WHAT IS “SOCIALIST REALISM” AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?

WHAT IS SOCIALIST REALISM? Repression of the arts is not an essential element of communism. Before the doctrine of Socialist Realism was imposed, Russia had a proud history of not only using the arts as a form of social critique, but also of producing many of the most renowned avant-garde artists in the world. After the 1917 revolution, the early days of Bolshevik Russia witnessed something of a wave of artistic freedom. Many new movements of avant-garde art emerged during this period, such as Rayonism, Russian Futurism, and Constructivism. This began to change in 1925 when Stalin took control of the party. From 1929 to 1932, the idea of Socialist Realism emerged. The term is attributed to Stalin himself. Describing artists as “engineers of the human mind,” Stalin forced all Soviet arts to serve the state. All cultural production was now required to be affirmative and patriotic. No dissent or moral ambiguity was tolerated. The writer and Marxist thinker Maxim Gorky, a favorite of…