Affirmation of socialist realism. Socialist realism in literature

Socialist realism (lat. Socisalis - social, real is - real) is a unitary, pseudo-artistic direction and method of Soviet literature, formed under the influence of naturalism and the so-called proletarian literature. He was a leading figure in the arts from 1934 to 1980. Soviet criticism associated with him the highest achievements of art of the 20th century. The term "socialist realism" appeared in 1932. In the 1920s, lively discussions took place on the pages of periodicals about a definition that would reflect the ideological and aesthetic originality of the art of the socialist era. F. Gladkov, Yu. Lebedinsky proposed calling the new method “proletarian realism”, V. Mayakovsky - “tendentious”, I. Kulik - revolutionary socialist realism, A. Tolstoy - “monumental”, Nikolai Volnovoy - “revolutionary romanticism”, in Polishchuk - “constructive dynamism.” There were also such names as “revolutionary realism”, “romantic realism”, “communist realism”.

The participants in the discussion also argued sharply about whether there should be one method or two - socialist realism and red romanticism. The author of the term “socialist realism” was Stalin. The first chairman of the Organizing Committee of the USSR SP Gronsky recalled that in a conversation with Stalin he proposed calling the method of Soviet art “socialist realism.” The task of Soviet literature and its method were discussed at M. Gorky’s apartment; Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov constantly participated in the discussions. Thus, socialist realism arose according to the Stalin-Gorky project. This term has a political meaning. By analogy, the names “capitalist” and “imperialist realism” arise.

The definition of the method was first formulated at the First Congress of USSR Writers in 1934. The charter of the Union of Soviet Writers noted that socialist realism is the main method of Soviet literature, it “requires from the writer a truthful, historically specific depiction of reality in its revolutionary development. At the same time, the truthfulness and historical specificity of the artistic depiction must be combined with the task of ideological reworking and education of the working people in the spirit of socialism." This definition characterizes the typological features of socialist realism and says that socialist realism is the main method of Soviet literature. This means there cannot be any other method. Socialist realism became the method of government. The words “demands from the writer” sound like a military order. They testify that the writer has the right to freedom - he is obliged to show life “in revolutionary development,” that is, not what is, but what should be. The purpose of his works is ideological and political - “the education of working people in the spirit of socialism.” The definition of socialist realism is political in nature, it is devoid of aesthetic content.

The ideology of socialist realism is Marxism, which is based on voluntarism; it is a defining feature of the worldview. Marx believed that the proletariat was capable of destroying the world of economic determinism and building a communist paradise on earth.

In the speeches and articles of party ideologists, the terms “ibisi of the literary front”, “ideological war”, “weapons” were often found. In the new art, methodology was most valued. The core of socialist realism is the communist party. Socialist realists assessed what was depicted from the standpoint of communist ideology, sang the praises of the communist party and its leaders, the socialist ideal. The foundation of the theory of socialist realism was V. I. Lenin’s article “Party organization and party literature.” A characteristic feature of socialist realism was the aestheticization of Soviet politics and the politicization of literature. The criterion for evaluating a work was not artistic quality, but ideological meaning. Often artistically helpless works were awarded state awards.The Lenin Prize was awarded to L.I. Brezhnev's trilogy "Small Land", "Renaissance", "Virgin Land". Stalinists, Leninians, ideological myths about the friendship of peoples and internationalism brought to the point of absurdity appeared in literature.

Socialist realists depicted life as they wanted to see it according to the logic of Marxism. In their works, the city stood as the personification of harmony, and the village - disharmony and chaos. The personification of good was the Bolshevik, the personification of evil was the fist. Hardworking peasants were considered kulaks.

In the works of socialist realists, the interpretation of the land has changed. In the literature of past times, it was a symbol of harmony, the meaning of existence; for them, the earth is the personification of evil. The embodiment of private property instincts is often the mother. In the story by Peter Punch "Mom, die!" the ninety-five-year-old Gnat Hunger dies long and hard. But the hero can join the collective farm only after her death. Full of despair, he shouts “Mom, die!”

The positive heroes of the literature of socialist realism were workers, poor peasants, and representatives of the intelligentsia appeared as cruel, immoral, and treacherous.

