RUSN 2160, Postcommunist russia 19 January 2015

Socialist realism When? The institutionalization of socialist realism followed the end of the 1920s cultural revolution. This change was called the Great Retreat. Who? Relatively less educated Soviet leaders lost trust in proletarian artists. What? Art that is “true to life” but depicts progress towards communism. Art must be optimistic and portray leaders and actions pointing the way to communism. Why? Innovative art forms did not attract a broad audience.

Socialist realism in literature Nikolai Ostrovsky’s How the Steel Was Tempered (1932-34) Dmitrii Furmanov’s Chapaev (1923; film version, 1934)

Socialist realism in architecture: Moscow subway Minaev, Igor’. Moskovskoe metro: Podzemnyi khram kommunizma (The Moscow Subway: Underground cathedral of communism). Moscow: ASTA, 2006. Moscow Subway official website Map History

Stalin

Evgeniia Ginzburg’s Into the Whirlwind and In the Whirlwind 2009 film version (in English)

chapter 36 in Evtukhov et al.: “The Soviet Homeland Defended” Fascism Italian fascists, 1922- German National Socialists (Nazis), 1933- Axis pact of 1936-37 (German, Italy, and Japan) Western responses (p. 698-99) Nazi – Soviet non-aggression pact, 1939-41

Andrzej Wajda’s Katyn (2007) Recounts the arrest and execution of 17,000 Polish officers in 1940.

chapter 36 in Evtukhov et al.: “The Soviet Homeland Defended” 22 June 1941 invasion of Russia Stalin’s two-week disappearance Nazi occupation and guerilla resistance War turns – summer 1943 battle of Kursk Summer 1944 – Soviets in Poland “Hidden wars” – deportations, executions, imprisonment

Commemoration

Victory Park in Moscow