socialist realism method. Socialist realism in literature


Socialist realism is the artistic method of Soviet literature.

Socialist realism, being the main method of Soviet fiction and literary criticism, demands from the artist a truthful, historically concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development. The method of socialist realism helps the writer to promote the further upsurge of the creative forces of the Soviet people, to overcome all the difficulties on the path to communism.

“Socialist realism demands from the writer a truthful depiction of reality in its revolutionary development and provides him with comprehensive opportunities for the manifestation of individual abilities of talent and creative initiative, implies a richness and variety of artistic means and styles, supporting innovation in all areas of creativity,” the Charter of the Writers' Union says. THE USSR.

As early as 1905, V. I. Lenin outlined the main features of this artistic method in his historical work Party Organization and Party Literature, in which he foresaw the creation and flourishing of free, socialist literature under the conditions of victorious socialism.

This method was first embodied in the artistic work of A. M. Gorky - in his novel "Mother" and other works. In poetry, the most striking expression of socialist realism is the work of V. V. Mayakovsky (the poem "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin", "Good!", lyrics of the 20s).

Continuing the best creative traditions of the literature of the past, socialist realism is at the same time a qualitatively new and higher artistic method, insofar as it is determined in its main features by completely new social relations in socialist society.

Socialist realism reflects life realistically, deeply, truthfully; it is socialist because it reflects life in its revolutionary development, i.e., in the process of building a socialist society on the road to communism. It differs from the methods that preceded it in the history of literature in that the basis of the ideal to which the Soviet writer calls in his work lies the movement towards communism under the leadership of the Communist Party. In its greetings from the Central Committee of the CPSU to the Second Congress of Soviet Writers, it was emphasized that "in modern conditions, the method of socialist realism requires writers to understand the tasks of completing the construction of socialism in our country and a gradual transition from socialism to communism." The socialist ideal is embodied in a new type of positive hero created by Soviet literature. Its features are determined primarily by the unity of the individual and society, which was impossible in previous periods of social development; pathos of collective, free, creative, constructive labor; a high sense of Soviet patriotism - love for their socialist motherland; partisanship, a communist attitude to life, brought up in Soviet people by the Communist Party.

Such an image of a positive hero, distinguished by bright character traits and high spiritual qualities, becomes a worthy example and an object of imitation for people, participates in the creation of the moral code of the builder of communism.

Qualitatively new in socialist realism is also the nature of the depiction of the life process, based on the fact that the difficulties of the development of Soviet society are the difficulties of growth, bearing in themselves the possibility of overcoming these difficulties, the victory of the new over the old, the emerging over the dying. Thus, the Soviet artist gets the opportunity to paint today in the light of tomorrow, that is, to depict life in its revolutionary development, the victory of the new over the old, to show the revolutionary romanticism of socialist reality (see Romanticism).

Socialist realism fully embodies the principle of communist party spirit in art, insofar as it reflects the life of the liberated people in its development, in the light of advanced ideas expressing the true interests of the people, in the light of the ideals of communism.

The communist ideal, a new type of positive hero, the depiction of life in its revolutionary development on the basis of the victory of the new over the old, nationality - these basic features of socialist realism are manifested in endlessly diverse artistic forms, in a variety of writers' styles.

At the same time, socialist realism also develops the traditions of critical realism, exposing everything that hinders the development of the new in life, creating negative images that typify everything that is backward, dying, and hostile to the new, socialist reality.

Socialist realism allows the writer to give a vitally truthful, deeply artistic reflection not only of the present, but also of the past. Historical novels, poems, etc., have become widespread in Soviet literature. Truly portraying the past, the writer—a socialist, a realist—strives to educate his readers on the example of the heroic life of the people and its best sons in the past, and sheds light on our present life with the experience of the past.

Depending on the scope of the revolutionary movement and the maturity of the revolutionary ideology, socialist realism as an artistic method can and does become the property of leading revolutionary artists in foreign countries, at the same time enriching the experience of Soviet writers.

It is clear that the implementation of the principles of socialist realism depends on the individuality of the writer, his worldview, talent, culture, experience, skill of the writer, which determine the height of his artistic level.