“Genetically and typologically,” notes D. Nalivaiko, “socialist realism refers to the specific phenomena of the artistic process of the 20th century, formed under totalitarian regimes.” “This, according to D. Nalivaiko, “is a specific doctrine of literature and art, constructed by the Communist Party bureaucracy and engaged artists, imposed from above by state power and implemented under its leadership and constant control.”

Soviet writers had every right to praise the Soviet way of life, but they had no right to the slightest criticism. Socialist realism was both a rod and a bludgeon. Artists who adhered to the norms of socialist realism became victims of repression and terror. Among them are Kulish, V. Polishchuk, Grigory Kosynka, Zerov, V. Bobinsky, O. Mandelstam, N. Gumilev, V. Stus. He crippled the creative destinies of such talented artists as P. Tychyna, V. Sosyura, Rylsky, A. Dovzhenko.

Socialist realism has essentially become socialist classicism with such norms and dogmas as the already mentioned communist party spirit, nationalism, revolutionary romance, historical optimism, and revolutionary humanism. These categories are purely ideological, devoid of artistic content. Such norms were an instrument of crude and incompetent interference in the affairs of literature and art. The party bureaucracy used socialist realism as a weapon for the destruction of artistic values. Works by Nikolai Khvylovy, V. Vinnichenko, Yuri Klen, E. Pluzhnik, M. Orseth, B.-I. Antonich were banned for many decades. Belonging to the order of socialist realists became a matter of life and death. A. Sinyavsky, speaking at the Copenhagen meeting of cultural figures in 1985, said that “socialist realism resembles a heavy forged chest, which occupies the entire room reserved for literature for housing. It remained either to climb into the chest and live under its lid, or to face the chest , falling, from time to time squeezing sideways or crawling under it. This chest is still standing, but the walls of the room have moved apart, or the chest was moved to a more spacious and display room. And the clouds folded into screens have become dilapidated, decayed... none of the serious writers use them ". Tired of developing purposefully in a certain direction. Everyone is looking for workarounds. Someone ran into the forest and plays on the lawn, fortunately from the large hall where there is a dead chest, this is easier to do."

The problems of the methodology of socialist realism became the object of heated debate in 1985-1990. Criticism of socialist realism was based on the following arguments: socialist realism limits and impoverishes the artist’s creative searches, it is a system of control over art, “evidence of the ideological charity” of the artist.

Socialist realism was considered the pinnacle of realism. It turned out that the socialist realist was higher than the realist of the 18th-19th centuries, higher than Shakespeare, Defoe, Diderot, Dostoevsky, Nechui-Levitsky.

Of course, not all art of the 20th century is socialist realist. This was also felt by the theorists of socialist realism, who in recent decades proclaimed it an open aesthetic system. In fact, there were other directions in the literature of the 20th century. Socialist realism ceased to exist when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Only under conditions of independence did fiction get the opportunity to develop freely. The main criterion for evaluating a literary work was the aesthetic, artistic level, truthfulness, and originality of the figurative reproduction of reality. Following the path of free development, Ukrainian literature is not regulated by party dogmas. Focusing on the best achievements of art, it occupies a worthy place in the history of world literature.

“Socialist realism” is a term for the communist theory of literature and art, depending on purely political principles, and since 1934 has been mandatory for Soviet literature, literary criticism and literary criticism, as well as for all artistic life. This term was first used on May 20, 1932 by I. Gronsky, chairman of the organizing committee Union of Writers of the USSR(corresponding party resolution dated April 23, 1932, Literaturnaya Gazeta, 1932, May 23.). In 1932/33, Gronsky and the head of the fiction sector of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) V. Kirpotin vigorously promoted this term. It received retroactive force and was extended to previous works of Soviet writers recognized by party criticism: all of them became examples of socialist realism, starting with Gorky’s novel “Mother”.

Boris Gasparov. Socialist realism as a moral problem

The definition of socialist realism given in the first charter of the Union of Writers of the USSR, with all its ambiguity, remained the starting point for later interpretations. Socialist realism was defined as the main method of Soviet fiction and literary criticism, “which requires the artist to truthfully, historically specific depiction of reality in its revolutionary development. Moreover, the truthfulness and historical specificity of the artistic depiction of reality must be combined with the task of ideological remodeling and education in the spirit of socialism.” The relevant section of the 1972 charter stated: “The proven creative method of Soviet literature is socialist realism, based on the principles of party membership and nationality, the method of a truthful, historically specific depiction of reality in its revolutionary development. Socialist realism provided Soviet literature with outstanding achievements; Having at his disposal an inexhaustible wealth of artistic means and styles, he opens up every opportunity for the manifestation of individual talent and innovation in any genre of literary creativity.”

