what ideals are being conveyed to viewers (what do they make you think?) and how do they, as a whole, make you feel (and I do mean feel – emotions here are critical)?

 

Soviet Social Realism can be considered the “official art” of the USSR. It began (sanctioned as such) in the 1930s under Stalin and continued to be in favor into the late Soviet era. It was manifested most clearly in sculpture, architecture, paintings-frescoes-mosaics, music, poetry, and literature. One of the most interesting developments connected with this art form is that it became defused to all parts of the Soviet Union and way beyond it after World War II and during the Cold War – from China and Vietnam and North Korea in the east to Cuba in the west and south into Africa in the south to Eastern Europe (all the Soviet allied/Warsaw Pact nations) in the north. In this way, Social Realism acted as a form of a unifying agent for the entire Soviet Block/Communist nations.

 

Above all else, as the word combination suggests, this form of art was above all social and realistic. It was created and meant for the people or society (all of it, not just the elites who usually were the patrons of the arts and thus it was created for them) and was meant to address real or tangible issues that appealed and should have appealed to society at large. In other words, it was “real art for real people.” But, there is a key twist herein: this art form was also meant to convey socialist ideology and ideals illustrating the way that society should develop into the future. Thus, it is not so “real,” as it sought to also show how things should be, not necessarily how they are. This art form was to provide a direction or roadmap for how a socialist society should become in the future. So, it is “real art addressing real peoples’ concerns and ideals,” or how things should be, not necessarily how they are presently. It also meant to underscore the power of the State and the legitimacy of its ideology. Taken all together, Soviet Social Realism was a form of expression for the State to justify its existence and its elites’ governance over the country. All art carries ideology, but Soviet Social Realism was boldly and overtly, unapologetically ideological. More on Social Realism may be found in Ch. 41 of your A History Of Russia, Riasanovsky, Steinberg book on line.

 

In the attached PowerPoint file, I provide three sets of visuals of Soviet Social Realism: Sculpture; Architecture; and, Painting/Mosaics/Frescoes.

 

Examine all of them with the above discussion in mind, and then choose one set to write an essay of no less than 300 words. Consider the questions: what ideals are being conveyed to viewers (what do they make you think?) and how do they, as a whole, make you feel (and I do mean feel – emotions here are critical)?