Gorky "Mother"

The novel tells not just about the revolutionary struggle, but about how people are reborn in the process of this struggle, how spiritual birth comes to them. “The resurrected soul will not be killed!” - Nilovna exclaims at the end of the novel, when she is brutally beaten by policemen and spies, when death is close to her. "Mother" is a novel about the resurrection of the human soul, seemingly crushed by the unfair order of Life. It was possible to reveal this topic especially widely and convincingly precisely on the example of such a person as Nilovna. She is not only a person of the oppressed mass, but also a woman on whom, in her darkness, her husband takes out countless oppressions and insults, and besides, she is a mother who lives in eternal anxiety for her son. Although she is only forty years old, she already feels like an old woman. In the early version of the novel, Nilovna was older, but then the author “rejuvenated” her, wanting to emphasize that the main thing is not how many years she lived, but how she lived them. She felt like an old woman, not having truly experienced either childhood or youth, not feeling the joy of "recognizing" the world. Youth comes to her, in essence, after forty years, when for the first time the meaning of the world, man, her own life, the beauty of her native land begin to open before her.

In one form or another, many heroes experience such a spiritual resurrection. “A person needs to be updated,” says Rybin, and thinks about how to achieve such an update. If dirt appears on top, it can be washed off; But “how can a person be cleansed from the inside”? And now it turns out that the very struggle that often hardens people is alone capable of purifying and renewing their souls. "Iron Man" Pavel Vlasov is gradually freed from excessive severity and from the fear of giving vent to his feelings, especially the feeling of love; his friend Andrey Nakhodka - on the contrary, from excessive softness; "Thieves' son" Vyesovshchikov - from distrust of people, from the conviction that they are all enemies to each other; associated with the peasant masses, Rybin - from distrust of the intelligentsia and culture, from looking at all educated people as "masters". And everything that happens in the souls of the heroes surrounding Nilovna is also happening in her soul, but it is done with special difficulty, especially painfully. From an early age, she is accustomed to not trusting people, to be afraid of them, to hide her thoughts and feelings from them. She teaches this to her son, seeing that he entered into an argument with the life familiar to everyone: “I ask only one thing - do not talk to people without fear! It is necessary to be afraid of people - everyone hates each other! Live in greed, live in jealousy. Everyone is happy to do evil. When you begin to rebuke and judge them, they will hate you and destroy you!” The son replies: “People are bad, yes. But when I found out that there is truth in the world, people became better!”

When Paul says to his mother: “We all perish from fear! And those who command us use our fear and intimidate us even more, ”she admits:“ She lived in fear all her life, - her whole soul was overgrown with fear! During the first search at Pavel's, she experiences this feeling with all its acuteness. During the second search, "she was not so frightened ... she felt more hatred for those gray night visitors with spurs on their feet, and the hatred absorbed the anxiety." But this time, Pavel was taken to prison, and his mother, “closing her eyes, howled long and monotonously,” as her husband howled from bestial anguish before. Many more times after that, Nilovna was seized with fear, but he was more and more drowned out by hatred for the enemies and the consciousness of the lofty goals of the struggle.

“Now I am not afraid of anything,” Nilovna says after the trial of Pavel and his comrades, but the fear in her has not yet been completely killed. At the station, when she notices that she has been recognized by a spy, she is again "persistently squeezed by a hostile force ... humiliates her, plunging her into dead fear." For a moment, a desire flashes in her to throw a suitcase with leaflets, where her son's speech at the trial is printed, and run away. And then Nilovna strikes her old enemy - fear - the last blow: “... with one big and sharp effort of her heart, which seemed to shake her all over, she extinguished all these cunning, small, weak lights, imperatively saying to herself:“ Be ashamed!. Don't dishonor your son! Nobody is afraid...” This is a whole poem about the fight against fear and victory over it!, about how a person with a resurrected soul gains fearlessness.

The theme of "resurrection of the soul" was the most important in all of Gorky's work. In the autobiographical trilogy “The Life of Klim Samgin,” Gorky showed how two forces, two environments, are fighting for a person, one of which seeks to revive his soul, and the other to devastate it and kill it. In the play "At the Bottom" and in a number of other works, Gorky portrayed people thrown to the very bottom of life and still retaining the hope of rebirth - these works lead to the conclusion that the human in man is indestructible.