Thus, the basis of socialist realism is the idea of ​​literature as an instrument of ideological influence CPSU, limiting it to the tasks of political propaganda. Literature should help the party in the struggle for the victory of communism; in a formulation attributed to Stalin, writers from 1934 to 1953 were seen as “engineers of human souls.”

The principle of partisanship required the rejection of the empirically observed truth of life and its replacement with “party truth.” A writer, critic or literary critic had to write not what he himself learned and understood, but what the party declared “typical”.

The requirement for a “historically specific image of reality in revolutionary development” meant the adaptation of all phenomena of the past, present and future to the teaching historical materialism in its latest party edition at that time. For example, Fadeev I had to rewrite the novel “The Young Guard,” which received the Stalin Prize, because in hindsight, based on educational and propaganda considerations, the party wanted its supposedly leading role in the partisan movement to be more clearly presented.

The depiction of modernity “in its revolutionary development” implied a rejection of the description of imperfect reality for the sake of the expected ideal society (proletarian paradise). One of the leading theoreticians of socialist realism, Timofeev, wrote in 1952: “The future is revealed as tomorrow, already born in today and illuminating it with its light.” From such premises, alien to realism, the idea of ​​a “positive hero” arose, who was supposed to serve as a model as a builder of a new life, an advanced personality, not subject to any doubts, and it was expected that this ideal character of the communist tomorrow would become the main character of the works of socialist realism. Accordingly, socialist realism demanded that a work of art should always be based on the principles of "optimism", which should reflect the communist belief in progress, as well as prevent feelings of depression and unhappiness. The depiction of defeats in the Second World War and human suffering in general was contrary to the principles of socialist realism, or at least should have been outweighed by the depiction of victories and positive aspects. In the sense of the internal inconsistency of the term, the title of Vishnevsky’s play “Optimistic Tragedy” is indicative. Another term often used in connection with socialist realism, “revolutionary romance,” helped to obscure the departure from reality.

In the mid-1930s, “nationality” joined the demands of socialist realism. Returning to the trends that existed among part of the Russian intelligentsia of the second half of the 19th century, this meant both the understandability of literature for the common people and the use of folk speech patterns and proverbs. Among other things, the principle of nationality served to suppress new forms of experimental art. Although socialist realism, in its concept, did not know national boundaries and, in accordance with the messianic faith in the conquest of the whole world by communism, after the Second World War was exhibited in the countries of the Soviet sphere of influence, nevertheless, its principles also included patriotism, that is, limitedness in mainly the USSR as the setting and emphasizing the superiority of everything Soviet. When the concept of socialist realism was applied to writers from Western or developing countries, it meant a positive assessment of their communist, pro-Soviet orientation.

In essence, the concept of socialist realism refers to the content of a verbal work of art, and not to its form, and this led to the fact that the formal tasks of art were deeply neglected by Soviet writers, critics and literary scholars. Since 1934, the principles of socialist realism have been interpreted and demanded for implementation with varying degrees of persistence. Failure to follow them could entail deprivation of the right to be called a “Soviet writer,” exclusion from the SP, even imprisonment and death, if the depiction of reality was outside “its revolutionary development,” that is, if a critical attitude towards the existing order was recognized as hostile and damaging damage to the Soviet system. Criticism of existing orders, especially in the forms of irony and satire, is alien to socialist realism.

After Stalin's death, many indirectly but sharply criticized socialist realism, blaming it for the decline of Soviet literature. Appeared in the years Khrushchev's thaw demands for sincerity, vital conflicts, depictions of doubting and suffering people, works whose outcome would not be known, were put forward by famous writers and critics and testified that socialist realism is alien to reality. The more fully these demands were implemented in some works of the Thaw period, the more energetically they were attacked by conservatives, and the main reason was an objective description of the negative phenomena of Soviet reality.

The parallels to socialist realism are not found in 19th century realism, but rather in 18th century classicism. The vagueness of the concept contributed to the emergence from time to time of pseudo-discussions and the immense growth of literature on socialist realism. For example, in the early 1970s, the question of the relationship between such varieties of socialist realism as “socialist art” and “democratic art” was clarified. But these “discussions” could not obscure the fact that socialist realism was a phenomenon of an ideological order, subordinate to politics, and that it was fundamentally not subject to discussion, like the very leading role of the Communist Party in the USSR and the countries of “people’s democracy.”

