Socialist realism
Life not as it is but as it should become under socialism — legible and heroic
How to recognise it
- Muscular workers and farm women striding forward
- Leaders amid cheering crowds
- Tiered towers with spires and a star
- Monumental statues with raised arm or banner
Why it emerged
In 1932 the Party dissolved independent artists' groups, and in 1934 the First Writers' Congress made socialist realism the mandatory method. The state, now the sole patron, wanted art the masses could read that glorified building socialism.
Examples
%20(cropped).png?width=640 "Willem van de Poll · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons")
Worker and Kolkhoz Woman1937 · Vera MukhinaA 24-metre stainless-steel pair with hammer and sickle crowned the Soviet pavilion in Paris
Main Building of Moscow State University1949–1953 · Lev Rudnev and othersThe largest of Stalin's Seven Sisters, Europe's tallest building until 1990
Palace of Culture and Science1952–1955 · Lev RudnevA Soviet 'gift' to Poland: a Moscow-style tower dressed in Polish Renaissance parapets%20-%20Ostrowski%2C%20Wie%20der%20Stahl.jpg?width=640 "Cookroach · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons")
How the Steel Was Temperedc. 1932–1934 · Nikolai OstrovskyThe model socialist-realist novel; Pavka Korchagin became a role model for generations
The Motherland Calls1959–1967 · Yevgeny Vuchetich, Nikolai NikitinAn 85-metre sword-bearing figure over Stalingrad, the world's tallest statue when unveiledHow it spread
- 1934 Moscow
- 1949 Warsaw
- 1949 Beijing
- 1951 East Berlin
- 1953 Pyongyang
Meanwhile elsewhere
- Russian avant-garde Eastern Europe & Russia
- Harlem Renaissance Americas
- Modern architecture (International Style) Whole world
- Constructivism Eastern Europe & Russia
- Art Deco Europe
- Mexican muralism Americas
- Surrealism Europe
- Abstract expressionism Americas
- Pop art Americas
- Postmodernism Whole world
- Western Desert dot painting Oceania