It is a classic work of socialist realism. Socialist realism in literature

Socialist realism, socialist realism, is the main artistic method used in the art of the Soviet Union since the 1930s, permitted, either recommended, or imposed (in different periods of the country's development) by state censorship, and therefore closely associated with ideology and propaganda. It has been officially [source not specified 260 days] approved since 1932 by party bodies in literature and art. Parallel to it, there was unofficial art of the USSR.

Works in the genre of socialist realism are characterized by the presentation of events of the era, “dynamically changing in their revolutionary development.” The ideological content of the method was laid down by dialectical-materialist philosophy and the communist ideas of Marxism (Marxist aesthetics) in the second half of the 19th-20th centuries. The method covered all areas of artistic activity (literature, drama, cinema, painting, sculpture, music and architecture). It stated the following principles: [source not specified 736 days]

describe reality “accurately, in accordance with specific historical revolutionary developments.”

coordinate their artistic expression with the themes of ideological reforms and the education of working people in the socialist spirit.

History of origin and development

Lunacharsky was the first writer to lay its ideological foundation. Back in 1906, he introduced the concept of “proletarian realism” into use. By the twenties, in relation to this concept, he began to use the term “new social realism”, and in the early thirties he dedicated a cycle of programmatic and theoretical articles published in Izvestia.

The term “socialist realism” was first proposed by the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the USSR SP I. Gronsky in the Literary Gazette on May 23, 1932. It arose in connection with the need to direct RAPP and the avant-garde to the artistic development of Soviet culture. Decisive in this regard was the recognition of the role of classical traditions and the understanding of the new qualities of realism. In 1932-1933 Gronsky and head. The fiction sector of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, V. Kirpotin, intensively promoted this term.

At the 1st All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934, Maxim Gorky stated:

“Socialist realism affirms being as an act, as creativity, the goal of which is the continuous development of man’s most valuable individual abilities for the sake of his victory over the forces of nature, for the sake of his health and longevity, for the sake of the great happiness of living on the earth, which he, in accordance with the continuous growth of his needs, wants treat everything as a beautiful home for humanity, united in one family.” The state needed to approve this method as the main one for better control over creative individuals and better propaganda of its policies. In the previous period, the twenties, there were Soviet writers who sometimes took aggressive positions towards many outstanding writers. For example, RAPP, an organization of proletarian writers, was actively engaged in criticism of non-proletarian writers. RAPP consisted mainly of aspiring writers. During the period of the creation of modern industry (the years of industrialization), Soviet power needed art that would raise the people to “deeds of labor.” The fine arts of the 1920s also presented a rather motley picture. Several groups emerged within it. The most significant group was the Association of Artists of the Revolution. They depicted today: the life of the Red Army soldiers, workers, peasants, leaders of the revolution and labor. They considered themselves the heirs of the “Itinerants”. They went to factories, mills, and Red Army barracks to directly observe the lives of their characters, to “sketch” it. It was they who became the main backbone of the artists of “socialist realism”. It was much harder for less traditional masters, in particular, members of the OST (Society of Easel Painters), which united young people who graduated from the first Soviet art university.

Gorky returned from exile in a solemn ceremony and headed the specially created Union of Writers of the USSR, which included mainly writers and poets of a pro-Soviet orientation.

For the first time, the official definition of socialist realism was given in the Charter of the USSR SP, adopted at the First Congress of the SP: Socialist realism, being the main method of Soviet fiction and literary criticism, requires the artist to provide a truthful, 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. This definition became the starting point for all further interpretations until the 80s. “Socialist realism is a deeply vital, scientific and most advanced artistic method that developed as a result of the successes of socialist construction and the education of Soviet people in the spirit of communism. The principles of socialist realism ... were a further development of Lenin’s teaching on the partisanship of literature.” (Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1947) Lenin expressed the idea that art should stand on the side of the proletariat in the following way: “Art belongs to the people. The deepest springs of art can be found among the broad class of working people... Art must be based on their feelings, thoughts and demands and must grow with them.”

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Principles of socialist realism

Nationality. This meant both the understandability of literature for the common people and the use of folk speech patterns and proverbs.