Mayakovsky's poem "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin- a hymn to the greatness of Lenin. The immortality of Lenin became the main theme of the poem. I really did not want, according to the poet, "to go down to a simple political retelling of events." Mayakovsky studied the works of V. I. Lenin, talked with people who knew him, collected material bit by bit and again turned to the works of the leader.

To show the activity of Ilyich as an unparalleled historical feat, to reveal all the greatness of this brilliant, exceptional personality and at the same time to imprint in the hearts of people the image of a charming, earthly, simple Ilyich, who "had a kindness to his comrade with human affection" - in this he saw his civil and poetic problem V. Mayakovsky,

In the image of Ilyich, the poet was able to reveal the harmony of a new character, a new human personality.

The image of Lenin, the leader, the man of the coming days is given in the poem in an inextricable connection with the time and deed to which his whole life was selflessly given.

The power of Lenin's teaching is revealed in every image of the poem, in every line of it. V. Mayakovsky with all his work, as it were, affirms the gigantic power of the influence of the ideas of the leader on the development of history and the fate of the people.

When the poem was ready, Mayakovsky read it to the workers at the factories: he wanted to know if his images were reaching him, whether they were worried ... For the same purpose, at the request of the poet, a reading of the poem was held in the apartment of V. V. Kuibyshev. He read it to Lenin's comrades-in-arms in the party, and only after that he gave the poem to the press. At the beginning of 1925, the poem "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" was published as a separate edition.

socialist realism- the artistic method of Soviet literature.

Socialist realism, being the main method of Soviet fiction and literary criticism, demands from the artist a truthful, historically concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development. The method of socialist realism helps the writer to promote the further upsurge of the creative forces of the Soviet people, to overcome all the difficulties on the path to communism.

“Socialist realism demands from the writer a truthful depiction of reality in its revolutionary development and provides him with comprehensive opportunities for the manifestation of individual abilities of talent and creative initiative, implies a richness and variety of artistic means and styles, supporting innovation in all areas of creativity,” the Charter of the Writers' Union says. THE USSR.

As early as 1905, V. I. Lenin outlined the main features of this artistic method in his historical work Party Organization and Party Literature, in which he foresaw the creation and flourishing of free, socialist literature under the conditions of victorious socialism.

This method was first embodied in the artistic work of A. M. Gorky - in his novel "Mother" and other works. In poetry, the most striking expression of socialist realism is the work of V. V. Mayakovsky (the poem "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin", "Good!", lyrics of the 20s).

Continuing the best creative traditions of the literature of the past, socialist realism is at the same time a qualitatively new and higher artistic method, insofar as it is determined in its main features by completely new social relations in socialist society.

Socialist realism reflects life realistically, deeply, truthfully; it is socialist because it reflects life in its revolutionary development, i.e., in the process of building a socialist society on the road to communism. It differs from the methods that preceded it in the history of literature in that the basis of the ideal to which the Soviet writer calls in his work lies the movement towards communism under the leadership of the Communist Party. In its greetings from the Central Committee of the CPSU to the Second Congress of Soviet Writers, it was emphasized that "in modern conditions, the method of socialist realism requires writers to understand the tasks of completing the construction of socialism in our country and a gradual transition from socialism to communism." The socialist ideal is embodied in a new type of positive hero created by Soviet literature. Its features are determined primarily by the unity of the individual and society, which was impossible in previous periods of social development; pathos of collective, free, creative, constructive labor; a high sense of Soviet patriotism - love for their socialist motherland; partisanship, a communist attitude to life, brought up in Soviet people by the Communist Party.

Such an image of a positive hero, distinguished by bright character traits and high spiritual qualities, becomes a worthy example and an object of imitation for people, participates in the creation of the moral code of the builder of communism.

Qualitatively new in socialist realism is also the nature of the depiction of the life process, based on the fact that the difficulties of the development of Soviet society are the difficulties of growth, bearing in themselves the possibility of overcoming these difficulties, the victory of the new over the old, the emerging over the dying. Thus, the Soviet artist gets the opportunity to paint today in the light of tomorrow, that is, to depict life in its revolutionary development, the victory of the new over the old, to show the revolutionary romanticism of socialist reality (see Romanticism).

