Social and Cultural Change under Stalin

Overview
Social and cultural changes were part of Stalin’s revolution. The socialist future could only be
achieved if society was transformed entirely. The old attitudes had to be destroyed in order to
create a new society. Stalin made changes to the role of women and the family, Religion,
education and the arts. In 1936 a new constitution came into effect, it guaranteed wide democratic
rights and freedoms, including:
● Freedom of speech
● Freedom of conscience
● Freedom of assembly
● Freedom of the press
The constitution also legitimised the notion of the one-party state - The Communist Party. While
the constitution appeared democratic power remained within the leaders of the Communist party.
‘Deviation’ against the Party line became a major crime in the Soviet Union. Anyone who did not
work as hard as the best in the group was under suspicion for sabotage. Free will and expression
made way for collective action for the ‘common good’

Source A:

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Source B: A poster from 1937 celebrating twenty years of Socialism in Russia

Source B Questions
Symbols were very important in Soviet Russia.
1. What powerful symbols are used in Source B?
2. What is being presented as the most important achievements of the regime?

Oxley, P. (2001) Russia 1855-1991: From Tsars to Commissars

Marxists envisaged a future Society where inequalities of wealth and power had been swept away
in a new spirit of egalitarianism and freedom. All would contribute to society in any way they could,
working for the common good, as shown in Source B. How close was the USSR in the 1930's to
reaching this gold question mark was the talk of socialist Society simply a propaganda image to
conceal a new class system, based on political privilege, as many historians in the 1950's and
1960's suggested? Suzanne Rosenberg, herself a communist, seems to have been shocked by

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what she experienced on reaching the Soviet Union (Source A).

Moving Into The Cities

By far the biggest change in the life of Soviet citizens came when they left the collective farms for
the cities. Between 1929 and 1941 18.5 million made this journey until the introduction of the
internal passport in 1932, there were no restrictions on movement. After collectivisation those
who remained on the Kolkhoz we're destined to a life of poverty and near-serfdom. However, the
demand for labour during these years offered many opportunities for those prepared to take the
risk of digging up their roots. Those who had specialised skills must have found the move easiest.
Tractor and combine drivers, for example, once they were trained by the MTS (Motor Tractor
Stations), could easily find employment in construction and mining.

Leaving all family contacts and the rural life they had been brought up to must have been a
profound shock for many people.

Religion
‘Religion is the opium of the people’, wrote Karl Marx. All Bolsheviks believed that religion was an
invention to distract the poor and oppressed from trying to remedy this situation on Earth by
offering them the prospect of perfect happiness after death. If a communist Society was to be
achieved, the shackles of religious belief needed to be shattered.

The attack on religion had begun under Lenin and it continued throughout the 1920s. Lenin and
had ordered the execution of several Bishops, ostensibly because they refused to sell church gold
and silver to help those affected by the famine in 1922, but as the NEP developed it saw a decline
in religious persecution, especially of some of the non-orthodox congregations. Nonetheless, 117
out of 160 Orthodox Bishops had been arrested during this period of relative toleration, which
ended dramatically with the First Five Year Plan.

The collectivisation of villages was accompanied by widespread attacks on religion. Many

churches were closed and their priests were deported. Church buildings were either pulled down or
converted to secular purposes; as barns, schools, etc. In 1930 there were 30000 Orthodox
congregations, but by 1939 only one in 40 churches was still functioning and only 7 Bishops were
still active in the whole of the Soviet Union. Worship could only take place in licensed premises by
congregations registered with the government. Many congregations had to apply to use religious
vestments and silver from the local authorities and return them after use.

In Moscow church buildings suffered even more. Churches, such as the famous Chapel of the
Iberian Virgin by Red Square were knocked down around The Kremlin to allow the passage of
parades of armed vehicles. The cathedral of Christ the saviour, built in the 19th cemetery to
commemorate the defeat of Napoleon, was dynamited to make way for what was planned to be
the world's tallest construction, the Palace of Soviets. This was to be crowned by a statue of Lenin,
though in fact the Palace was never built because the foundations were unsound.