Socialist realism, an artistic method based on the socialist concept of the world and man, in the visual arts showed its claim to be the only method of creativity in 1933. The author of the term was the great proletarian writer, as it was commonly called A.M. Gorky, who wrote that the artist must be both a midwife at the birth of a new system and a gravedigger for the old world.

At the end of 1932, the exhibition “Artists of the RSFSR for 15 Years” presented all the trends in Soviet art. A large section was devoted to the revolutionary avant-garde. At the next exhibition, “Artists of the RSFSR for 15 Years,” in June 1933, only works of “new Soviet realism” were exhibited. A critique of formalism, which meant all avant-garde movements, began; it was of an ideological nature. In 1936, constructivism, futurism, and abstractionism were called the highest form of degeneration.

The created professional organizations of the creative intelligentsia - the Union of Artists, the Union of Writers, etc. - formulated norms and criteria based on the requirements of instructions issued from above; the artist - writer, sculptor or painter - had to create in accordance with them; the artist had to serve with his works the construction of a socialist society.

The literature and art of socialist realism were an instrument of party ideology and were a form of propaganda. The concept of “realism” in this context meant the requirement to depict the “truth of life”; the criteria of truth did not stem from the artist’s own experience, but were determined by the party’s view of what is typical and worthy. This was the paradox of socialist realism: the normativity of all aspects of creativity and romanticism, which led away from programmatic reality into a bright future, thanks to which fantastic literature arose in the USSR.

Socialist realism in fine art originated in the poster art of the first years of Soviet power and in the monumental sculpture of the post-war decade.

If previously the criterion for an artist’s “Sovietness” was his adherence to the Bolshevik ideology, now it has become mandatory to belong to the method of socialist realism. In accordance with this and Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin(1878-1939), author of such paintings as “1918 in Petrograd” (1920), “After the Battle” (1923), “Death of a Commissar” (1928), became a stranger to the created Union of Artists of the USSR, probably due to the influence on his work of icon painting traditions.

The principles of socialist realism are nationality; partisanship; concreteness - determined the theme and style of proletarian fine art. The most popular subjects were: the life of the Red Army, workers, peasants, leaders of the revolution and labor; industrial city, industrial production, sports, etc. Considering themselves the heirs of the “Itinerants,” socialist realist artists went to factories, factories, and Red Army barracks to directly observe the life of their characters and sketch it using a “photographic” style of depiction.

Artists illustrated many events in the history of the Bolshevik Party, not only legendary, but also mythical. For example, V. Basov’s painting “Lenin among the peasants of the village. Shushensky" depicts the leader of the revolution, conducting clearly seditious conversations with Siberian peasants during his Siberian exile. However, N.K. Krupskaya in her memoirs does not mention that Ilyich was engaged in propaganda there. The time of the cult of personality led to the appearance of a huge number of works dedicated to I.V. Stalin, for example, B. Ioganson’s painting “Our Wise Leader, Dear Teacher.” I.V. Stalin among the people in the Kremlin" (1952). Genre paintings dedicated to the everyday life of Soviet people portrayed it as much more prosperous than it really was.

The Great Patriotic War introduced into Soviet art a new theme of the return of front-line soldiers and post-war life. The Party set artists the task of depicting the victorious People. Some of them, having understood this attitude in their own way, depicted the difficult first steps of a front-line soldier in peaceful life, accurately conveying the signs of the times and the emotional state of a person tired of war and unaccustomed to peaceful life. An example would be V. Vasiliev’s painting “Demobilized” (1947).

Stalin's death caused changes not only in politics, but also in the artistic life of the country. The short stage of the so-called begins. lyrical, or Malenkovsky(named after G.M. Malenkov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR), "Impressionism". This is the art of the “thaw” of 1953 – early 1960s. There is a rehabilitation of everyday life, freed from strict regulations and from total homogeneity. The themes of the paintings show an escape from politics. Artist Heliy Korzhev, born in 1925, pays attention to family relationships, including conflict ones, a previously taboo topic (“In the Reception Room”, 1965). An unusually large number of paintings with stories about children began to appear. The paintings of the “winter children’s” cycle are especially interesting. Valerian Zholtok Winter Is Coming (1953) depicts three children of different ages enthusiastically going to the skating rink. Alexey Ratnikov(“We’ve Walked Away”, 1955) painted children from a kindergarten returning from a walk in the park. Children's fur coats and plaster vases on the park fence convey the flavor of the times. A little boy with a touching thin neck in the picture Sergei Tutunov(“Winter has come. Childhood”, 1960) admiringly looks outside the window at the first snow that fell the day before.