Socialist realism fully embodies the principle of communist party spirit in art, insofar as it reflects the life of the liberated people in its development, in the light of advanced ideas expressing the true interests of the people, in the light of the ideals of communism.

The communist ideal, a new type of positive hero, the depiction of life in its revolutionary development on the basis of the victory of the new over the old, nationality - these basic features of socialist realism are manifested in endlessly diverse artistic forms, in a variety of writers' styles.

At the same time, socialist realism also develops the traditions of critical realism, exposing everything that hinders the development of the new in life, creating negative images that typify everything that is backward, dying, and hostile to the new, socialist reality.

Socialist realism allows the writer to give a vitally truthful, deeply artistic reflection not only of the present, but also of the past. Historical novels, poems, etc., have become widespread in Soviet literature. Truly portraying the past, the writer—a socialist, a realist—strives to educate his readers on the example of the heroic life of the people and its best sons in the past, and sheds light on our present life with the experience of the past.

Depending on the scope of the revolutionary movement and the maturity of the revolutionary ideology, socialist realism as an artistic method can and does become the property of leading revolutionary artists in foreign countries, at the same time enriching the experience of Soviet writers.

It is clear that the implementation of the principles of socialist realism depends on the individuality of the writer, his worldview, talent, culture, experience, skill of the writer, which determine the height of his artistic level.

“Socialist realism” is a term of the communist theory of literature and art, which depends on purely political principles, and since 1934 has been obligatory for Soviet literature, literary criticism and literary criticism, as well as for all artistic life. This term was first used on May 20, 1932 by I. Gronsky, chairman of the organizing committee Union of Writers of the USSR(the corresponding party resolution of 23.4.1932, "Literaturnaya Gazeta", 1932, 23.5.). In 1932/33, Gronsky and the head of the sector of fiction of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, V. Kirpotin, vigorously promoted this term. It received retroactive effect and was extended to former works of Soviet writers recognized by party criticism: they all became examples of socialist realism, starting with Gorky's novel "Mother".

Boris Gasparov. Socialist realism as a moral problem

The definition of socialist realism given in the first charter of the Union of Writers of the USSR, for all its vagueness, remained the starting point for later interpretations. Socialist realism was defined as the main method of Soviet fiction and literary criticism, “which requires from the artist a truthful, historically concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development. Moreover, the truthfulness and historical concreteness of the artistic depiction of reality must be combined with the task of ideological alteration and education in the spirit of socialism. The relevant section of the 1972 statute read: “The tried and tested creative method of Soviet literature is socialist realism, based on the principles of party and nationality, the method of a truthful, historically concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development. Socialist realism provided outstanding achievements for Soviet literature; having an inexhaustible wealth of artistic means and styles, he opens up all the possibilities for the manifestation of individual characteristics of talent and innovation in any genre of literary creativity.

Thus, the basis of socialist realism is the idea of ​​literature as an instrument of ideological influence. CPSU limiting it to the tasks of political propaganda. Literature should help the party in the struggle for the victory of communism, according to the formulation attributed to Stalin, writers from 1934 to 1953 were regarded as "engineers of human souls."

The principle of partisanship demanded the rejection of the empirically observed truth of life and its replacement by "party truth". The writer, critic or literary critic had to write not what he himself knew and understood, but what the party declared "typical".

The demand for a “historically concrete depiction of reality in revolutionary development” meant the adaptation of all phenomena of the past, present and future to the teaching historical materialism in its latest at that time party edition. For example, Fadeev I had to rewrite the novel "The Young Guard", which received the Stalin Prize, because in hindsight, based on educational and propaganda considerations, the party wished that its supposedly leading role in the partisan movement would be more clearly presented.

The depiction of modernity "in its revolutionary development" implied the rejection of the description of imperfect reality for the sake of the expected ideal society (proletarian paradise). One of the leading theorists of socialist realism, Timofeev, wrote in 1952: "The future is revealed as tomorrow, already born in today and illuminating it with its light." From such premises, alien to realism, arose the idea of ​​a “positive hero”, who was to serve as a model as a builder of a new life, an advanced personality, not subject to any doubts, and it was expected that this ideal character of the communist tomorrow would become the main character of the works of socialist realism. Accordingly, socialist realism demanded that a work of art should always be built on the basis of "optimism", which should reflect the communist belief in progress, as well as prevent feelings of depression and unhappiness. Describing the defeats in World War II and human suffering in general was contrary to the principles of socialist realism, or at least should have been outweighed by the depiction of victories and positive aspects. In the sense of the internal inconsistency of the term, the title of Vishnevsky's play "Optimistic Tragedy" is indicative. Another term often used in connection with socialist realism - "revolutionary romance" - helped to obscure the departure from reality.

