Soviet Realism

Soviet realism also known as socialist realism is a style of art whose content was made with an aim to further the goals of communism and socialism realistically. This style of art dominated in the Soviet Union from 1920’s when it was developed and for around 50 years thereafter. The art was in the form of paintings and sculpture containing socialist messages made to inspire masses of Russian citizens to build a communist society. Posters were the most common in giving admiration for hard work with other boldly colored and easily understandable pictures.

Important to mention, socialist realism is different and unrelated with social realism which appeared in America at the same times. Social realism was associated with depression problems and economic hardships of the Midwest and its attention was drawn to their impacts and social effects to individual.

How Soviet Realism came to be

This style of art which was nothing more than government controlled by political propaganda was developed by thousands of artists over a diverse empire. The artists employed different techniques of the successors to exhibit different political connotations.

Although social realism had not been officially used until 1932, defining characteristics had been the norm since 1920’s after Bolsheviks took control of Russia in 1917. He marked a shift in artistic styles by returning to more traditional forms of art and paintings. Bolsheviks did this by appointing Lunacharsky as the head of people’s commissariat for enlightenment who created arts based on human body. This art would have a positive effect as they depicted a perfect person by seeing healthy bodies and friendly smiles.

Characteristics of Soviet realism

Soviet realism was there to make culture specific and have creative expressions promoting Soviet ideals. It developed concepts that assured loyalty to the party and brought about the sense of optimism among the citizens. They constantly idolized the present and the future and did not permit tragedy and negativity unless shown at a different place or time.

There emerged revolutionary romanticism which put what the common worker did as admirable and exhibited how much the standards of living had improved. Flowers, flight, the youth, body, sunlight and new technology were used as poetic images with a specific purpose of showing soviet ideals. Simplicity in creating art that produced realistic results and adherence to doctrine was preferred to creativity and aesthetic pleasure. Remarkably, this art is still seen and felt even long after it lost support in the Soviet Union.