Ideology. Show the peaceful life of the people, the search for ways to a new, better life, heroic deeds in order to achieve a happy life for all people.

Specificity. In depicting reality, show the process of historical development, which in turn must correspond to the materialistic understanding of history (in the process of changing the conditions of their existence, people change their consciousness and attitude towards the surrounding reality).

As the definition from the Soviet textbook stated, the method implied the use of the heritage of world realistic art, but not as a simple imitation of great examples, but with a creative approach. “The method of socialist realism predetermines the deep connection of works of art with modern reality, the active participation of art in socialist construction. The tasks of the method of socialist realism require from each artist a true understanding of the meaning of the events taking place in the country, the ability to evaluate the phenomena of social life in their development, in complex dialectical interaction.”

The method included the unity of realism and Soviet romance, combining the heroic and romantic with “a realistic statement of the true truth of the surrounding reality.” It was argued that in this way the humanism of “critical realism” was complemented by “socialist humanism.”

The state gave orders, sent people on creative trips, organized exhibitions - thus stimulating the development of the necessary layer of art.

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In literature

A writer, according to Stalin’s famous expression, is an “engineer of human souls.” With his talent he must influence the reader as a propagandist. He educates the reader in the spirit of devotion to the party and supports it in the struggle for the victory of communism. Subjective actions and aspirations of the individual had to correspond to the objective course of history. Lenin wrote: “Literature must become party literature... Down with non-party writers. Down with the superhuman writers! Literary work must become part of the general proletarian cause, the “cogs and wheels” of one single great social-democratic mechanism, set in motion by the entire conscious vanguard of the entire working class.”

A literary work in the genre of socialist realism should be built “on the idea of ​​​​the inhumanity of any form of exploitation of man by man, expose the crimes of capitalism, inflaming the minds of readers and viewers with just anger, and inspire them to the revolutionary struggle for socialism.” [source not specified 736 days]

Maxim Gorky wrote the following about socialist realism:

“It is vitally and creatively necessary for our writers to take a point of view from the height of which - and only from its height - all the dirty crimes of capitalism, all the meanness of its bloody intentions are clearly visible, and all the greatness of the heroic work of the proletariat-dictator is visible.”

He argued: “... a writer must have a good knowledge of the history of the past and knowledge of the social phenomena of our time, in which he is called upon to simultaneously play two roles: the role of a midwife and a gravedigger.” Gorky believed that the main task of socialist realism is to cultivate a socialist, revolutionary view of the world, a corresponding sense of the world.

Socialist realism is an artistic method of literature and art, which is an aesthetic expression of a socialist-conscious concept of the world and man, determined by the era of struggle for the establishment and creation of a socialist society. The depiction of life in the light of the ideals of socialism determines both the content and the basic artistic and structural principles of the art of Socialist Realism. Its emergence and development are associated with the spread of socialist ideas in different countries, with the development of the revolutionary labor movement. The initial trends in literature and art of a new type date back to the middle and second half of the 19th century: revolutionary proletarian literature in Great Britain (the poetry of the Chartist movement, the work of E. C. Jones), in Germany (the poetry of G. Herweg, F. Freiligrath, G. Weerth), in France (literature of the Paris Commune, "The International" by E. Pothier). At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. Proletarian literature is developing intensively in Russia, Poland, Bulgaria and other countries. As an artistic method, Socialist Realism was formed at the beginning of the 20th century. in Russia, primarily in the works of M. Gorky, and also to one degree or another M. M. Kotsyubinsky, J. Rainis, A. Akopyan, I. I. Evdoshvili and others.

This is due to the world-historical significance of the revolutionary movement in Russia, where the center of the world revolutionary struggle moved at the beginning of the 20th century.

Following Gorky, a realistic depiction of social reality and a socialist worldview become essential features of the work of writers in a number of countries (A. Barbusse, M. Andersen-Nexo, J. Reed).

After the October Revolution of 1917, socialist literary movements were formed in various European countries (Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, France, Czechoslovakia, etc.) in the 1920s, and the method of Socialist Realism is already emerging as a natural phenomenon of world literature.

