(Roses For Stalin. A perfect example of Socialist Realism in both its obvious use as political propaganda as well as its traditional, anti-symbolist conventions).
Despite nearly twenty years of growth, and the continued success of MAT under the early Bolsheviks, the years 1927 and 28 proved the worst in Stanislavski’s life and in the history of the Moscow Art Theater.
In 1927, Joseph Stalin came to power in Russia. Unlike his predecessor, Stalin was a true totalitarian, dedicated to the consolidation of absolute power and the purification of the Soviet Union. The horrors that occurred under Stalin are legendary: beginning at the end of the 1920s, tens of millions of Russians were systematically eliminated in a series of “purges”. In 1936 and 38, the “Moscow Trials” sentenced thousands of former Bolsheviks – all political opponents of Stalin – to death. In 1940, Leon Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico. Between 1927 and 1950, fourteen million Russians were sent to the Gulag death camps. Twisting the already suspect ideals of the Soviet Union toward his own gain, Stalin ushered in a period of horror unprecedented under Lenin or any of the Imperial Tsars.
This period of oppression proved dire for the Moscow Art Theater. Since the the reign of Lenin, a government agency called the Proletkult controlled the production of art in The Soviet Union. The Proletkult’s goal was to enforce a teleological vision of art called Socialist Realism, the only style technically legal during the Soviet Era. Socialist realism was, in theory, an art for “the people”: its primary goal was to abandon the highly technical, intellectual or avant garde in favor of celebrating the working classes in highly nationalistic portrayals and advancing the social vision of communism in general.
Under Lenin, the parameters of Socialist Realism had been quite broad, and the Moscow Art Theater easily fit under the purview of “populist” art as the Proletkult understood it.
Another example of Socialist Realism. Again: the painting does little in terms of experimental content or style, instead offering an idealized vision of Soviet society
But when Stalin took power this began to change. Building on earlier Soviet goals of promoting communism through art, Stalin turned to Proletkult into a full-fledged agent of Soviet propaganda. Any painting, film, music, theater or individual artist that did not explicitly endorse Soviet policy (and, more particularly, Stalin’s own political whims) faced heavy censorship, political imprisonment, and violent intimidation.
Theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold's mugshot, taken at the time of his arrest. 1939.
The Moscow Art Theater, seen as too high brow and too closely associated with Lenin, fell victim to this oppression. While the theater was not shut down, and was still officially held up as an emblem of Soviet art-making, it faced heavy censorship and increasing constraints on its productions. Like all art placed under the shackles of political propaganda and totalitarian violence, the quality of MAT’s work declined.
Stanislavski, although a democratic idealist repulsed by the placement of politics before art and by the severe imaginative restrictions of Socialist Realism, readily allowed the censorship of MAT by the Proletkult. Two factors seem to have contributed: first, as a sheer fact of survival (colored by the Gulag imprisonment of his nephew), he likely felt that even heavy censorship was preferable to imprisonment and possible death. Second, in 1928, the year after Stalin took power, Stanislavski suffered a heart attack on stage. While he survived the incident, he was forced to cut back on his work both as an actor and as the principle director of the Moscow Art Theater. It is possible that given these conditions, he was simply too weak to resist Stalin.
However, the heart attack did afford Stanislavski the opportunity to begin seriously working on his acting manual. Securing an American publisher in Theater Arts Inc. and a translator in Jennifer Hapgood, Stanislavski began to write An Actor Prepares, a process that would take up the remainder of his life.
MEDIA:
A good reel of Soviet Realist sculpture and painting, set to a piece indicative of the constrained, militaristic style of Soviet music.
A clip from 1927’s Battleship Potempkin by Sergei Eisenstein. While an excellent film created by an artist deeply influenced by Meyerhold, Battleship Potempkin nonetheless serves as an example of the populist idealism sought in Socialist Realism.
The first episode of Kino-Pravada, a Soviet news program and primary source of propaganda in Realist style.
1927’s Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang. While Socialist Realism was taking over in Russia, this film provides an example of the advance of avant garde cinema throughout the rest of Europe.
With the more open European-influenced musical styles of Imperial Russia banned, nationalist anthems became the vogue of Russian music. This is an excellent catalogue of those pieces.
The Soviet National Anthem. In contrast with the Imperial Anthem, this piece in wholly in-line with Soviet political ideals, both in its lyrical subject matter (“the glorification of the people”) and its constrained, militaristic style. That being said, it is a great national anthem. If I were Russian, I’d march 5,000 miles through the cold in no shoes to die for it, no question.