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In the oldest capital, St Petersburg, which was now known as Leningrad, your thority seemed to
have had a macabre sense of humour. The famous Kazan Cathedral was converted into a
museum of atheism, while the monastery of Alexander Nevsky, where formerly famous Russian
musicians were buried, became the place of burial for prominent anti-religious figures.

The communists also attacked Islam, the second largest religious community in the USSR. Only
1300 mosques were still operating in 1941 as against 26000 in 1917.

However, there is much evidence that the party's campaign against Christianity was not very
successful. Many congregations continue to meet and private houses, despite the lack of ordained
priests to take services. The party tried to prevent the observance of religious holidays but was
singularly unsuccessful. Some Kolkhoz chairmen complained to their bosses that peasants were
observing even more religious holidays than before collectivisation. Perhaps religion here was a
good excuse to resist the demands of the hated kolkhoz. Apparently some kolkhoz chairmen later
in the 1930s were actually churchwardens.

The 1937 census showed that despite the official campaigns and activities of the League of the
Militant Godless, 57% of Russians said they were still believers. The percentage was even higher
for the older generation. Clearly the regime had not managed to dislodge religious beliefs and the
view of the world which it represented among the majority of Russians. In fact the tide seemed to
be turning in the opposite direction. The League of the Militant Godless lost three quarters of its
members between 1932 and 1938. It's Leningrad branch was closed down for lack of members in
1936.

Source C: “By Order Of The Soviet Authorities”

By order of the Soviet authorities, the Orthodox cathedral at Batum is turned into a cinema, but
locals riot and destroy the equipment Date 1923

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Source D: Religion Persecuted On The Pretext
RELIGION PERSECUTED On the pretext of building a cultural centre, officials blow up the church of
an ancient monastery Date 1930

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Source E: The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (Moscow)

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Original Cathedral 1931 Blowing up of the Cathedral, 1931

The new Cathedral

The design of the Palace of the Soviets

The current church is the second to stand on this site. The original church, built during the 19th
century, took more than 40 years to build, and was the scene of the 1882 world premiere of the
1812 Overture composed by Tchaikovsky. It was destroyed in 1931 on the order of Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin. The demolition was supposed to make way for a colossal Palace of the
Soviets to house the country's legislature, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Construction
started in 1937 but was halted in 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union during World
War II. Its steel frame was disassembled the following year, and the Palace was never built.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the current church was rebuilt on the site
between 1995 and 2000.

Religion Source Study

1. What happened to religious faith?
2. How do the sources reflect the priorities of the Communist regime?
3. Look at Source E. Why do you think Stalin chose this location for the Palace of the Soviets?
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 4. Why do you think Religious belief persisted in the face of this attack by the State?

Webb, K. (2018) Russia and the Soviet Union 1917-1941

Education

The late 1920s witnessed what became known as “the cultural revolution”. Young people were
encouraged to criticise bourgeois values and to discover their revolutionary self and their
proletarian values. It caused great upheaval as bourgeois intellectuals were attacked, and the
values of schools and the authority of teachers were put in question. Many teachers were forced
out of their jobs, branded as “bourgeois specialists”. The cultural revolution soon gained
momentum of its own. Many of the young people active in this process were also involved in the
great changes taking place, anything from working in factories to teaching peasants how to read
and write. These young people were active supporters of Stalin and his vision for the future.

By the early 1930s, Stalin called for an end to the cultural revolution. Russia needed educated and
disciplined citizens and all he could see were schools in chaos. There was an immediate shift to a
more conservative and conventional approach to schools and education in general.
➔ Teaching was to be based on a tight curriculum, strict programming and structured
timetables.
➔ There was an emphasis on the practical, “useful and non-political” subjects such as physics,
chemistry and mathematics.
➔ Homework, rote-learning, examinations and school uniforms were back.
➔ Discipline was reinforced, as was respect for teachers.
➔ The increasingly conservative nature of education was extended to universities where
academic success rather than proletarian origins became the criterion for entry.