The growth of the anti-fascist movement in the 1930s. contributed to the expansion of the international front of revolutionary literature and art. Soviet literature played a unifying role in this process, which by that time had united ideologically and created outstanding works of art. Socialist realism has become a broad international movement in literature and art.

After the 2nd World War 1939-1945, especially after the formation of the world socialist system, the position of Socialist Realism as the vanguard of artistic progress became even more established.

A significant role in expanding and enriching the artistic experience of Socialist Realism was played, along with the work of Gorky, V.V. Mayakovsky, M.A. Sholokhov, also the theater of K.S. Stanislavsky and V.E. Meyerhold, the cinematic discoveries of S.M. Eisenstein, V. I. Pudovkin, A. P. Dovzhenko, music by S. S. Prokofiev, D. D. Shostakovich, painting by B. V. Ioganson, A. A. Deineka, B. I. Prorokov, P. D. Korin, R Guttuso, sculpture by S. T. Konenkov, V. I. Mukhina, dramaturgy by B. Brecht, V. V. Vishnevsky.

The term “Socialist Realism” first appeared in the Soviet press in 1932 (Literaturnaya Gazeta, May 23). It arose in connection with the need to contrast Rapp’s thesis, which mechanically transferred philosophical categories to the field of literature (“dialectical-materialistic creative method”), with a definition that corresponded to the main direction of the artistic development of Soviet literature.

Decisive in this regard was the recognition of the role of classical traditions and the understanding of the new qualities of realism (socialist), determined both by the novelty of the life process and the socialist worldview of Soviet writers.

By this time, writers (Gorky, Mayakovsky, A.N. Tolstoy, A.A. Fadeev) and critics (A.V. Lunacharsky, A.K. Voronsky) had made a number of attempts to determine the artistic originality of Soviet literature; talked about proletarian, tendentious, monumental, heroic, romantic, social realism, about the combination of realism with romance.

The concept of Socialist Realism immediately became widespread and was consolidated by the 1st All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers (1934), at which Gorky spoke about the new method as a creative program aimed at the implementation of revolutionary humanistic ideas: “socialist realism affirms being as an act, as creativity , the goal of which is the continuous development of man’s most valuable individual abilities for the sake of his victory over the forces of nature, for the sake of his health and longevity, for the sake of great happiness to live on earth" (First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers. Verbatim report, 1934, p. 17).

Continuing the humanistic traditions of previous art, combining them with new socialist content, Socialist Realism represents a new type of artistic consciousness. Its novelty is associated with the contribution that Marxism made to materialist philosophy - the affirmation of the role of revolutionary transformative activity ("Theses on Feuerbach" by K. Marx), which served as the source of the idea of ​​depicting reality in its revolutionary development.

The basis of the Socialist Realism method is the concept of revolutionary-effective, socialist humanism, in which the ideas of the harmonious development of man, the fullness of the real manifestation of his spiritual and moral capabilities, and the truly human relationship of people to each other, to nature and society are expressed. This humanistic orientation is inherent in all types of socialist artistic culture (literature, painting, architecture, music, theater, etc.) and constitutes the most important and universal distinctive feature of the art of Socialist Realism.

To understand the principles of socialist art, a number of statements by the classics of Marxism-Leninism are important. Speaking about the art of the future, F. Engels saw its features in “the complete fusion of great ideological depth, conscious historical content... with Shakespearean liveliness and richness of action...” (Marx and Engels, Works, 2nd ed., vol. 29 , p. 492). Engels’s thought about the conscious historicism of artistic thinking was developed in the principle of partisanship in literature and art, formulated by V. I. Lenin.

Lenin actually indicated the main features of the new literature. He noted its conditionality by the objective course of the life process, comprehension of its inconsistency, its development in the most acute conflicts. Finally, he emphasized the partisan assessment of this struggle - that the artist consciously and openly takes the side of advanced trends in historical development. Genuine creative freedom is not the arbitrariness of the individual, but its conscious action in accordance with the requirements of real historical development.

