Stalin as Isis and Ra Socialist Realism and the Art of Design

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Stalin as Isis and Ra: Socialist Realism and the Art of Design

Author(s): John E. BowltSource: The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol. 24, Design, Culture, Identity: TheWolfsonian Collection (2002), pp. 34-63Published by: Florida International University Board of Trustees on behalf of TheWolfsonian-FIUStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1504182Accessed: 17-08-2015 20:46 UTC

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2/31

John

E. Bowit

Stalin

as

Isis

and Ra:Socialist Realism and

the Art of

Design

John

E.

Bowlt

is

professor

of

Slavic

Studies

at the

University

of

Southern

California,

Los

Angeles,

where he is also director of the Institute of Modern

Russian Culture.

He has lived for extended

periods

in

the Soviet

Union/Russia

and

published

widely

on the

subject

of modern Russian

art. He

guest-edited

issues

five and eleven of The

ournal

of

Decorative

and

Propaganda

Arts

exploring

Russian/Soviet

themes. Bowlt conducted research for this

essay

as a Wolfsonian

Fellow in

1995.

his

essay

focuses

on

the Soviet visual

arts,

especially

the decorative

or

applied

arts,

under

Joseph

Stalin

(1879-1953)

during

the

1930s

and

1940s.'

It is

especially appropriate

that the

topic

receive

attention

now,

since a

substantial

part

of

Stalin's

cultural

output

has been

removed

from

history:

on the

one

hand,

many

of the artifacts

have been

destroyed

or mutilated

and,

on the

other,

what has come down

to

us

in

the

way

of

architecture,

paintings,

ceramics,

textiles,

and

knick-

knacks

-

from

ashtrays

to antimacassars is

today

the

frequent target

of

ridicule or abuse.

True,

the last decade has witnessed a

flurry

of

publications

and

exhibitions

on the

subject

of Soviet Socialist Realism both

in Russia

and in

the

West,

and these have

gone

a

long

way

to

reestablishing

he

subject

as a

legitimate

field of academic

investigation.2 By

and

large,

however,

1. The

transliteration

f

Russiannames modifies he

Library

f

Congresssystem

so that the

Cyrillic

ending

"i + i

kratkoe" f

proper

nameshas been rendered

by "y,"

not "ii"

(e.g., Chukovsky,Gor'ky).

Where

a

variant

pelling

has

long

been established

n

the

West,

e.g., Joseph

Stalin

not

Iosif

Stalin),

this has been retained.

2. On

the Soviet visualarts of the Stalinera

see,

for

example,

he

following monographs:

Vladimir

Paperny,

Kul'turadva

(Ann

Arbor,

Mich.:

Ardis,

1985);

Anders

Aman,

Architecture nd

Ideology

n

EasternEuropeDuring theStalinEra(New York:The ArchitecturalHistoryFoundation,1992);

MatthewCullerne

Bown,

Art UnderStalin

(New

York:Holmes and

Meier,

1991);

Matthew

Cullerne

Bown,

SocialistRealist

Painting

(New

Haven,

Conn.:

Yale

University

Press,

1998);

Igor

Golomstock,

Totalitarian rt

(London:

con,

1990);

Evgeny

Gromov,

Stalin. Vlast'i skusstvo

Moscow:

Respublika,

1991);

LorenR

Graham,

TheGhost

f

the

Executed

ngineer.

echnology

nd

theFall

of

theSoviet

Union

(Cambridge,

Mass.:Harvard

University

Press,

1993);

Hans

Giinther,ed.,

TheCulture

of

the

Stalin

Period

New

York:St. Martin's

Press,

1990);

Hugh

Hudson,

Blueprints

nd Blood.The

Stalinization

of

Soviet

Architecture

Princeton,

N.J.:

Princeton

University

Press,

1994);

James

von

Geldern

and

Richard

Stites,

MassCulture n

Soviet

Russia

(Bloomington,

Ind.:Indiana

University

Press,

1995);

also the exhibition

catalogues:

TatianaNikitinaet

al.,

TheAesthetic

Arsenal:

SocialistRealism Under

Stalin,

New

York,

nstitute or

Contemporary

rt, 1993-1994;

AlessandroDe

Magistris,

d.,

URSS.

Anni

30-50,

catalogue

of

exhibitionat the AccademiaAlbertinadelle

Belle

Arti, Turin,

April-June

1997;

Peter

Moever, ed.,

Tyrannei

des

Schinen.Architektur

es

Stalin-Zeit,

atalogue

of exhibition

at the OsterreichischesMuseum

fur

angewandte

Kunst,

Vienna,

April-July

1994;

Jan

Tabor,ed.,

Kunst und Diktatur.

Architektur,

Bildhauerei

und

Malerei

n

Osterreich, eutschland,

talien

und

derSowjetunion 922-1956, catalogueof exhibitionat the Kunstlerhaus, ienna,March-August

Detail

of

Tapestry

with

1994

(two

volumes);

and

Hubertus

Gassner

t

al.,

Agitatsiia

za

schast'e,

atalogue

of exhibitionat

Portrait

ofStalin,

1936.

the Museum

Fridericianum,Kassel,

and the State RussianMuseum

St.

Petersburg,

1994.

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/31

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*

4?

.'

N

AS

.

(

: ?

, /

V

n? /- a

?' 'LT:'I

r

(? c ?

r

I

F ....

1. ??

,

C-. ?

?5 1?'?

.

_

I % . .

. .....

* t

..-

.

r,

-

b

*- '" '' ';

.

.

v

.,.,' ,II

,

...'..-..-

...',-

^g

,...,.

