The Culture of the Stalin Period

326 Pages·1990·32.368 MB·English

by  Hans Günther (eds.)

STUDIES IN RUSSIA AND EAST EUROPE
formerly Studies in Russian and East European History
Chairman of the Editorial Board: M. A. Branch, Director, School of
Slavonic and East European Studies.
This series includes books on general, political, historical, economic,
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or edited by members of the School of Slavonic and East European
Studies in the University of London, or by authors working in
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Further titles are in preparation.
Phyllis Auty and Richard Clogg (editors)
BRITISH POLICY TOWARDS WARTIME RESISTANCE IN YUGOSLAVIA
AND GREECE
Elisabeth Barker
BRITISH POLICY IN SOUTH-EAST EUROPE IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Roger Bartlett
LAND COMMUNE AND PEASANT COMMUNITY IN RUSSIA: COMMUNAL
FORMS IN IMPERIAL AND EARLY SOVIET SOCIETY
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THE MOVEMENT FOR GREEK INDEPENDENCE, 1770-1821: A COLLEC·
TION OF DOCUMENTS
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STUDIES IN THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY BEFORE 1914
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RUSSIAN SEAPOWER AND 'THE EASTERN QUESTION', 1827-41
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HISTORIANS AS NATION-BUILDERS: CENTRAL AND SOUTH-EAST
EUROPE
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IDEOLOGY IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE
Julian Graffy and Geoffrey A. Hosking (editors)
CULTURE AND THE MEDIA IN THE USSR TODAY
Jane Grayson and Faith Wigzell (editors)
NIKOLA Y GOGOL: TEXT AND CONTEXT
Hans GUnther (editor)
THE CULTURE OF THE STALIN PERIOD
Harry Hanak (editor)
T. G. MASARYK (1850-1937) VOLUME 3: STATESMAN AND CULTURAL
FORCE
Geoffrey A. Hosking and George F. Cushing (editors)
PERSPECTIVES ON LITERATURE AND SOCIETY IN EASTERN AND
WESTERN EUROPE
D. G. Kirby (editor)
FINLAND AND RUSSIA, 1808-1920: DOCUMENTS
Michael Kirkwood (editor)
LANGUAGE PLANNING IN THE SOVIET UNION
Martin McCauley (editor)
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND THE SOVIET STATE, 1917-1921:
DOCUMENTS
KHRUSHCHEV AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOVIET AGRICULTURE
COMMUNIST POWER IN EUROPE: 1944-1949 (editor)
MAkXISM-LENINISM IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC: THE
SOCIALIST UNITY PARTY (SED)
THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC SINCE 1945
KHRUSHCHEV AND KHRUSHCHEVISM (editor)
THE SOVIET UNION UNDER GORBACHEV (editor)
Martin McCauley and Stephen Carter (editors)
LEADERSHIP AND SUCCESSION IN THE SOVIET UNION, EASTERN
EUROPE AND CHINA
Martin McCauley and Peter Waldron
THE EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN RUSSIAN STATE, 1856-61
Uszl6 P~ter and Robert B. Pynsent (editors)
INTELLECTUALS AND THE FUTURE IN THE HABSBURG MONARCHY,
1890-1914
Robert B. Pynsent (editor)
T. G. MASARYK (1850-1937) VOLUME 2: THINKER AND CRITIC
Evan Mawdsley
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND THE BALTIC FLEET
J. J. Tomiak (editor)
WESTERN PERSPECTIVES ON SOVIET EDUCATION IN THE 1980s
Stephen White and Alex Pravda (editors)
IDEOLOGY AND SOVIET POLITICS
Stanley B. Winters (editor)
T. G. MASARYK (1850-1937) VOLUME 1: THINKER AND POLITICIAN
Alan Wood and R. A. French (editors)
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SIBERIA: PEOPLE AND RESOURCES
THE CULTURE OF
THE STALIN PERIOD
Edited by
Hans GUnther
Professor of Slavic Literatures
University of Bielefeld, West Germany
in association with the Palgrave Macmillan
* © School of Slavonic and East European Studies 1990
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
List of Figures and Tables ix
Preface X
Notes on the Contributors xiii
Introduction xvi
PART I POPULAR CULTURE, EVERYDAY LIFE,