In the middle of the 1930s, "narodnost" joined the demands of socialist realism. Returning to the trends that existed among part of the Russian intelligentsia in the second half of the 19th century, this meant both the intelligibility of literature for the common people, and the use of folk speech turns and proverbs. Among other things, the principle of nationality served to suppress new forms of experimental art. Although socialist realism, in its idea, did not know national borders and, in accordance with the messianic faith in the conquest of the whole world by communism, after the Second World War it was exhibited in the countries of the Soviet sphere of influence, nevertheless, patriotism belonged to its principles, that is, limitation in mainly the USSR as the scene of action and emphasizing the superiority of everything Soviet. When the concept of socialist realism was applied to writers from Western or developing countries, it meant a positive assessment of their communist, pro-Soviet orientation.

In essence, the concept of socialist realism refers to the content side of a verbal work of art, and not to its form, and this led to the fact that the formal tasks of art were deeply neglected by Soviet writers, critics and literary critics. Since 1934, the principles of socialist realism have been interpreted and demanded for implementation with varying degrees of persistence. Evasion from following them could lead to the deprivation of the right to be called a "Soviet writer", exclusion from the joint venture, even imprisonment and death, if the image of reality was outside "its revolutionary development", that is, if the critical in relation to the existing order was recognized as hostile and inflicting damage to the Soviet system. Criticism of the existing order, especially in the form of irony and satire, is alien to socialist realism.

After Stalin's death, many came out with indirect but sharp criticism of socialist realism, blaming it for the decline of Soviet literature. Appeared in the years Khrushchev thaw demands for sincerity, true-to-life conflicts, depictions of doubting and suffering people, works whose denouement would not have been known beforehand, were put forward by well-known writers and critics and testified that socialist realism was alien to reality. The more fully these demands were implemented in some works of the Thaw period, the more vigorously they were attacked by conservatives, and the main reason was an objective description of the negative phenomena of Soviet reality.

The parallels to socialist realism are found not in the realism of the 19th century, but rather in the classicism of the 18th century. The vagueness of the concept has contributed to occasional pseudo-discussions and the boundless growth of literature on socialist realism. For example, in the early 1970s, the question was clarified in what proportion are such varieties of socialist realism as "socialist art" and "democratic art". But these "discussions" could not obscure the fact that socialist realism was a phenomenon of an ideological order, subject to politics, and that it was basically not subject to discussion, like the very leading role of the Communist Party in the USSR and the countries of "people's democracy".

socialist realism is a creative method of literature and art of the 20th century, the cognitive sphere of which was limited and regulated by the task of reflecting the processes of reorganization of the world in the light of the communist ideal and Marxist-Leninist ideology.

Goals of socialist realism

Socialist realism is the main officially (at the state level) recognized method of Soviet literature and art, the purpose of which is to capture the stages in the construction of Soviet socialist society and its "movement towards communism". For half a century of existence in all developed literatures of the world, socialist realism strove to occupy a leading position in the artistic life of the era, opposing its (supposedly the only true) aesthetic principles (the principle of party spirit, nationality, historical optimism, socialist humanism, internationalism) to all other ideological and artistic principles.

History of occurrence

The domestic theory of socialist realism originates from the "Fundamentals of Positive Aesthetics" (1904) by A.V. Lunacharsky, where art is oriented not to what is, but to what is due, and creativity is equated with ideology. In 1909, Lunacharsky was one of the first to call the story "Mother" (1906-07) and the play "Enemies" (1906) by M. Gorky "serious works of a social type", "significant works, the significance of which in the development of proletarian art will someday be taken into account" (Literary decay , 1909. Book 2). The critic was the first to draw attention to the Leninist principle of party membership as determining in the construction of socialist culture (article "Lenin" Literary Encyclopedia, 1932. Volume 6).

