arts and culture under lenin and stalin

• proletkult

  • set up by bolsheviks in order to move away from high class art such as ballet
  • art was available to the working class - by 1920 , 84,000 members in 300 studios
  • full of experimental artists as the government was focused on civil war
• agitprop

  • lenin shut down proletkult in 1920 october to establish agitprop ( agitation propaganda )
  • government controlled art that could be understood by everyone and was designed to support the new government
  • agitprop was often produced by avant garde artists
  • style of early agitprop was more experimental than lenin was happy with
• revolutionary art

  • produced futurism , constructivism
  • lenin believed that cinema was the most important art form of the 20th century
  • filmmakers made films supporting the regime
  • alexandr rochenko : famous avant garde photographer who used photomontage to make posters celebrating the revolution
• Art under the NEP

  • lenin enforced a tighter control of artistic expression
  • according to senior communists , workers and peasants couldn't understand avant garde art
  • avant garde became less influential
  • 1920s - OGPU broke up jazz parties
  • artists forced to change their style
• socialist realism

  • stalin was very suspicious of avant garde and experimental artists
  • he argued socialist art should prioritise the government rather than individual expression
  • 1932 union of soviet writers was established - developed socialist realism
• defining the new style

  • according to the president of the union of soviet writers , soviet realism should reflect reality and aim to participant in the building of socialism
  • paintings were realistic and depicted socialist farms and factories
  • novels had to have a plot ordinary people could understand
  • 1930s - soviet ballet became more about storytelling
• artistic production

  • artists set production targets just like industrial or agricultural workers
  • 1936 , soviet artists were purged
  • many paintings focused on the five year plans
  • musical style was meant to be ' rousing and heroic '
  • stalin liked music that could be understood by ordinary people
• dissenters

  • dissenters made films and artworks that focused on lenin , while barely mentioning stalin at all
  • for example , ' three songs about lenin '