IDEOLOGY
1 Working-class Culture and Political Culture in the 1930s 3
John Barber
2 Stalinism and Popular Culture 15
Regine Robin
3 Stalinism and Carnival: Organisation and Aesthetics of 41
Political Holidays
Rosalinde Sartorii
4 Stalinism and the Restructuring of Revolutionary 78
Utopianism
Richard Stites
PART II ART
5 Presuppositions of Socialist Realism 97
Aleksandar Flaker
6 Problems in the Study of Stalinist Culture 110
Igor Golomstock
7 The Birth of Socialist Realism from the Spirit of the 122
Russian A vant-Garde
Boris Groys
8 Socialist Realism as Institutional Practice: Observations 149
on the Interpretation of the Works of Art of the Stalin
Period
l¢rn Guldberg
9 The Avant-Garde and Art of the Stalinist Era 178
Vassily Rakitin
v
vi Contents
PART III LITERATURE
10 Education and Conversion: The Road to the New Man 193
in the Totalitarian Bildungsroman
Hans Gunther
11 Satire under Stalinism: Zoshchenko's Golubaya kniga 210
and M. Bulgakov's Master i Margarita
Jochen-Ulrich Peters
PART IV ARCHITECTURE
12 Moscow in the 1930s and the Emergence of a New City 229
Vladimir Paperny
13 The Ultimate Palladianist, Outliving Revolution and 240
the Stalin Period: Architect Ivan V. Zholtovsky
Adolf Max Vogt
PARTV FILM
14 From the Avant-Garde to Socialist Realism: Some 251
Reflections on the Signifying Procedures in Eisenstein's
Stachka and Donskoi's Raduga
Brenda Bollag
15 The Annexation of History: Eisenstein and the Ivan 266
Grozny Cult of the 1940s
Bernd Uhlenbruch
List of Illustrations
1. A. I. Vepkhvadze. D. D. Gabitashvili, K. M. Makharadze,
G. K. Totivadze: Youth of the World for Peace, 1950-51.
2. A. Gerasimov: The Oath, 1949.
3. A. Deineka: Mosaic to the ceiling of Novokuznetskaya Metro
Station, 1940-43.
4. A. Laktionov: In the New Flat, 1951.
5. A. Gerasimov: Portrait of I.V. Stalin, ca. 1942.
6. A. Gerasimov: LV. Stalin. 1939.
7. I. Brodsky: Portrait of I. V. Stalin, 1932.
8. Z. Volkovinskaya: Stalin's Childhood, 1949.
9. P. Kotov: At Lenin's Death-Bed. ca. 1944.
10. Ivan Leonidov: Lenin-Institute (National Library) 1927.
11. Rudnev and others: Lomonosov University, Moscow, 1952.
12. Shchuko and Gelfreich: Doric Arcade, Smolny Palace,
Leningrad, 1922.
13. K. Malevich: The Knife Polisher, Oilpainting.
14. I. I. Zholtovsky: Tarasov House, Moscow, 1909-10.
15. I. A. Fomin: Villa Polovtsev, Petersburg, 1911-13.
16. I. I. Zholtovsky: Bridge over the Moskva, 1921.
17. a) Tatlin: Tower of the 'Third International', 1919.
b) Vesnin Brothers: Editorial Building for the Leningrad
Pravda, 1924.
18. I. I. Zholtovsky: State Bank, Moscow, 1927.
19. I. I. Leonidov: Lenin Institute (National Library) Moscow,
1927.
20. I. I. Zholtovsky: Boiler House, Electric Power Plant MOGES
near Moscow, 1927.
21. Barshch and Vladimirov: Commune-Building with Maternity
Ward (left) and School (right), 1929.
22. I. I. Zholtovsky: Palace of Soviets competition, first design, one
of the three First Prizes 1931-32.
23. B. M. Yofan, with Shchuko and Gelfreich: Palace of Soviets
competition Phase 1933-35.
24. I. I. Zholtovsky: Palace of Soviets Competition, second design,
1933.
25. B. M. Yofan: Palace of Soviets Competition, model, 1935.
vii
viii List of Illustration
26. I. I. Zholtovsky: Apartmenthouse near the Old University
('lntourist' Building), Moscow, 1933.
27. Palladio: Loggia del Capitaniato, Vicenza, Italy, 1571.
28. I. I. Zholtovsky: lntourist Building, Detail, Moscow, 1933.
29. I. Leonidov: Ministry of Industry, Kremlin, Moscow, 1934.
30. I. I. Zholtovsky: City Hall in Sochi, Black Sea, 1936.
31. Adytum Baalbek (Lebanon) Reconstruction, 150 A.D.
32. Map, Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea (Sochi: above
right, Baalbek near Beirut).
List of Figures and Tables
1.1 Hours per month spent on cultural and educational 5
activities by working-class families, 1923-36.
8.1 The Semiosis of Soviet Pictorial Art 164
ix