The term "Socialist Realism" first appeared in the editorial of Literaturnaya Gazeta on May 23, 1932 (author I.M. Gronsky). I.V. Stalin repeated it at a meeting with writers at Gorky's on October 26 of the same year, and from that moment the concept became widespread. In February 1933, Lunacharsky, in a report on the tasks of Soviet dramaturgy, emphasized that socialist realism “is completely given over to the struggle, it is all through and through a builder, it is confident in the communist future of mankind, believes in the strength of the proletariat, its party and leaders” (Lunacharsky A.V. Articles about Soviet literature, 1958).

The difference between socialist realism and bourgeois realism

At the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers (1934), the originality of the method of socialist realism was substantiated by A.A. Zhdanov, N.I. Bukharin, Gorky and A.A. Fadeev. The political component of Soviet literature was emphasized by Bukharin, who pointed out that socialist realism “differs from proto-realism in that it inevitably puts in the center of attention the image of the construction of socialism, the struggle of the proletariat, the new man, and all the complex “connections and mediations” of the great historical process of modernity ... Style features that distinguish socialist realism from bourgeois ... are closely related to the content of the material and the aspirations of the strong-willed order dictated by the class position of the proletariat ”(First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers. Verbatim report, 1934).

Fadeev supported the idea expressed earlier by Gorky that, in contrast to “the old realism - critical ... ours, socialist, realism is affirmative. Zhdanov's speech, his formulations: "depict reality in its revolutionary development"; “At the same time, the truthfulness and historical concreteness of the artistic image must be combined with the task of ideologically reshaping and educating working people in the spirit of socialism,” formed the basis for the definition given in the Charter of the Union of Soviet Writers.

His assertion that “revolutionary romanticism should enter into literary creativity as an integral part” of socialist realism was also programmatic (ibid.). On the eve of the congress that legitimized the term, the search for its defining principles was qualified as "The Struggle for the Method" - under this title one of the collections of the Rappovites was published in 1931. In 1934 the book In Disputes over Method was published (with the subtitle Collection of Articles on Socialist Realism). In the 1920s there were discussions about the artistic method of proletarian literature between the theorists of Proletkult, RAPP, LEF, OPOYAZ. The pathos of the struggle was “through and through” the put forward theories of “living man” and “production” art, “learning from the classics”, “social order”.

Expansion of the concept of socialist realism

Sharp disputes continued in the 1930s (about language, about formalism), in the 1940s and 50s (mainly in connection with the "theory" of non-conflict, the problem of a typical, "good hero"). It is characteristic that discussions on certain issues of the "artistic platform" often touched on politics, were associated with the problems of aestheticization of ideology, with the justification of authoritarianism, totalitarianism in culture. For decades, the debate has lasted about how romanticism and realism correlate in socialist art. On the one hand, it was about romance as a “scientifically substantiated dream of the future” (in this capacity, “historical optimism” began to replace romance at a certain stage), on the other hand, attempts were made to single out a special method or stylistic trend of “socialist romanticism” with its cognitive opportunities. This trend (denoted by Gorky and Lunacharsky) led to the overcoming of stylistic monotony and to a more voluminous interpretation of the essence of socialist realism in the 1960s.

The desire to expand the concept of socialist realism (and at the same time to “loose” the theory of method) was indicated in domestic literary criticism (under the influence of similar processes in foreign literature and criticism) at the All-Union Conference on Socialist Realism (1959): I.I. Anisimov emphasized the “great flexibility” and “breadth” inherent in the aesthetic concept of the method, which was dictated by the desire to overcome dogmatic postulates. In 1966, a conference "Actual Problems of Socialist Realism" was held at the Institute of Literature (see the collection of the same name, 1969). The active apology of socialist realism by some speakers, the critical-realist "type of creativity" by others, the romantic - by third, intellectual - by fourth - testified to a clear desire to push the boundaries of ideas about the literature of the socialist era.

Domestic theoretical thought was in search of a "broad formulation of the creative method" as a "historically open system" (D.F. Markov). The final discussion unfolded in the late 1980s. By this time, the authority of the statutory definition had finally been lost (it became associated with dogmatism, incompetent leadership in the field of art, Stalinism's dictates in literature - "custom", state, "barracks" realism). Based on the real trends in the development of Russian literature, modern critics consider it quite legitimate to speak of socialist realism as a concrete historical stage, an artistic direction in the literature and art of the 1920-50s. V.V. Mayakovsky, Gorky, L. Leonov, Fadeev, M.A. Sholokhov, F.V. Gladkov, V.P. Kataev, M.S. Shaginyan, N.A. Ostrovsky, V. V. Vishnevsky, N.F. Pogodin and others.

