Socialist Realism

Socialist Realism, form of realist art originating in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in the 1930s and spreading to other Communist countries after World War II. Intended to glorify the proletariat, the Communist party, and the national leader, it essentially constituted a form of State propaganda. It was forged in the USSR under Josef Stalin and the first move towards its official establishment there came in 1932 when the Central Committee decreed that all independent artistic groups be disbanded in favour of new State-controlled unions. In 1934 Stalin's son-in-law Andrei Zhdanov gave a speech at the All Union Congress of Soviet Writers in which he asserted Socialist Realism to be the only form of art approved by the party. Henceforth, artists would be required to provide a “historically concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development ...combined with the task of educating workers in the spirit of communism”. Zhdanov also repeated Stalin's phrase describing the artist as an “engineer of the human soul”.

As there was little supporting aesthetic theory to be found in the writings of Marx, Engels, and Lenin, the substance of Socialist Realism developed gradually from these initial, rather vague statements through the subsequent criticisms and comments of the party. Broadly it came to mean that the artist should depict real events and people in an idealized, optimistic way that provided a glimpse of the glorious future of the USSR under communism. Art was to be accessible to the masses and should serve a social purpose. Concurrently with the show trials and purges of political opponents in the 1930s, artists who did not conform to the dogmas of Socialist Realism were either ousted from employment, exiled, or killed. In stark contrast with the avant-garde atmosphere of the 1920s, all “formalist”, progressive art was decried as capitalist and bourgeois, and thus devoid of any relevance to the proletariat.

Though party decrees drastically narrowed artistic freedom, there was nevertheless a variety of interpretations of Socialist Realism in terms of style and subject-matter. Popular subects included images of workers in the fields or factories, glorifying portraits of Stalin and other State figures, historical scenes of the Revolution, and idealized depictions of domestic life. Stylistically, artists were encouraged to emulate the work of Ilya Repin and other members of the late 19th-century Wanderers group, though some employed a timid Impressionist or naive manner. One of the most favoured exponents of Socialist Realism was the painter Sergei Gerasimov, who produced such paradigm images as A Collective Farm Festival (1936-1937) and Stalin and Voroshilov in the Kremlin (1938; both Moscow, Tretyakov Gallery).

Following the end of World War II, Socialist Realism acquired a vehemently nationalist element, with foreign influences being especially criticized. This led to a highly polished, academic style and an emphasis on glorious historical scenes, for example, Vladimir Serov: The Entry of Aleksandr Nevski into Pskov (1945, St Petersburg, Russian Museum). The new Eastern Bloc countries also had Socialist Realism imposed on them by the USSR. However, with the death of Stalin in 1953 and the decline of his reputation under Nikita Khrushchev, Socialist Realism became less forcefully upheld, though it remained the official aesthetic. It was also eagerly taken up in Communist China, where it was the only acceptable style until the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. With the disintegration of the Communist Bloc in the late 1980s, Socialist Realism fell out of favour and instead began to be used ironically in some works as a means of attacking the old Communist system.