Popular Arts, Culture and Stalin's Transformation.

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Popular Arts, Culture and Stalin’s Transformation

The Bolshevik Revolution had an enormous effect on traditions in Russia. Russia had a long tradition of culture. The revolution produced a new range from radical experimentation to more conservative ideas. By 1924, popular culture and the arts were very much in a state of change.

  1. Modernism was challenging the more dominant approach of realism
  1. linked to movements in the west and there was a great desire to experiment
  1. Enough talent and creativity to pose a threat to the new regime.
  1. Freedom to express worried the Bolshevik Government.

1n 1917 the Bolsheviks were divided over the importance and direction of cultural policy- There were two different views. One from Lenin and one from Bogdanov.

  • Lenin said that culture was vital but second to class conflict and power.
  • He wanted high calibre writers on the parties’ side.
  • Created a Commissariat of Enlightenment and a ministry of culture.
  • Bolshevik sympathetic artist were labelled by Trotsky as “Fellow Travellers”.

  • Alexander Bogdanov argued the state needed to create a ‘Proletarian Culture’.
  • He believed new proletarian artists should be assembled, to serve a social and political purpose.
  • This group became known as the Constructivists, aiming to create a new social culture.
  • Workers and peasants were encouraged to create their own culture, to write their won stories and put on their own theatre shows.

However this was widely restricted later on in the 1920’s as many viewpoints were being expressed, some which would have challenged the Bolshevik authority.

What impact did the Bolshevik regime have on the arts and popular culture between 1917 and 1924?

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The Bolshevik regime had an extensive effect on art and popular culture. In the art world many of the traditional aspects were challenged. Other angles on art such as Modernism which was a movement based upon abstract symbols, became increasingly popular. However the Bolsheviks did not have much control over their viewpoints so set about either restricting them or by rivalling them. They employed an artist called Mayakovsky to produce slogans and posters as propaganda; they were however particularly striking and is a good example of an artist who used his creative talents for the benefit of the Bolshevik ...

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