orphans (under age of 13) = ridding of family.
• STALIN POLICY: FAMILY

  1936 Family Code - family became new focus of propaganda - Stalin represented as a father figure, wedding rings reintroduced

  abortion made illegal, contraception banned.

  divorce = high fees and both parties had to be at proceedings.

  tax exemptions and bonus pay for mothers with 6 or more children

  adultery criminalised.
• STALIN FAMILY: RESULTS

  +Birth rate went up from 25 per 1000 in 1933 to 31 per 1000 in 1940 - states change of attitude positively received

  -clear retreat from communist values - ideological compromise in favour of social stability pre-war

  -divorce remained high and population growth fell until 1940
• LENIN AIM - YOUNG PEOPLE

  to ensure literacy and education - more social awareness and class consciousness
• LENIN POLICY - YOUNG PEOPLE

  9 years of free education and schools placed under "commissariat for enlightenment"

  ideology more important then acquiring knowledge - children expected to do socially useful work

  teachers replaced by communists

  exams abandoned, homework not allowed, punishment/discipline not allowed.

  everything political message - alphabet (A=all power to soviets, B = Bolshevik)

  NEP = slight move back to original methods but many children left school 1923 = half number of students from 1921.
• LENIN POLICY PROBLEMS - YOUNG PEOPLE

  vast majority of teachers not communists (3.1% primary, 5.5% secondary) + teaching went on as before however more misbehaviour as had lost there authority.
• STALINS AIM - YOUNG PEOPLE

  Industrialisation required better educated and skilled workforce
• STALIN POLICY - YOUNG PEOPLE

  1930s = more organised school structure - traditional methods and discipline - Narkompros = Commissariat for Education

  core subjects = science, reading and writing -schools selective

  Uni under control of Vesenkha - support industry.

  report cards and exams came back + military training incorporated

  Youth organisations also important - Komsomol, Young Pioneers
• STALIN POLICY PROBLEMS - YOUNG PEOPLE

  +education successful - 65% literate before revolution, 94% aged 9-49 in towns, and 86% in countryside by 1941

  -traditional methods used to achieve this - teachers given higher status and not equal access to education for all.
• LENINS POLICIES: The New Soviet Man

  urban men should become more communist - soviet state had been undertaken in name of proletariat.

  Russian men misogynistic, conservative and hostile to state - alcoholism and domestic violence strife (1920s = 39% of proletariat men admitted to using prostitutes)

  little change - opposed to communist state and NEP did little to alter this attitude.
• STALINS POLICIES: The New Soviet Man

  Housing = every barrack = "Red Corner" - cultural training ground to read, listen to lectures and discuss political issues.

  Work history recorded = party status, production achievements, study or course attendance = made public and used to decipher distribution of material goods.

  cinema/entertainment celebrated the ways in which citizens should behave (600,00 seats sold per year at cinema in Magnitogorsk)

  Use of agitators = 1936 214 were employed to discuss political; issues and present interpretations of domestic and international events