Oxley, P. (2001) Russia 1855-1991: From Tsars to Commissars

Education
Primary education was made compulsory for all in 1934 four years. During the 1930s this term
was extended, until each child spent 7 compulsory years at school. Even illiterate adults are
encouraged to attend school or evening classes. The results were striking; by 1939 illiteracy had
declined to just 4% of the male and 18% of the female population. This meant a huge expansion in
the number of teachers, though, especially in the rural areas, they were often not well treated. The
onus was put on the Kolkhoz to find the money for schools, and particularly in the harsh years of
early and mid-30s money was in very short supply. Feeding people in the community was a higher
priority than teaching them to read and write.

Webb, K. (2018) Russia and the Soviet Union 1917-1941

Education

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During the “cultural revolution”, history and history teachers were targeted. History was seen as
irrelevant in the brave new world of socialism and its past emphasis on previous tsars was seen as
out of step with proletarian values. Some history professors were imprisoned. However, by the
mid-1930s, things also changed in the area of history.
➔ Stalin decreed that history should be taught with reference to previous tsars such as Ivan
the Terrible and Peter the Great.
➔ There was to be a greater emphasis on dates, chronology, and great men.
➔ Crucially, there was a rewriting of revolutionary history.
➔ John Reed’s book, Ten Days That Shook the World was no longer printed; it had no mention
of Stalin.
➔ Trotsky’s historical works were obviously banned.
➔ In 1938, it became compulsory for all school students to be taught Soviet history from A V
Shestakov’s “A Short History of the USSR”. This “correct” view of the past has Stalin as the
central figure and Trotsky completely eliminated, except when he appears in a negative
light. Here is an example of this new Stalinist view of history:

Source F: A. V. Shestakov, A Short History of the USSR, Moscow 1983.

“...Trotsky and his contemptible friends organised in the USSR gangs of murderers, wreckers
and spies... (The aim of) these enemies of the people was to restore the yoke of the
capitalists and the landlords to the USSR...”

Source G: Number of schools in the USSR

1927 118 558

1933 166 275

Summary question:
What changes were made to schools and education?

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Oxley, P. (2001) Russia 1855-1991: From Tsars to Commissars

Family Life

Marriage as an institution did not at first win the favour of all Bolsheviks. For many women through
the centuries their experience of marriage had been childbearing, hard work and brutality at the
hands of the drunken husband. Some Communists, including senior Diplomat Alexandra kollontai,
went so far as to call marriage a ‘bourgeois institution’, which gave men the legal framework to
exploit the female underclass. Ghost solution was to dissolve the institution altogether. Both
sexes, she thought, should be able to choose to have sexual relations with whomever they wished.
As for children, some Communists argued that bringing them up was best left to State-run children
homes rather than parents at home. This would instil in children the proper social attitudes and
destroy any divisions between social groups.

After the Revolution a number of reforms had been passed to try to give greater equality to
women. Divorce was made cheap and easy. All that had to be done was to visit a judge and sign
the necessary papers. Abortion was also legalised, though not encouraged. Many people live
together in unregistered partnerships, though marriage was still the norm. Government
propaganda even in the 1920s, emphasized the role of women Workers as well as Homemakers.
Childcare at the workplace was common, though extended families also took on these
arrangements themselves.

The ‘great change’ put a few strain on the family and the institution of marriage. The arrest and
deportation of over a million kulaks often meant their wives went with them. Many families tried to
leave children with relatives or friends. As we have seen, for those who remained life on the new
collective farms was difficult, young men in particular often could see no future for themselves.
They left their villages in millions, with or without the necessary permission, to look for work in the
nearest city or industrial region. Many seem to have a band and their family obligations, often
starting up a second family in their new surroundings. Father's were bound by law to pay
maintenance for their children, but, in the chaotic circumstances of the time, it was impossible to
track father's down and they could easily move on if detection looked likely. Factories were
desperate for workers, especially if they had special skills. The 1934 famine, which devastated
large parts of Russia, left many thousands of orphans. Desperate villagers, without enough food
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for themselves, sent them off to the nearest town.

