Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0391/03916.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 41KB | 662 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03916}
$Pretitle{295}
$Title{Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Chapter 9A.   Artistic Expression}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Thomas D. Roberts}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{russian
soviet
art
literary
century
literature
life
moscow
new
russia}
$Date{1972}
$Log{}
Country:     Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Book:        Soviet Union, A Country Study
Author:      Thomas D. Roberts
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1972

Chapter 9A.   Artistic Expression

     The people of the Soviet Union regard themselves as exceptionally endowed
for the creative arts, especially dance, literature, music, and the theater.
This is particularly true of the Russians, but applies also to several other
Soviet nationalities that have long, rich, cultural traditions. The people are
proud and appreciative of their world-famous writers, composers, musicians,
and ballet and theatrical performers. They spend much of their leisure time
reading, listening to recordings, or attending concerts and the legitimate or
motion picture theater. The frequency of attendance and the increasing numbers
of concert halls, theaters, and museums, as well as the numerous amateur
dramatic clubs and literary discussion groups, attest to the demand for
cultural activities. Students pay only nominal fees to attend concerts, plays,
and ballet performances are encouraged to spend time in such cultural
pursuits.

     The Soviet government publicizes with pride the great number of book
titles that are published annually. Propaganda is plentiful on Soviet
bookshelves, but good literature is also available in quantity and at
reasonable prices. Increasingly during the 1960s, approved foreign authors
have been published, but the greatest popularity is reserved for the Russian
literary giants of the nineteenth century. The government does not permit the
publication of pornography or of other material that would be considered in
poor taste. Since publishing is a government monopoly, such material does not
appear except in illegal private publications.

     The Russian contribution to literature, music, and the arts is vast. In
literature the names of Leo Tolstoy and Feodor Dostoevsky stand as hallmarks
of creativity and vision. In music Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and, more
recently, Stravinsky and Shostakovich have left an indelible mark. Ballet,
with Pavlova and Ulanova in the past and Plisetskaya and other great
ballerinas in the 1960s, has almost become a Muscovite preserve. The plays of
Anton Chekhov and the "inner realism" direction of Konstantin Stanislavsky
brought originality and inventiveness to the Russian stage. The name of Sergei
Eisenstein will be prominent in any history of motion pictures because of his
creativity and initiative in the early days of the art.

     In the 1960s the Soviet Union stood at a crossroads in its pursuit of
artistic achievement. One direction followed the traditions of greatness and
creativity, while another stagnated in hack work produced for the furtherance
of ideological goals. Doctor Zhivago, a Russian work published abroad in 1957
and acclaimed by critics around the world, was ignored at home until its
author, Boris Pasternak, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. With such
acclaim the book could no longer be ignored but, because it was considered
politically unsound, Pasternak was vilified and forced to refuse the Nobel
award. He later "confessed" and apologized in a public letter to Premier
Nikita Khrushchev. As of mid-1969 Doctor Zhivago had not been published within
the Soviet Union.

     During the 1960s there was increasing ferment in Soviet artistic circles
as artists struggled against ideological controls that, they claimed, had
stifled Soviet creativity. A literary floodgate was opened for a while with
the publication of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovich. This work was serialized in a popular Soviet literary magazine
with the apparent approval of Nikita Khrushchev, who was then at the peak of
his power in government and Party affairs in the Soviet Union.

     Solzhenitsyn's novel described the horrors of Stalin's labor camps-a
topic never before allowed in Soviet publications. Whether or not the
permission to publish was motivated by Khrushchev's de-Stalinization campaign,
the result was electrifying. The Soviet people were astounded to see such
material in print, and Soviet authors rushed to emulate Solzhenitsyn with
works on similar themes. Poets and writers took advantage of the apparent thaw
in political attitudes to rush into print with poems, articles, and books of a
similar nature.

     The thaw was relatively short lived, since the Communist regime
reprimanded several authors whose works had evidently gone beyond the bounds
of Marxist-Leninist propriety. In a trial that brought worldwide attention in
1965, Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky were charged with publishing
anti-Soviet works abroad, and both were given severe sentences. The case of
Daniel and Sinyavsky did not disappear with the imprisonment of the two
authors. Dissent, albeit on a small scale, became commonplace in the Soviet
Union. Other trials followed quickly as the Soviet government took steps
against the dissidents who openly demonstrated and petitioned the government
for release of the imprisoned authors. In July 1969 Anatoly Kuznetsov, Soviet
author and Communist Party member, requested political asylum while on a visit
to London. Kuznetsov claimed that he could no longer live and write under the
restrictions imposed on authors in his homeland (see ch. 17, Intellectual
Expression).

     The Soviet leadership utilizes the arts for such political objectives as
to control and indoctrinate its own people and to influence foreign
populations in favor of the Communist ideal as exemplified by the Soviet
Union. The Bolshevik revolutionaries spoke of their support of personal
liberties and artistic freedom before their seizure of power. Once in control,
however, they changed their position from one of freedom to express individual
views and ideas to that of the expression of views and ideas conforming to
official Marxist-Leninist teaching. To be approved, art must be useful to the
attainment of the objectives of the Communist Party. All major cultural
decisions are, of course, made only by the Party apparatus.

     Nothing may be published in the Soviet Union unless it bears the stamp of
approval of the official censoring organization known as Glavlit. Apart from
censorship, the Party can bring its influence to bear on publishing houses,
which are run either directly by government agencies or by quasi-governmental
agencies, such as the Writers Union or the Academy of Sciences.

     Approved authors, composers, screenwriters, playwrights, and performing
artists include the richest members of the Soviet elite. The most successful
of them receive royalties that permit them to live in great comfort. Among
these have been Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Mikhail Sholokhov, and
Aleksei Tolstoy. By contrast, writers and poets who have expressed themselves
without regard for the political consequences have been severely treated by
the Soviet authorities and often have difficulty making a living.

     Undoubtedly some Soviet artists paint abstracts, some Soviet musicians
abandon approved forms for wide experimentation, some authors write "stream of
consciousness" novels, but such avantgarde art is not seen by the public-it
must remain strictly private to avoid censure. Toward the end of the 1960s,
there was no indication that the Communist regime was ready or willing to give
up its control of artistic expression in the Soviet Union.

Architecture

     With the exception of a period of "Stalinist architecture," during which
several ornate skyscrapers were constructed in Moscow, most Soviet building
since the revolution has been utilitarian. Its emphasis has been upon function
and rational planning with a style characterized by almost comp