The deeper, more multifaceted and objective the understanding of the world, the wider and more significant the subjective possibilities of a person, the scope of his creative freedom. This is precisely what the Leninist partisanship of art requires - the combination of the depth of objective knowledge with the pathos of subjective activity. When the subjective aspirations of an individual coincide with the objective course of history, then the individual gains perspective and confidence.

As a result, a basis arises for a person’s revolutionary activity, for the comprehensive development of his talents, and in particular for the formation and flourishing of various artistic and creative individuals, which explains the extraordinary breadth of aesthetic possibilities of socialist art. Socialist realism expresses the historical perspective of the development of progressive art, relying in its movement on the entire previous experience of world literature and art. The artistic innovation of Socialist Realism was already felt in its early stages. With the works of Gorky “Mother”, “Enemies”, the novels of Andersen-Nexo “Pelle the Conqueror” and “Ditte, Child of Man”, proletarian poetry of the late 19th century, a reflection of the struggle of the old and new world, the formation of man - a fighter and creator of the new - entered into literature society.

This determined the nature of the new aesthetic ideal, historical optimism - the disclosure of the conflicts of modernity in the perspective of social revolutionary development; Gorky instilled in a person confidence in his strength, in his future, and poeticized the work and practice of revolutionary activity.

From the first steps of Soviet literature, its main theme was the “world fire” of the revolution. At the same time, the theme of the pre-revolutionary world occupied an important place, which, however, was not a simple continuation of the traditions of critical realism: the past was perceived in a new aesthetic light, the pathos of the image was determined by the idea that there is no return to the past. A new quality of historicism in literature emerged: socialist realism compared with the historicism of critical realism ("The Artamonov Case", "The Life of Klim Samgin" by M. Gorky), various genres of satire were developed (Mayakovsky, J. Hasek), S. r. did not copy classical genres, but enriched them, which was reflected primarily in the novel.

Already in the first major works of Soviet prose, folk-epic scale was evident in the depiction of the revolution ("Chapaev" by D. Furmanov, "Iron Stream" by A. S. Serafimovich, "Destruction" by Fadeev). The picture of “the fate of the people” appeared different from that in the epics of the 19th century. In novels of the 20-30s. depicted the people's element in the revolution, and the organization of the element by the "iron will" of the Bolsheviks, and the formation of a socialist collective.

The depiction of the masses of the people was combined with the depiction of individual and holistic characters representing this mass ("Quiet Don" by Sholokhov, "Walking through the Torment" by A. N. Tolstoy, novels by F. Gladkov, L. Leonov, K. Fedin, A. Malyshkin, etc. .). The epic nature of the Socialist Realism novel was also manifested in the works of writers from other countries (L. Aragon - France, A. Segers - GDR, M. Puymanova - Czechoslovakia, J. Amado - Brazil). The literature and art of Socialist Realism created a new image of a positive hero - a fighter, builder, leader. Through him, the historical optimism of Socialist Realism is more fully revealed: the hero affirms faith in the victory of communist ideas, despite individual defeats and losses.

The term “optimistic tragedy” can be applied to many works that convey dramatic situations of the revolutionary struggle: “Destruction” by Fadeev, plays by V. Vishnevsky, F. Wolf (GDR), “Report with a noose around the neck” by J. Fucik (Czechoslovakia). Socialist realism is characterized by works depicting revolutionary heroism and its bearers leading the masses. The first classical image of the proletarian leader was the hero of M. Gorky's novel "Mother" Pavel Vlasov; later - Levinson ("The Defeat" of Fadeev), Korchagin ("How the Steel Was Tempered" by N. A. Ostrovsky), Davydov ("Virgin Soil Upturned" by Sholokhov). Karaslavova

The images of communist leaders are embodied in the books of J. Amadou, M. Puimanova, V. Bredel (GDR), G. Karaslavov (Bulgaria). The positive heroes of Socialist Realism are different in character and scale of activity, in temperament, and mental make-up. The variety of different types of heroes is an integral feature of Socialist Realism. Since the first years of the October Revolution of 1917, the poetry of many nations has included the image of V. I. Lenin - realistic and at the same time acting as a symbol of the revolution, absorbing all the romance of the era.

