Socialist Realism

and the Soviet State

• Socialist Realism: Artistic style that praised Soviet life and Communist ideals.

• Vladimir Lenin, was known as the “Father of the Revolution.”

• How does this painting depict Lenin?

Painting titled: “Pick up the banner of socialism!”

• What does this painting evoke in you?

The Soviet flag:

Hammer and Sickle

What does the hammer symbolize?

What does the sickle symbolize?

What “communist ideal” does this Socialist Realism sculpture depict?

• Most Socialist Realism depicted the peasants and the industrial workers as the key to Soviet success.

• Women were given equality in Soviet society:

• Women joined the labor force and worked in factories and on collective farms.

• Women were given opportunities in education as engineers and scientists.

• Women made up 75% of Soviet doctors by 1950.

What is being glorified in this Socialist Realism painting?

As discussed, many Socialist Realism artists glorified peasants and farmers.

What other key details about communism can you locate in this Soviet poster?

Describe what is depicted in this painting?

What aspect of Soviet life is this painting glorifying?

What is going on in the Socialist Realism painting below?

Based on our prior knowledge about Russia’s industrialization, what could be the purpose of a painting such as this?

All of the paintings of Lenin in this PowerPoint were painted after his death.

Look at the following 4 slides.

What words would your group use to describe how Lenin is depicted?

In summary, what are each of these four

Socialist Realism artists

trying to convey about

Lenin?

Propaganda:

Information spread to try to convince someone to do or believe something.

All of these paintings were painted after Lenin had died from his stroke in 1922 and during Stalin’s 29 year rule of the Soviet Union (1924 – 1953).

Look at the next two slides.

What are they trying to convince the viewer to believe?

Cult of Personality: when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create a heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.

Through the violence of the Great Purge, the use of propaganda as well as other methods, Joseph Stalin created a Cult of Personality.

He accepted such titles as: “Brilliant Genius of Humanity”

and . . .“Great Architect of Communism”

as well as . . . “Gardener of Human Happiness”

Totalitarian:

Governments who have total control over every aspect of their people’s lives

Indoctrination:

Molding the mind’s of people in order for them to have unquestioning loyalty to a country’s set of beliefs.

The results of all of this violence, persecution, censorship, and propaganda?:

Unquestioned loyalty to their leader.

Estimates vary, but some historians believe that :

Stalin’s Great Purge killed around 1,000,000 people.

Famines caused by communist collectivization killed are estimated to have killed around 20,000,000 people.

Forced relocation of the Kulak community killed approximately 5,000,000 people.

Deaths from prison sentences in the Gulag: 15,000,000

Total deaths: Approximately 40-50 million