For families living together in the cities and towns, life was also harsh. Even party leaders were not
exempt from the conditions, long before the rapid movement of people which accompanied the
FIve Year Plans. Here, Krushchev, the future Soviet Leader, reflects in his memoirs, about being a
delegate on the 14th Party Congress in 1925:

Source H: Krushchev, Krushchev Remembers. 1971

We lived in the house of soviets... Our quarters were very simple and crowded. We slept on
plane beds, and we were stacked together like logs.

Of course Krushchev and his comrades did not have to suffer these conditions for more than a few
days. Families often lived together in extremely claustrophobic conditions. Housing was
desperately short and families of three generations lived in rooms of 11 square metres. In this
room they ate, washed and slept. Where new blocks of flats were erected in the 1930's, the
Socialist plan of communal bathrooms and kitchens was often followed. This gross overcrowding
must have put enormous strain on family relationships at all levels husbands and wives deserted
their families and children ran away from unhappy homes. Desperate parents put their children
into orphanages and abandoning them there. There were, therefore, an increasingly large number
of children being brought up away from their parents. The state orphanages with creaking under
the weight of new admissions.

The result of many of these pressures was gangs of street-children in the cities living lives on the
margins of society, stealing, scrounging and begging. Juvenile crime became a major problem for
the government, absorbing the time of all levels of government, even the Politburo.

What should the government do about this? juvenile offenders had at first being treated
sympathetically by the courts. Eventually attitudes hardened and in 1935 a new harsh law was
passed by the Politburo. The law in future was to treat all those aged 12 and over as adults, even
imposing the death penalty if it was felt to be appropriate. Parents of hooligans were also made
liable to fines. Troublesome children could be removed from their parents to state orphanages and
parents would have to pay for their upkeep.

In 1936 the government introduced new measures to strengthen family life. the law made abortion
illegal, despite much public debate and opposition. Newspapers afterwards carried many stories
about the punishment of doctors and illegal abortionists, as well as husbands who forced wife to
have you leave the abortions, to discourage the practice. The birth rate did increase substantially
from 25% to 31% Per thousand as a result, but it would appear that illegal abortions were still kept
busy. The same law also made divorce much more difficult, requiring the presence of both parties
in the court, and making it considerably more expensive. Absent parents also had to contribute a
higher proportion of their wages to the upkeep of their children, which was a strong disc-incentive
to divorce. Homosexuality was also banned.

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The state also implemented a system to reward mother's who had 6 or more children. For five
years they received 2000 rubles per day, which would have the large sum of money for working
families. These reforms and payments did not lead to a decline in the number of working women.
In leningrad they rose from 44% to 50% of the workforce between 1935 and 1937. To encourage
women back to work after giving birth, almost all large factory setup creches to care for their
children. In Moscow in the central Gorky Park was a Children's Village where in suitable weather
the creches ought the children for healthy games and outdoor exercise.

Webb, K. (2018) Russia and the Soviet Union 1917-1941

Women under Stalinism

At the time of the November Revolution, there was a genuine desire within the Bolshevik Party to
achieve equality for women. Lenin certainly believed this and he supported the efforts of his
Commissar of Social Welfare, Alexandra Kollantai, to achieve this. However, it should be pointed
out that Lenin was far more conservative than Kollantai and bulked at her promotion of “free love”
ideas. Even though Lenin and Kollantai had their political differences (she was a member of the
Workers’ Opposition – see Chapter 7), they remained close. Lenin even intervened to prevent the
execution of her lover, Pavel Dybenko.

In the early years of Bolshevik rule, women made significant gains.

➔ In January 1918, women were given civil, legal and electoral equality.
➔ Equality in marriage was introduced, as was divorce by consent.
➔ Abortion was legalised.
➔ Women were allowed to play a significant part in the Civil War, not only as nurses but also
as combatants. About 74 000 took part in the Civil War, suffering 1800 casualties.
➔ In 1920, a Bolshevik Women’s Section was formed, called the Zhenotdel. It was headed by
Inessa Armand who worked closely with Kollantai and Lenin’s wife, Krupskaya.