A new situation arose in the literature of the second half of the 1950s in the wake of the 20th Party Congress, which noticeably undermined the foundations of totalitarianism and authoritarianism. Russian “village prose” was “breaking out” from the socialist canons, depicting peasant life not in its “revolutionary development”, but, on the contrary, in conditions of social violence and deformation; literature also told the terrible truth about the war, destroying the myth of bureaucratic heroics and optimism; the civil war and many episodes of national history appeared differently in literature. The "industrial prose" clung to the tenets of socialist realism the longest.

An important role in the attack on the Stalinist legacy belongs in the 1980s to the so-called "detained" or "rehabilitated" literature - the works of A.P. Platonov, M.A. Bulgakov, A.L. Akhmatova, B.L. .Lasternak, V.S. Grossman, A.T. Tvardovsky, A.A. Beck, B. L. Mozhaev, V. I. Belov, M. F. Shatrov, Yu. O. Dombrovsky, V. T. Shalamov, A. I. Pristavkin and others. Domestic conceptualism (Sotsart) contributed to the exposure of socialist realism.

Although socialist realism "disappeared as an official doctrine with the collapse of the State, of which it was part of the ideological system," this phenomenon remains at the center of studies that consider it "as an integral element of Soviet civilization," says the Parisian magazine Revue des etudes slaves. A popular line of thought in the West is an attempt to connect the origins of socialist realism with the avant-garde, as well as the desire to justify the coexistence of two trends in the history of Soviet literature: "totalitarian" and "revisionist".

SOCIALIST REALISM(social realism), a creative method proclaimed by the official. owls. aesthetics basic for the sphere of fatherland. culture and art. The formation of the doctrine of S. R., which dominated the USSR from the middle. 1930s, preceded by theoretical. judgments of A.V. Lunacharsky(Art. "The tasks of social democratic artistic creativity", 1907, etc.), based on means. degree on the article by V. I. Lenin "Party organization and party literature" (1905), as well as the activities Russian Association of Proletarian Writers(RAPP), Russian Association of Proletarian Artists(RAPH) and Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia(AHRR; declaring "heroic realism"). The concept of creativity. method, borrowed from Marxist aesthetics, in con. 1920s took shape in opposition to the "dialectical-materialistic. creative method" of proletarian literature to the "mechanistic method" of bourgeois literature, which in the beginning. 1930s was rethought as a confrontation between "asserting", "socialist" ("proletarian") realism and "old" ("bourgeois") critical realism.

The term "S. R." first used in the press in 1932 by the chairman of the organizational. to-ta SP USSR I. M. Gronsky ("Literary newspaper" of May 23). As the main creative method of owls. lit-ry S. p. was approved at the 1st All-Union Congress of Soviets. writers in 1934 (including with the active participation of M. Gorky, A. A. Fadeev, N. I. Bukharin); wording from the report of A. A. Zhdanov(the task of the writer "to depict reality in its revolutionary development"; "the truthfulness and historical concreteness of the artistic image must be combined with the task of ideological reworking and education of working people in the spirit of socialism") were enshrined in the Charter of the SP. To fundamental for S. of river. the principle of party membership in the middle. 1930s the principle of nationality was added (in the sense of the accessibility of art to the perception of the broad people. The masses, the reflection of their lives and interests), which became equally integral to the socialist realist doctrine. Other important for the works of S. p. features were life-affirming pathos and revolutionary romanticism. heroics. As a result, S. p. turned literature and art into a powerful ideological tool. influence (cf. the statement attributed to I. V. Stalin about writers as “engineers of human souls”). Deviation from the principles of S. p. pursued.