The formation of Socialist Realism was inseparable from the pathos of affirming a new life, elation in reproducing the heroism of the revolutionary struggle during the Civil War, the socialist restructuring of the country, and the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. These features were widely manifested in the poetry of the anti-fascist Resistance in France, Poland, Yugoslavia, etc., in works depicting the people's struggle ("The Sea Eagle" by J. Aldridge).

The work of Socialist Realism artists is characterized by “... the ability to look at the present from the future” (Gorky A.M., see Lenin V.I. and Gorky A.M. Letters. Memoirs. Documents, 3rd ed., 1969, p. 378 ), conditioned by the historical uniqueness of the development of a socialist society, in which the shoots of a visible future clearly appear in the real phenomena of reality.

Socialist realism and internationalism represent a historically unified art movement in the era of the socialist reorganization of the world. This commonality is manifested in the diversity of national paths and forms of development of the new method. According to Amado’s conviction, shared by many artists, “in order for our books - novels and poetry - to serve the cause of the revolution, they must first of all be Brazilian, and this is their ability to be international” (Second All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers. Verbatim report , 1956, p. 88). In this regard, the experience of Soviet literature and art is of fundamental importance for world artistic development.

In the USSR, Socialist Realism is the unifying principle of Soviet literature as a whole, despite all the differences in national literatures, their historical traditions and other individual characteristics. The nature of the development of Socialist Realism and its stages were varied depending on the specific national-historical conditions in which it found support for its artistic originality, acquiring ever new forms and stylistic manifestations, as if being born anew each time, but at the same time maintaining its fundamental commonality. E. Mezhelaitis and A. Tvardovsky, Ch. Aitmatov and M. Stelmakh, V. Kozhevnikov, R. Gamzatov and Y. Smuul are artists, different in style, but close to each other in the general ideological direction of creativity.

The process of the formation of Socialist Realism included the transition to its position of a number of artists whose work developed in line with other methods and directions. So, in Soviet literature of the 20s. a number of writers who formed in the pre-revolutionary era only gradually mastered new artistic trends, the socialist character of the new humanism, sometimes in sharp contradictions (the path of A. N. Tolstoy). A prominent role in the formation of the poetry of Socialist Realism in the West was played by artists associated with the so-called left avant-garde movements of the 10-20s. 20th century: L. Aragon, P. Eluard, I. Becher, N. Hikmet, V. Nezval, P. Neruda, A. Jozsef. Representatives of critical realism of the 20th century also experienced the influence of Socialist Realism: K. Chapek, R. Rolland, R. Martin du Gard, G. Mann and others. Profound changes occurred in the work of the masters of critical realism in those countries where the people's democratic system won (M Sadoveanu, A. Zweig).Zweig

Contributions to the development of the theory of new art were made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. prominent Marxist aesthetics (works by G. Plekhanov, V. Vorovsky, M. Olminsky, F. Mering, D. Blagoev, Yu. Markhlevsky. In the 20-30s of the 20th century, A. Lunacharsky, whose works played a major role had a wide international resonance. Prominent theorists of socialist art spoke abroad: R. Fauquet, G. Bakalov, T. Pavlov, I. Fick, B. Vaclavek, K. Conrad, E. Urke, J. Jovanovic. The importance of aesthetic judgments themselves is great creators of new art - Gorky, Becher, Brecht, I. Volker, Fadeev.

Socialist realism must be understood historically, as a changing and at the same time internally unified creative process. The aesthetics of Socialist Realism now embraces the entire multinational experience of the art of socialist countries, the revolutionary art of the bourgeois West, and the cultures of the “Third World”, developing in a complex confrontation of different influences.

Socialist realism is constantly expanding its boundaries, acquiring the significance of the leading artistic method of the modern era. This expansion, due to the principles that determine it, is opposed to the so-called. the theory of “realism without shores” by R. Garaudy, essentially aimed at destroying the ideological foundations of new art, at blurring the lines separating realism from modernism. At the same time, it makes attempts at dogmatic definitions of the creative techniques of Socialist Realism fruitless. Marxist aesthetic theory, relying on the international experience of socialist art, came to conclusions about its broadest possibilities.