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Women were given wider educational opportunities and encouraged to join the work force,
particularly during the economic transformation of the 1930s. However, it is one thing to legislate
and propagandise for female equality; it is quite another to achieve it. Russia did not lose its deep
seated male chauvinism overnight. It was still women who did the housework and who queued for
bread. Men took advantage of the growing sexual freedom and there were many “postcard
divorces”. Millions of children grew up without parental homes. As one Bolshevik member,
Yaroslavasky put it:
“... It is one thing to write good laws and another to create the social conditions to bring them to
life.”

Kollantai was to die a disappointed woman as the revolution in the role of women that she had
hoped for never eventuated. Under Stalin, there was a reversion to more conservative values and
this inevitably affected women. The 1930s was a period of massive upheavals with millions of
workers on the move. Apart from the political effects of this discussed earlier, there were also
social ramifications. The Soviet Union faced growing social instability.
➔ the birth rate was steadily falling (not good for long-term growth);
➔ there were increasing levels of juvenile crime;
➔ Soviet cities were inundated with large numbers of homeless children, a not dissimilar
situation to that described by Charles Dickens in his novels about 19th century industrial
Britain.

As a result of these issues, and against the context of the Stalinist hard line of the time, it is
perhaps not surprising to see some of the gains made by women after the revolution diluted. The
change in the official approach to women became known as “the great retreat”. A more serious
attitude to marriage was now demanded and children were to be taught respect and obedience. In
1936, the government introduced its new Family Code. Its main provisions are summarised in
Figure 13.1.

Source H:

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The hard-line policies of the 1930s began to affect domestic issues. From 1935, the NKVD became
involved in dealing with juvenile crime, and adolescents as young as twelve could receive the death
penalty for violent crime. The NKVD attempted to clear the streets of homeless children and place
them in orphanages. Parents were fined if their children were guilty of juvenile crime and on
occasions could have their children taken away from them.

Summary Questions:
How did the role of women change in Soviet society?
How was family life affected?

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Webb, K. (2018) Russia and the Soviet Union 1917-1941

Culture and the Arts

During the 1920s, Russia experienced a spectacular period of cultural activity. Led by Sergei
Eisenstein, Soviet cinema rivaled the work of the German expressionists and Hollywood. The
theatre world had Karl Meyerhold, literature had Boris Pasternak and the art world the likes of
Alexander Rodchenko. However, once Stalin gained his supremacy Soviet artistic life was forced to
change. Pasternak could not get work published and Rodchenko gave up his avant-garde art for
the more acceptable world of sports photography.

Stalin demanded that artistic endeavour be mobilised to promote the efforts of the new Russia.
Writers, artists, filmmakers and composers now had to work within the framework of “Socialist
Realism”.
➔ The days of artists expressing their inner feelings, their emotions and their individuality
were gone.
➔ “Socialist Realism” demanded that all artistic efforts should be positive, optimistic and
heroic. Art should assist in the socialist construction of the time and be in accord with the
views of the party. Art was to be didactic, ie it was to teach the people the correct attitudes.
➔ Socialist Realism was instrumental in developing the Stalinist cult of personality (see
below). Images of Stalin from this time are classics of socialist realism.
➔ Heroes were the order of the day, be they Stakhanovite miners, industrious peasants, arctic
explorers or pioneering aviators.
➔ Gone were the days of self-doubt, questioning or introspection. Socialist Realism demanded
of artists, writers and filmmakers the celebration of the glorious present and a golden
future.
➔ Even music could not escape the demands of Socialist Realism. Stalin hated
Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk District – it was too dark and realistic.

The late 1930s also saw a revival of more nationalistic themes, a development which was
promoted more fully during the Great Patriotic War (1941-45). Russia’s glorious past was to be
celebrated, seen in films on past Russians heroes such as Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky.

Review Questions

1. What immediate effect did the revolution have on Russian women?

2. What was the Bolshevik women’s section called?
3. How were women affected by Stalin’s Family Code of 1936?
4. What was the party’s attitude towards the nation’s teenagers?
5. What happened to education during the cultural revolution?
6. What happened to education from the early 1930s onwards?
7. What style of art was demanded of artists by Stalin?
8. What were the key features of Soviet artistic endeavour in the 1930s?
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 9. How did the new styles of art affect the presentation of Stalin’s image?
10. How did the arts handle Russia’s pre-revolutionary history in the 1930s?