During the “thaw”, another new direction in socialist realism arose - harsh style. The strong protest element contained in it allows some art historians to interpret it as an alternative to socialist realism. The harsh style was initially greatly influenced by the ideas of the 20th Congress. The main meaning of the early harsh style was to depict Truth as opposed to Lies. The laconicism, monochrome and tragedy of these paintings was a protest against the beautiful carefreeness of Stalinist art. But at the same time, loyalty to the ideology of communism was maintained, but this was an internally motivated choice. The romanticization of the revolution and the everyday life of Soviet society formed the main storyline of the paintings.

The stylistic features of this movement were a specific suggestiveness: isolation, calm, silent fatigue of the heroes of the paintings; lack of optimistic openness, naivety and immaturity; restrained “graphic” palette of colors. The most prominent representatives of this art were Geliy Korzhev, Viktor Popkov, Andrei Yakovlev, Tair Salakhov. Since the early 1960s. – specialization of artists of the harsh style in the so-called. communist humanists and communist technocrats. The themes of the first were the ordinary everyday life of ordinary people; the task of the latter was to glorify the everyday work of workers, engineers, and scientists. By the 1970s a tendency to aestheticize style has emerged; A “village” austere style stood out from the general mainstream, concentrating its attention not so much on the everyday life of rural workers, but on the genres of landscape and still life. By the mid-1970s. An official version of the harsh style also appeared: portraits of party and government leaders. Then the degeneration of this style begins. It is replicated, depth and drama disappear. Most of the design projects of palaces of culture, clubs, and sports facilities are carried out in a genre that can well be called “pseudo-severe style.”

Within the framework of socialist realist fine art, many talented artists worked, who reflected in their work not only the official ideological component of different periods of Soviet history, but also the spiritual world of people of a bygone era.

Socialist realism is an artistic method of literature and art and, more broadly, an aesthetic system that developed at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. and established in the era of socialist reorganization of the world.

The concept of socialist realism first appeared on the pages of the Literary Gazette (May 23, 1932). The definition of socialist realism was given at the First Congress of Soviet Writers (1934). In the Charter of the Union of Soviet Writers, socialist realism was defined as the main method of fiction and criticism, requiring from the artist “a truthful, historically specific depiction of reality in its revolutionary development. At the same time, the truthfulness and historical specificity of the artistic depiction of reality must be combined with the task of ideological remodeling and education of working people in the spirit of socialism.” This general direction of the artistic method in no way limited the writer’s freedom in choosing artistic forms, “providing,” as stated in the Charter, “artistic creativity with an exceptional opportunity to demonstrate creative initiative, to choose a variety of forms, styles and genres.”

M. Gorky gave a broad description of the artistic wealth of socialist realism in a report at the First Congress of Soviet Writers, showing that “socialist realism affirms being as an act, as creativity, the goal of which is the continuous development of the most valuable individual abilities of a person...”.

If the origin of the term dates back to the 30s, and the first major works of socialist realism (M. Gorky, M. Andersen-Nexo) appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, then certain features of the method and some aesthetic principles were already outlined in the 19th century. , since the emergence of Marxism.

“Conscious historical content”, an understanding of reality from the position of the revolutionary working class can be found to a certain extent already in many works of the 19th century: in the prose and poetry of G. Weert, in the novel by W. Morris “News from Nowhere, or the Age of Happiness”, in the works poet of the Paris Commune E. Potier.

Thus, with the entry of the proletariat into the historical arena, with the spread of Marxism, a new, socialist art and socialist aesthetics are being formed. Literature and art absorb new content of the historical process, beginning to illuminate it in the light of the ideals of socialism, generalizing the experience of the world revolutionary movement, the Paris Commune, and from the end of the 19th century. - revolutionary movement in Russia.