Socialist realism is considered as a new type of artistic consciousness, not closed within the framework of one or even several methods of representation, but representing a historically open system of forms of artistically truthful depiction of life, incorporating advanced trends in the world artistic process and finding new forms for their expression. Therefore, the concept of Socialist Realism is inextricably linked with the concept of artistic progress, reflecting the progressive movement of society towards increasingly multidimensional and full-fledged forms of spiritual life.

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 states 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, Nechuy-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.

What is socialist realism

This was the name of the movement in literature and art that developed at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. and established in the era of socialism. In fact, it was an official direction that was fully encouraged and supported by the party bodies of the USSR not only within the country, but also abroad.

Socialist realism - emergence

Officially, this term was announced in the press by the Literaturnaya Gazeta on May 23, 1932.

(Neyasov V.A. "The guy from the Urals")

In literary works, a description of the life of the people was combined with the depiction of bright individuals and life events. In the 20s of the twentieth century, under the influence of developing Soviet fiction and art, movements of socialist realism began to emerge and take shape in foreign countries: Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, France and other countries. Socialist realism in the USSR finally established itself in the 30s. 20th century, as the main method of multinational Soviet literature. After its official proclamation, socialist realism began to be opposed to the realism of the 19th century, called “critical” by Gorky.

(K. Yuon "New Planet")

From the official platforms it was proclaimed that, based on the fact that in the new socialist society there are no grounds for criticizing the system, the works of socialist realism should glorify the heroism of the working days of the multinational Soviet people, building their bright future.

(Tihiy I.D. "Admission to the Pioneers")

In fact, it turned out that the introduction of the ideas of socialist realism through an organization specially created for this in 1932, the Union of Artists of the USSR and the Ministry of Culture, led to the complete subordination of art and literature to the dominant ideology and politics. Any artistic and creative associations other than the Union of Artists of the USSR were prohibited. From this moment on, the main customer is government agencies, the main genre is thematic works. Those writers who defended freedom of creativity and did not fit into the “official line” became outcasts.

(Zvyagin M. L. "To work")

The brightest representative of socialist realism was Maxim Gorky, the founder of socialist realism in literature. Standing in the same row with him are: Alexander Fadeev, Alexander Serafimovich, Nikolai Ostrovsky, Konstantin Fedin, Dmitry Furmanov and many other Soviet writers.

The decline of socialist realism

(F. Shapaev "Rural Postman")

The collapse of the Union led to the destruction of the theme itself in all areas of art and literature. In the 10 years that followed, works of socialist realism were thrown out and destroyed in large quantities not only in the former USSR, but also in post-Soviet countries. However, the advent of the 21st century has once again awakened interest in the remaining “works of the era of totalitarianism.”

(A. Gulyaev "New Year")

After the Union faded into oblivion, socialist realism in art and literature was replaced by a mass of movements and trends, most of which were outright banned. Of course, a certain halo of “forbiddenness” played a certain role in their popularization after the collapse of the socialist regime. But, at the moment, despite their presence in literature and art, they cannot be called widely popular and popular. However, the final verdict always remains with the reader.

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”.

“Socialist realism affirms being as an act, as creativity, the goal of which is the continuous development of man’s most valuable individual abilities for the sake of his victory over the forces of nature, for the sake of his health and longevity, for the sake of the great happiness of living on the earth, which he, in accordance with the continuous growth of his needs, wants treat everything as a beautiful home for humanity united in one family” (M. Gorky).

This description of the method was given by M. Gorky at the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934. And the term “socialist realism” itself was proposed by the journalist and literary critic I. Gronsky in 1932. But the idea of ​​the new method belongs to A.V. Lunacharsky, revolutionary and Soviet statesman.
A completely justified question: why was a new method (and a new term) needed if realism already existed in art? And how did socialist realism differ from simple realism?

On the need for socialist realism

A new method was necessary in a country that was building a new socialist society.