Source I:

What was the “cult of personality”?

To fully understand the concept of the “cult of personality”, it is necessary to understand the
nature of the Soviet state. Western commentators have often used the terms “Russia” and “the
Soviet Union” interchangeably. However, this is not correct. Russia is but one part of the Soviet
Union, as it was but one part of the Tsarist Empire before that. The Russian Empire/ Soviet Union
comprised dozens of different national and ethnic groups who spoke over a hundred different
languages and dialects and who believed in a host of different religious beliefs and followed
hundreds of different customs and traditions.
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In such a society, creating a sense of unity and consensus was a massive challenge.
➔ Before the revolution this sense of national unity had been achieved with the people’s
veneration of the tsar. To peasants all over the Russian Empire, Nicholas II had been “the
little father”.
➔ During the 1920s, the “Lenin cult” had been promoted. However, this was arguably done
only as a means for Stalin to outmaneouvre his opponents in the struggle for power.
➔ During the 1930s under Stalin, the “cult of personality” reached unbelievable levels. The
revolution and the upheavals that followed made it even more necessary to provide a
unifying figure for the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union in the 1930s underwent a degree of
social and economic upheaval unprecedented in history.

Source J: www.historyguide.org
“...The result was the “cult of personality,” the deliberate fixation of individual dedication and
loyalty on the all-powerful leader, whose personality exemplified the challenge of creating
socialist man and socialist woman.”

The “cult of personality” in practice

The most obvious sign of the Stalinist cult of personality was his ever-present image. There were
posters and paintings of Stalin in every home, every school, shop, factory, peasant’s hut, museum,
government office, indeed any building capable of hanging a picture. There were busts of Stalin
adorning parks, entrances to factories and hospitals. It was impossible to pick up a newspaper
that did not have Stalin’s picture on the front page, and probably on most inside pages as well. No
visit to the cinema was possible without seeing a newsreel praising Stalin’s firm and visionary
leadership. Any public celebration, for example anniversaries of the October Revolution, would
have people carrying massive portraits of Stalin.

The image presented of Stalin during the 1930s varied, depending upon the audience and the
situation within the country.
➔ Early images presented Stalin as a humane person who understood his people’s needs. He
was not presented as some remote, distant figure.
➔ He was often presented as a man who was intimately involved in the lives of his
people.There were images of Stalin:
◆ discussing machine technology with ordinary workers
◆ standing in the fields talking with peasants
◆ viewing major projects and in intense discussion with engineers and architects.
➔ There were many images depicting Stalin with children. 5 Figure 13.4 below is an example
of such imagery.

Source J: The children are saying: “Thank you dear Stalin for our happy childhood.”
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By the late 1930s, the image had changed.
➔ Stalin is often presented as a man of wisdom:
◆ he is seen often discussing issues with Lenin (though we know that Lenin could not
stand Stalin by the end of his life);
◆ he is often depicted instructing party workers in meetings;
◆ he is even seen as a very young man instructing his friends.
➔ Stalin is presented in a more heroic, and sometimes detached and superior way, not so
much of the people, as clearly leading and inspiring the people.
◆ paintings and movies are produced depicting Stalin as a great Civil War hero;
➔ Stalin is presented as the lone leader, “the great helmsman” guiding the ship of state
through troubled waters.

Source K: Stalin the Great Helmsman

Not only Stalin’s image, but his words were also everywhere. Newspaper editors vied with each
other to see who could include the most quotations of and references to Stalin.
➔ If a journalist wanted to have a piece published, he was sure to back up his copy with
several references to Stalin.
➔ Many writers tried to ape Stalin’s style of writing Russian.

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 ➔ Authors, poets, artists and composers only ever dared to produce works which fitted in with
the values and opinions of Stalin.

Not only the present but the past had to be managed to fit the “cult of personality”.