The question of the traditions on which the art of socialist realism is based can only be resolved taking into account the diversity and richness of national cultures. Thus, Soviet prose is largely based on the tradition of Russian critical realism of the 19th century. In Polish literature of the 19th century. The leading direction was romanticism, its experience has a noticeable influence on the modern literature of this country.

The wealth of traditions in the world literature of socialist realism is determined primarily by the diversity of national ways (both social, aesthetic, and artistic) of the formation and development of a new method. For writers of some nationalities of our country, the artistic experience of folk storytellers, themes, manner, and style of the ancient epic (for example, among the Kyrgyz “Manas”) is of great importance.

The artistic innovation of the literature of socialist realism affected itself already in the early stages of its development. With the works of M. Gorky “Mother”, “Enemies” (which were of particular importance for the development of socialist realism), as well as the novels of M. Andersen-Nexo “Pelle the Conqueror” and “Ditte - the Child of Man”, proletarian poetry of the late 19th century. Literature included not only new themes and heroes, but also a new aesthetic ideal.

Already in the first Soviet novels, a folk-epic scale was evident in the depiction of the revolution. The epic breath of the era is palpable in “Chapaev” by D. A. Furmanov, “Iron Stream” by A. S. Serafimovich, “Destruction” by A. A. Fadeev. The picture of the people's fate is shown differently than in the epics of the 19th century. The people appear not as victims, not as simple participants in events, but as the driving force of history. The depiction of the masses of the people was gradually combined with the deepening of psychologism in the depiction of individual human characters representing this mass (“Quiet Don” by M. A. Sholokhov, “Walking through the Torment” by A. N. Tolstoy, novels by F. V. Gladkov, L. M. Leonova, K. A. Fedina, A. G. Malyshkina, etc.). The epic scale of the novel of socialist realism was also manifested in the works of writers from other countries (in France - L. Aragon, in Czechoslovakia - M. Puymanova, in the GDR - A. Zegers, in Brazil - J. Amado).

The literature of socialist realism created a new image of a positive hero - a fighter, builder, leader. Through him, the historical optimism of the artist of socialist realism is more fully revealed: the hero affirms faith in the victory of communist ideas, despite temporary defeats and losses. The term “optimistic tragedy” can be applied to many works that convey difficult situations of the revolutionary struggle: “Destruction” by A. A. Fadeev, “First Horse”, Vs. V. Vishnevsky, “The Dead Stay Young” by A. Zegers, “Report with a Noose Around the Neck” by J. Fuchik.

Romance is an organic feature of the literature of socialist realism. The years of the Civil War, the restructuring of the country, the heroism of the Great Patriotic War and the anti-fascist Resistance determined in art both the real content of romantic pathos and romantic pathos in the conveyance of real reality. Romantic traits were widely manifested in the poetry of the anti-fascist Resistance in France, Poland and other countries; in works depicting folk struggle, for example in the novel by the English writer J. Aldridge “The Sea Eagle”. The romantic principle in one form or another is always present in the work of artists of socialist realism, going back at its core to the romance of socialist reality itself.

Socialist realism is a historically unified movement of art within the common era of socialist reorganization of the world for all its manifestations. However, this community is, as it were, reborn in specific national conditions. Socialist realism is international in its essence. The international origin is its integral feature; it is expressed both historically and ideologically, reflecting the internal unity of the multinational socio-historical process. The idea of ​​socialist realism is continuously expanding as democratic and socialist elements strengthen in the culture of a particular country.

Socialist realism is a unifying principle for Soviet literature as a whole, despite all the differences in national cultures depending on their traditions and the time of entry into the literary process (some literatures have a centuries-old tradition, others received writing only during the years of Soviet power). With all the diversity of national literatures, there are trends that unite them, which, without erasing the individual characteristics of each literature, reflect the growing rapprochement of nations.

A. T. Tvardovsky, R. G. Gamzatov, Ch. T. Aitmatov, M. A. Stelmakh are artists who are deeply different in their individual and national artistic traits, in the nature of their poetic style, but at the same time they are close to each other friend in the general direction of creativity.

The international origin of socialist realism is clearly manifested in the world literary process. While the principles of socialist realism were being formed, the international artistic experience of literature created on the basis of this method was relatively poor. The influence of M. Gorky, V.V. Mayakovsky, M.A. Sholokhov, and all Soviet literature and art played a huge role in expanding and enriching this experience. Later, the diversity of socialist realism was revealed in foreign literature and the greatest masters emerged: P. Neruda, B. Brecht, A. Zegers, J. Amadou and others.