P. Konchalovsky “From the Mow” (1948)
Firstly, it was necessary to control the creative process of creative individuals, i.e. Now the task of art was to propagate state policy - there were still enough artists who sometimes took an aggressive position in relation to what was happening in the country.

P. Kotov “Worker”
Secondly, these were the years of industrialization, and the Soviet government needed art that would raise the people to “deeds of labor.”

M. Gorky (Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov)
M. Gorky, who returned from emigration, headed the Union of Writers of the USSR, created in 1934, which included mainly writers and poets of Soviet orientation.
The method of socialist realism required the artist to provide a truthful, 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. This setting for cultural figures in the USSR was in effect until the 1980s.

Principles of socialist realism

The new method did not deny the heritage of world realistic art, but predetermined the deep connection of works of art with modern reality, the active participation of art in socialist construction. Each artist had to understand the meaning of the events taking place in the country and be able to evaluate the phenomena of social life in their development.

A. Plastov “Haymaking” (1945)
The method did not exclude Soviet romance, the need to combine the heroic and romantic.
The state gave orders to creative people, sent them on creative trips, organized exhibitions, stimulating the development of new art.
The main principles of socialist realism were nationality, ideology and concreteness.

Socialist realism in literature

M. Gorky believed that the main task of socialist realism is to cultivate a socialist, revolutionary view of the world, a corresponding sense of the world.

Konstantin Simonov
The most significant writers representing the method of socialist realism: Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Alexander Tvardovsky, Veniamin Kaverin, Anna Zegers, Vilis Latsis, Nikolai Ostrovsky, Alexander Serafimovich, Fyodor Gladkov, Konstantin Simonov, Caesar Solodar, Mikhail Sholokhov, Nikolai Nosov, Alexander Fadeev , Konstantin Fedin, Dmitry Furmanov, Yuriko Miyamoto, Marietta Shaginyan, Yulia Drunina, Vsevolod Kochetov and others.

N. Nosov (Soviet children's writer, best known as the author of works about Dunno)
As we can see, the list also contains the names of writers from other countries.

Anna Zegers(1900-1983) - German writer, member of the German Communist Party.

Yuriko Miyamoto(1899-1951) - Japanese writer, representative of proletarian literature, member of the Japanese Communist Party. These writers supported socialist ideology.

Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeev (1901-1956)

Russian Soviet writer and public figure. Winner of the Stalin Prize, first degree (1946).
From childhood he showed a talent for writing and was distinguished by his ability to fantasize. I was fond of adventure literature.
While still studying at the Vladivostok Commercial School, he carried out orders from the underground Bolshevik committee. He wrote his first story in 1922. While working on the novel “Destruction,” he decided to become a professional writer. “Destruction” brought fame and recognition to the young writer.

Still from the film “The Young Guard” (1947)
His most famous novel is “Young Guard” (about the Krasnodon underground organization “Young Guard”, which operated in territory occupied by Nazi Germany, many of whose members were killed by the Nazis. In mid-February 1943, after the liberation of Donetsk Krasnodon by Soviet troops, from the pit located Not far from the city of mine No. 5, several dozen corpses of teenagers tortured by the Nazis, who were members of the underground organization “Young Guard” during the occupation, were recovered.
The book was published in 1946. The writer was sharply criticized for the fact that the “leading and directing” role of the Communist Party was not clearly expressed in the novel; he received critical remarks in the Pravda newspaper actually from Stalin himself. In 1951, he created the second edition of the novel, and in it he paid more attention to the leadership of the underground organization by the CPSU (b).
Standing at the head of the Writers' Union of the USSR, A. Fadeev implemented the decisions of the party and government in relation to the writers M.M. Zoshchenko, A.A. Akhmatova, A.P. Platonov. In 1946, Zhdanov’s well-known decree was issued, which effectively destroyed Zoshchenko and Akhmatova as writers. Fadeev was among those who carried out this sentence. But the human feelings in him were not completely killed, he tried to help the financially distressed M. Zoshchenko, and also bothered about the fate of other writers who were in opposition to the authorities (B. Pasternak, N. Zabolotsky, L. Gumilyov, A. Platonov). Having such a hard time experiencing this split, he fell into depression.
On May 13, 1956, Alexander Fadeev shot himself with a revolver at his dacha in Peredelkino. “...My life, as a writer, loses all meaning, and with great joy, as a deliverance from this vile existence, where meanness, lies and slander fall upon you, I am leaving this life. The last hope was to at least tell this to the people who rule the state, but for the past 3 years, despite my requests, they cannot even accept me. I ask you to bury me next to my mother” (Suicide letter from A. A. Fadeev to the CPSU Central Committee. May 13, 1956).