➔ Stalin’s role in the past was steadily built up over time at the expense of other leading
Bolsheviks, particularly Trotsky. Trotsky was effectively written out of Soviet history books,
except when it could be found that he had had disagreements with Lenin.
➔ Not only were Stalin’s defeated rivals written out of history, they were “airbrushed” out of
history. This was all part of the development of the cult of personality.
➔ Leading party figures who were no longer in favour or who had been inconveniently shot,
were removed from photographs. The skill with which Stalinist propagandists achieved this
is quite impressive when one considers that Photoshop was several generations into the
future.

Source L:

The amusing side of the “cult of personality”

It might seem difficult to find much humour in Stalinist rule in the 1930s; indeed, it might almost be
considered insulting to the memory of those who suffered. However, people both now and then
have discovered a dark humour from those times.
➔ The faking of so many photographs itself is quite amusing until one considers that such
fakes ended up distorting the collective memory of the Soviet people.
➔ A record of Stalin’s speeches was produced. The second side of the record consisted
entirely of applause.

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Mini-Essay question:
What do the historians have to say about the impact of Stalinism on society, culture and the
Economy?

Source M: Grahame Gill: Twentieth Century Russia

Gill makes the point that the Soviet Union suffered a major cultural decline during the
1930s. This was partly the result of the party emphasis on Socialist Realism and of course
the standards set by Stalin. However, Gill also suggests that the decline was a reflection of
the new elite that had arisen in Stalinist Russia. This new elite had been educated primarily
in the technical fields and they usually came:

“...from a background with little appreciation of literature, art and music, (and so) it is not
surprising that this group had little time for these aspects of Russian culture.”

Source N: Martin McCauley: The Soviet Union since 1917

McCauley provides a useful differentiation of the terms “social realism” and “socialist
realism”. The social realist highlights the shortcomings of society and there was clearly no
room for the social realist in Stalin’s Russia. Socialist Realism meant the depiction of life
from the point of view of social relations and in accordance with the goals of the party.
Such depictions had to display a compulsory optimism. Consequently:

“...Excessive introspection, psychoanalysis, self-doubt and flights into the world of fantasy or
the sub-conscious had no place in the new cultural milieu.”

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Source O: Richard Galpin: Medvedev blasts Stalin defenders
Galpin’s piece appeared on the BBC website (October 2009). It is an instructive piece
because it highlights the fact that, despite the seemingly overwhelming evidence, there are
still many in Russia today who seek to defend Stalin’s record and laud his leadership.
Galpin reported a videoblog placed on the Kremlin website by then Russian President
Medvedev. President Medvedev criticised those in his country who seek to rewrite history
and play down the brutal repression of the Stalinist regime. He says his people must never
allow the truth of the brutal Stalin regime to be forgotten. President Medvedev’s comments
are in contrast to recent positive commentary on Stalin inside Russia. Galpin comments:

“...Under President Vladimir Putin, the order was given for school history books to be re-
written highlighting Stalin’s achievements. In Moscow there is now even a Stalin-themed
café and a metro station with one of Stalin’s famous slogans on its walls. In northern Russia
a historian investigating crimes committed by the former dictator was recently arrested.”

Source P: Alexander Solzhenitsyn: The Gulag Archipelago

Solzhenitsyn was no friend of the communist regime in the Soviet Union. He had suffered
at the hands of Stalin and spent long spells in labour camps. However, Solzhenitsyn’s
personal experiences and his literary skills, combine to highlight some of the absurdities of
the cult of personality that developed in the Soviet Union under Stalin. He tells the story of a
district party conference just outside Moscow. At the end of the conference, the new
secretary of the District Party Committee called for a tribute to Comrade Stalin. Of course,
everyone stood up and began applauding with great enthusiasm. The applause continued:
five minutes, eight minutes, ten minutes, not just polite clapping but thunderous, painful
applause. After eleven minutes of this, the director of a paper factory sat down and within
seconds the applause had been silenced.

“...That same night the factory director was arrested. They easily pasted ten years on him on
the pretext of something quite different. But after he had signed... the final document of the
interrogation, his interrogator reminded him: Don’t ever be the first to stop applauding...”

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