Literature

In literature, the first work of S. p. retrospectively, the novel “Mother” by M. Gorky (1906–07) was named, to which the scheme of the image of the “positive hero” owes its appearance - a person experiencing a new birth during the revolution. fight. The novels Chapaev by D. I. Furmanov (1923) and The Iron Stream by A. S. Serafimovich(1924), "Cement" by F.V. Glad kova(1925), "Defeat" by A. A. Fadeev (1927). Vivid examples of socialist realism. novels by F. I. Panferov, N. A. Ostrovsky, B. N. Polevoy, V. N. Azhaev became literature; dramaturgy by V. V. Vishnevsky, A. E. Korneichuk, N. F. Pogodin, and others. shaken with the beginning of the "thaw" in the middle. 1950s, but finished. liberation from his principles occurred only with the collapse of the state, the ideology of which he served. S. r. was not exclusively a phenomenon of owls. lit-ry: his aesthetic. the principles were shared by some foreign writers, including L. Aragon, M. pui manova, A. Zegers .

art

In the visual arts, S. p. found reflection in the predominance of socio-historical. myths and solemnly representative methods of their interpretation: the idealization of nature, false pathos, historical. false, rationalistic organization of the narrative, exaggerated scale, etc. works (A. M. Gerasimov, V. P. Efanov, Vl. A. Serov, B. V. Ioganson, D. A. Nalbandyan, S. D. Merkurov, N. V. Tomsky, E. V. Vuchetich and many others). Corresponding to the norms of S. p. recognized at the same time and means. works of a number of owl masters. era (V. I. Mukhina, S. T. Konenkova, A. A. Deineka, S. A. Chuikov, S. V. Gerasimova, A. A. Plastova, P. D. Korina, M. S. Saryan and etc.). Isolation from world lawsuits strengthened the dogmatism and intolerance of the S. R., especially in the postwar years, when its principles were extended to the lawsuits of communist countries. block. Directive implementation of S.'s method of river. in all areas of art, an uncompromising struggle against any manifestations of "formalism" and "Westernism" led to the formation in the USSR of a special form totalitarian art, seeking to suppress dec. currents avant-garde, so-called unofficial lawsuit (including post-war underground in USSR). However, since Ser. 1960s the development of art in the USSR is less and less connected with the dogmas of the S. R., which soon became an anachronism. In history architecture term "S. R." use predominately. to designate the buildings of the Stalinist neoclassicism in the USSR and Eastern countries. Europe.

Movie

In cinema, the aesthetics of S. r. formed in the 1920s. in the most significant for this time poster films about the revolution: “Battleship Potemkin” (1925), “October” (1927) by S. M. Eisenstein; “Mother” (1926), “The End of St. Petersburg” (1927) by V. I. Pudovkin, and others. She became dominant in the 1930s, when the departure from socialist realism the canon was already practically impossible: “The Great Citizen” by F. M. Ermler (1938–39), “Deputy of the Baltic” (1937) and “Member of the Government” (1940) by I. E. Matveeva, T. V. Levchuk, I. A. Gosteva and others.

Theater

In the theater, the standards of S. p. implemented in the beginning 1930s with direct the participation of M. Gorky, contrary to the logic of the development of directorial systems at the beginning. 20th century and 1920s. The ideologists of the CPSU (b) sent owls. theater according to the pre-director's model. 19th century as a claim secondary to literature, life-like, politicized, didactic. Method Moscow Art Theater in a simplified, false understanding, was declared the only fruitful for the development of S. r. External signs of plausibility were combined with rough ideological, schematization, arts. external characteristic in performance, illustrativeness, stereotyped, pathos in directing. Revolution became mandatory. a theme in a pseudo-historical interpretation (for example, “A Man with a Gun” by N. F. Pogodin, Moscow Theater named after Evg. Vakhtangov, 1937). Gorky's plays Egor Bulychov and Others (Vakhtangov Theatre, 1932) and Enemies (Moscow Art Theater, 1935), staged with the "class conflict" in mind, are the standard of the S. r. In accordance with this “Gorky” model, productions of works by L. N. Tolstoy, W. Shakespeare, A. P. Chekhov, and others were brought. (social typification, ideological), the work of outstanding artists and directors, formed in the previous era, could not be completely suppressed. The post-war situation (until the mid-1950s), with the introduction of the “conflict-free theory”, was marked by an increase in the deceitfulness of theatrical art, its artist. decline. Abroad, a peculiar understanding of S. p. in the 1950s expressed in the work of B.