Socialist realism in fine art

In the fine arts of the 1920s, several groups emerged. The most significant group was the Association of Artists of the Revolution.

"Association of Artists of the Revolution" (AHR)

S. Malyutin “Portrait of Furmanov” (1922). State Tretyakov Gallery
This large association of Soviet artists, graphic artists and sculptors was the most numerous, it was supported by the state. The association lasted 10 years (1922-1932) and was the forerunner of the Union of Artists of the USSR. The association was headed by Pavel Radimov, the last head of the Association of Itinerants. From that moment on, the Itinerants as an organization virtually ceased to exist. The AHR members rejected the avant-garde, although the 20s were the heyday of the Russian avant-garde, which also wanted to work for the benefit of the revolution. But the paintings of these artists were not understood and accepted by society. Here, for example, is the work of K. Malevich “The Reaper”.

K. Malevich “The Reaper” (1930)
This is what the AKhR artists declared: “Our civic duty to humanity is the artistic and documentary recording of the greatest moment in history in its revolutionary impulse. We will depict today: the life of the Red Army, the life of workers, peasants, leaders of the revolution and heroes of labor... We will give a real picture of events, and not abstract fabrications that discredit our revolution in the face of the international proletariat.”
The main task of the Association members was to create genre paintings on subjects from modern life, in which they developed the traditions of painting by the Wanderers and “brought art closer to life.”

I. Brodsky “V. I. Lenin in Smolny in 1917" (1930)
The main activity of the Association in the 1920s was exhibitions, of which about 70 were organized in the capital and other cities. These exhibitions were very popular. Depicting the present day (the life of the Red Army soldiers, workers, peasants, revolutionaries and labor), the artists of the Academy of Arts considered themselves heirs of the Wanderers. They visited factories, mills, and Red Army barracks to observe the lives of their characters. It was they who became the main backbone of the artists of socialist realism.

V. Favorsky
Representatives of socialist realism in painting and graphics were E. Antipova, I. Brodsky, P. Buchkin, P. Vasiliev, B. Vladimirsky, A. Gerasimov, S. Gerasimov, A. Deineka, P. Konchalovsky, D. Mayevsky, S. Osipov, A. Samokhvalov, V. Favorsky and others.

Socialist realism in sculpture

In the sculpture of socialist realism, the names of V. Mukhina, N. Tomsky, E. Vuchetich, S. Konenkov and others are known.

Vera Ignatievna Mukhina (1889 -1953)

M. Nesterov “Portrait of V. Mukhina” (1940)

Soviet sculptor-monumentalist, academician of the USSR Academy of Arts, People's Artist of the USSR. Winner of five Stalin Prizes.
Her monument “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” was erected in Paris at the 1937 World Exhibition. Since 1947, this sculpture has been the emblem of the Mosfilm film studio. The monument is made of stainless chromium-nickel steel. Height is about 25 m (height of the pavilion-pedestal is 33 m). Total weight 185 tons.

V. Mukhina “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”
V. Mukhina is the author of many monuments, sculptural works and decorative and applied items.

V. Mukhin “Monument “P.I. Tchaikovsky" near the building of the Moscow Conservatory

V. Mukhina “Monument to Maxim Gorky” (Nizhny Novgorod)
N.V. was also an outstanding Soviet monumental sculptor. Tomsky.

N. Tomsky “Monument to P. S. Nakhimov” (Sevastopol)
Thus, socialist realism made its worthy contribution to art.