Exceptional diversity was revealed in the poetry of socialist realism. For example, there is poetry that continues the tradition of folk songs, classical, realistic lyrics of the 19th century. (A. T. Tvardovsky, M. V. Isakovsky). Another style was outlined by V.V. Mayakovsky, who began by breaking classical verse. In recent years, the diversity of national traditions has been revealed in the works of R. G. Gamzatov, E. Mezhelaitis and others.

In a speech on November 20, 1965 (on the occasion of receiving the Nobel Prize), M. A. Sholokhov formulated the main content of the concept of socialist realism as follows: “I am talking about realism, which carries within itself the pathos of renewing life, remaking it for the benefit of man. I am talking, of course, about the kind of realism that we now call socialist. Its originality lies in the fact that it expresses a worldview that does not accept either contemplation or withdrawal from reality, calling for the struggle for the progress of mankind, making it possible to comprehend goals close to millions of people, to illuminate the path of struggle for them. This leads to the conclusion about how I, as a Soviet writer, imagine the place of the artist in the modern world.”

Socialist realism is a creative method of literature and art of the 20th century, the cognitive sphere of which was limited and regulated by the task of reflecting the processes of reorganization of the world in the light of the communist ideal and Marxist-Leninist ideology.

Goals of socialist realism

Socialist realism is the main officially (at the state level) recognized method of Soviet literature and art, the purpose of which is to capture the stages of the construction of Soviet socialist society and its “movement towards communism.” Over the course of half a century of existence in all developed literatures of the world, socialist realism sought to take a leading position in the artistic life of the era, contrasting its (supposedly the only true) aesthetic principles (the principle of party membership, nationality, historical optimism, socialist humanism, internationalism) to all other ideological and artistic principles.

History of origin

The domestic theory of socialist realism originates from “Fundamentals of Positive Aesthetics” (1904) by A.V. Lunacharsky, where art is guided not by what is, but by what should be, and creativity is equated with ideology. In 1909, Lunacharsky was one of the first to call the story “Mother” (1906-07) and the play “Enemies” (1906) by M. Gorky “serious works of a social type,” “significant works, the significance of which in the development of proletarian art will someday be taken into account” (Literary Decay , 1909. Book 2). The critic was the first to draw attention to the Leninist principle of party membership as determinant in the construction of socialist culture (article “Lenin” Literary Encyclopedia, 1932. Volume 6).

The term “Socialist realism” first appeared in the editorial of the “Literary Gazette” dated May 23, 1932 (author I.M. Gronsky). J.V. Stalin repeated it at a meeting with writers at Gorky on October 26 of the same year, and from that moment the concept became widespread. In February 1933, Lunacharsky, in a report on the tasks of Soviet drama, emphasized that socialist realism “is thoroughly devoted to the struggle, it is a builder through and through, it is confident in the communist future of humanity, it believes in the strength of the proletariat, its party and leaders” (Lunacharsky A.V. Articles about Soviet literature, 1958).

The difference between socialist realism and bourgeois realism

At the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers (1934), the originality of the method of socialist realism was substantiated by A.A. Zhdanov, N.I. Bukharin, Gorky and A.A. Fadeev. The political component of Soviet literature was emphasized by Bukharin, who pointed out that socialist realism “differs from simple realism in that it inevitably places in the center of attention the image of the construction of socialism, the struggle of the proletariat, the new man and all the complex “connections and mediations” of the great historical process of our time... Stylistic features , distinguishing socialist realism from bourgeois... are closely related to the content of the material and the goals of the volitional order, dictated by the class position of the proletariat" (First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers. Verbatim report, 1934).

Fadeev supported the idea expressed earlier by Gorky that, unlike “the old realism - critical... our, socialist, realism is affirming. Zhdanov’s speech, his formulations: “depict reality in its revolutionary development”; “At the same time, the truthfulness and historical specificity of the artistic depiction must be combined with the task of ideological reworking and education of working people in the spirit of socialism,” formed the basis of the definition given in the Charter of the Union of Soviet Writers.

