9. SOCIALIST REALISM IN PRACTICE

TODAY’S QUESTIONS “National in form, socialist in content” – what does it mean? How was socialist realism translated into literature? Was socialist realism a machine for producing socialist reality?

“Socialist in content; national in form.”

BAKU TRAIN STATION (1926, N. BAEV)

AZERBAIJAN HOUS OF SOVIETS (1934, L. RUDVINEV)

WORKER AND Kolkhoz woman (1937, VERA MUKHINA)

UZBEK PAVILION (1939, S. POLUPANOV)

FRIENDSHIP OF NATIONS FOUNTAIN (1954, Y. SHCHUKO et al)

KAZAKH PAVILION (I. PETROV ET AL)

SOCIALIST REALIST LITERATURE Two Perspectives: Socialist realism as a recounting of rituals? Socialist realism as a machine for producing reality?

KATERINA CLARK, THE SOVIET NOVEL (1984) Prologue (or separation): The character arrives in location Setting up the task: Problems in the location  character sets out to correct it Transition: The character’s quest hits a snag, either at work or in his/her personal life Climax (fulfilment of the task is threatened): A seemingly unsurmountable obstacle arrives Incorporation: Character meets with mentor (often from the Party) Finale: Completion of task and/or (a) resolution of love story; (b) celebration or ceremony; (c) funeral for those who perished accomplishing the task; (d) reshuffling of personnel; (e) new beginning – birth of child, speech, factory opening, etc.

FEDOR GLADKOV, CEMENT (1925)

DOBRENKO’S VERSION “Since it comprised an essential part of the overall political- aesthetic project of Stalinism, Socialist Realism was included in the general system of social functioning. The ideology that not only dominated over the economy but also gave it meaning took shape within Socialist Realism. In this sense, Soviet literature, the quintessence of which was Socialist Realism, was a completely new and unique phenomenon. Its main function amounted not to propaganda, but to the production of reality through its aestheticization.” Evgeny Dobrenko, ‘Socialist Realism’ in The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth Century Russian Literature, ed. Maria Balina, Evgeny Dobrenko (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 97-114 [110].

CASE STUDY: THE WHITE SEA CANAL

CASE STUDY: THE WHITE SEA CANAL

ALEKSANDR RODCHENKO PHOTOS

THE WHITE SEA CANAL “And by whose work is this [the construction of the canal – S.H.] to be accomplished? This sounds the most Utopian part of the plan, for the work is to be a double one; the task is to be attempted not by tried heroes of the revolution, but by the very men who have set themselves to work against it; the men are to forge this new tool for the Five Year Plan are themselves to be re- forged.” Maksim Gorky, ‘Introduction’, The White Sea Canal: Being an Account of the Construction of the New Canal Between the White Sea and the Baltic Sea, ed. by Maksim Gorky (London: Bodley Head, 1935), 7

EXERCISE What does your extract tell you about … … Bolshevik views of human capability? … Bolshevik attitudes to labour? … the role of socialist realism in defining Soviet reality?