His statement that “revolutionary romanticism should be included in literary creativity as an integral part” of socialist realism was also programmatic (ibid.). On the eve of the congress that legitimized the term, the search for its defining principles was qualified as “The Struggle for the Method” - under this title one of the Rappov collections was published in 1931. In 1934, the book “In Disputes about Method” was published (with the subtitle “Collection of articles on socialist realism”). In the 1920s, there were discussions about the artistic method of proletarian literature between theorists of Proletkult, RAPP, LEF, OPOYAZ. The theories of “living man” and “industrial” art, “learning from the classics,” and “social order” were permeated through and through with the pathos of struggle.

Expansion of the concept of socialist realism

Heated debates continued in the 1930s (about language, about formalism), in the 1940s-50s (mainly in connection with the “theory” of conflict-free behavior, the problem of the typical, “positive hero”). It is characteristic that discussions on certain issues of the “artistic platform” often touched upon politics and were associated with the problems of aestheticization of ideology, with the justification of authoritarianism and totalitarianism in culture. The debate lasted for decades about the relationship between romanticism and realism in socialist art. On the one hand, we were talking about romance as a “scientifically based dream of the future” (in this capacity, at a certain stage, romance began to be replaced by “historical optimism”), on the other hand, attempts were made to highlight a special method or stylistic movement of “socialist romanticism” with its cognitive possibilities. This trend (identified by Gorky and Lunacharsky) led to overcoming stylistic monotony and to a more comprehensive interpretation of the essence of socialist realism in the 1960s.

The desire to expand the concept of socialist realism (and at the same time to “shaken” the theory of the method) emerged in domestic literary criticism (under the influence of similar processes in foreign literature and criticism) at the All-Union Conference on Socialist Realism (1959): I.I. Anisimov emphasized the “great flexibility” and “breadth” inherent in the aesthetic concept of the method, which was dictated by the desire to overcome dogmatic postulates. In 1966, the Institute of Lithuania hosted the conference “Current Problems of Socialist Realism” (see the collection of the same name, 1969). The active apologetics of socialist realism by some speakers, the critical-realist “type of creativity” by others, the romantic by others, and the intellectual by others, testified to a clear desire to expand the boundaries of ideas about the literature of the socialist era.

Domestic theoretical thought was in search of a “broad formulation of the creative method” as a “historically open system” (D.F. Markov). The resulting discussion took place in the late 1980s. By this time, the authority of the statutory definition had finally been lost (it became associated with dogmatism, incompetent leadership in the field of art, the dictates of Stalinism in literature - “custom”, state, “barracks” realism). Based on real trends in the development of Russian literature, modern critics consider it quite legitimate to talk about socialist realism as a specific historical stage, an artistic movement in literature and art of the 1920s-50s. Socialist realism included V.V. Mayakovsky, Gorky, L. Leonov, Fadeev, M.A. Sholokhov, F.V. Gladkov, V.P. Kataev, M.S. Shaginyan, N.A. Ostrovsky, V. V. Vishnevsky, N.F. Pogodin and others.

A new situation arose in the literature of the second half of the 1950s in the wake of the 20th Party Congress, which noticeably undermined the foundations of totalitarianism and authoritarianism. Russian “village prose” was “broken out” of the socialist canons, depicting peasant life not in its “revolutionary development”, but, on the contrary, in conditions of social violence and deformation; literature also told the terrible truth about the war, destroying the myth of official heroism and optimism; The civil war and many episodes of Russian history appeared differently in literature. “Industrial prose” clung to the tenets of socialist realism for the longest time.

An important role in the attack on Stalin’s legacy in the 1980s belonged to the so-called “detained” or “rehabilitated” literature - the unpublished works of A.P. Platonov, M.A. Bulgakov, A.A. Akhmatova, B.L. .Lasternak, V.S.Grossman, A.T.Tvardovsky, A.A.Bek, B.L.Mozhaev, V.I.Belov, M.F.Shatrova, Yu.V.Trifonov, V.F.Tendryakov, Yu O. Dombrovsky, V. T. Shalamov, A. I. Pristavkin and others. Domestic conceptualism (Sots Art) contributed to the exposure of socialist realism.

Although socialist realism “disappeared as an official doctrine with the collapse of the State, of which it was part of the ideological system,” the phenomenon remains at the center of research that considers it “as an integral element of Soviet civilization,” according to the Parisian journal Revue des études slaves. A popular train of thought in the West is an attempt to connect the origins of socialist realism with the avant-garde, as well as the desire to substantiate the coexistence of two trends in the history of Soviet literature: “totalitarian” and “revisionist”.