--..

^*

*'.r



4/31

these endeavors

have

focused on

literature

and the

"high"

arts

of

painting,

sculpture,

and

architecture,

whereas the "minor" arts of

everyday

life have

been

neglected.3

It is often the

prosaic

material culture

-rather

than the

august

portrait

or

the

palace

of

power-

that

expresses

most

vividly

the

sociopolitical

aspirations

of

a

particular regime. Consequently, any attempt

to

forge

a

conceptual

link between the

ideological

structure

of the Soviet

Union and its visual production should take account of all the media as a

synthetic expression

and,

as far as

possible,

afford

equal

attention

to the

decorative as well as to the fine

arts,

however difficult that

may

be.

The

use of decorative arts

for

overtly

propagandistic

and

didactic

purposes

often

obscured,

and still

obscures,

their

aesthetic

qualities.

As with Nazi

realism

and,

to a

lesser

extent,

Italian

Fascist

realism,

there still remains

a

disagreeable

tension between the medium

(which may

be

"beautiful")

and the

message

(which

may

be

"ugly"),

and it is

often

impossible

to

speak

of the former

while

ignoring

the latter. Stalin

and

the

applied

or

decorative arts is an

uneasy

subject,

therefore; because in

seeking

an

aesthetic

justification

for the "Stalin

style"

vis-a-vis the

horrors

of

political

dictatorship,

universal

censorship,

and

physical

oppression,

few

can

suspend

their

beliefs,

prejudices,

and

distaste.

One

way,

however,

in

which this

judgmental

issue

may

be

resolved

and

a

contemporary appraisal

of

Socialist Realism

may

be undertaken

in

a

more

sympathetic

manner is to

approach

the

subject

laterally

rather

than

centrally, metaphorically

rather than

ideologically. By delineating

historical

precedents

that,

rightly

or

wrongly,

are less distasteful

to

the researcher

than

a

portrait

of

Stalin or a

photograph

of the

White

Sea

Canal,

we

may

establish

a more

favorable milieu

for an

evaluation of Socialist Realism.

In

this

way

some

of the

negative

charge

that still

accompanies

the contem-

porary reception

of

the Stalin

style

may

be

defused,

even if

its

function as a

principal

vehicle of

political

persuasion

cannot be

disregarded.

For the

sake

of

simplicity,

the

1930s

and the

1940s

are

being

considered

here as

a

single

time

frame

with an artistic and

ideological

constancy,

cohesion,

and

continuity throughout,

even

though,

of

course,

there

weremodulations

in

artistic

theory

and

practice

before,

during,

and

after

World War II.

On

the other

hand,

this

chronology

of

particular

dates and events should not

proscribe comparison

with other

regimes

and historical

moments,

near

or

far,

that

the art of the

Stalin era

may suggest. Comparison

of

"high"

3. For

a

general

survey

of the Soviet

applied

and

decorative

arts,

see Vladimir

Tolstoi,

Monumental'noe

iskusstvo SSR

Moscow:

Sovetsky

khudozhnik,

1978);

for

specific

ssues

see Karen

Kettering,

"An

Introduction o the

Design

of the Moscow

Metro

in the

Stalin

Period:

The

Happiness

of Life

Underground,"'

DecorativeArts 7

(Spring-Summer

2000):

2-20;

Karen

Kettering,

"Sverdlov

Square

Metro Station: The

Friendship

f the

Peoples'

and the Stalin

Constitution,"

Ibid., 21-47;

JaneFriedman,"SovietMastersof the Skies at the MayakovskyMetroStation,"Ibid., 48-64;

and Isabel

Wunsche,

"Homo Sovieticus:The AthleticMotif

in

the

Design

of the

Dynamo

Metro

Station,"Ibid.,

65-90.



5/31

fig.

1

Varvara

Stepanova,

cover of Ot

Moskvy

kupecheskoi

k

Moskve

sotsialisticheskoi

(From

Merchant

Moscow to

Socialist

Moscow)

(Moscow:

Ogiz-lzogiz,

1932). The Mitchell

Wolfson

Jr.Collection,

The Wolfsonian-

Florida

International

University,

Miami

Beach,

Florida.

Stalin culture

with the

ostensibly

remote

regimes

of

ancient

Egypt,

Louis

XIV,

or Peter the Great

is one

way

of

providing

a looser cultural

context

for discussion

of the Socialist Realist

style.

One

point

of

entry

to this

topic

is the

poem

"May

There

Always

Be

Sunshine,"

one of the most

enticing

ditties of the Stalin

(ruled

1924-1953),

Khrushchev

(ruled 1958-1964),

and Brezhnev

(ruled 1964-1982)

eras.

The

piece

was written in 1928

by

Konstantin

Barannikov,

a

four-year-old

boy;

it then

provided

the

lyrics

for a Soviet

hit

song

of

the 1960s:

May

there

always

be

sunshine,

May

there

always

be

sky,

May

there

always

be

Mama,

May

there

always

be

me.4

The

song

is about

illumination,

fertility,

life

everlasting,

and

the

yearning

for

divine

or

superhuman

intervention

-conditions

that informed

and defined Stalin culture in a very particularway. In Stalin's Russia, solar

energy,

aviation, abundance,

and

eternity

were

concepts

that became

especially

manifest

in both

sociopolitical

aspiration

and

visual and material

culture. As a

lyrical

microcosm,

therefore,

"May

There

Always

Be Sunshine"

can be

regarded

as an

apotheosis

of

and

commentary

on the

spirit

of

Stalin's

Russia. As Soviet life became

more brutal

in the

1930s,

with rural

catastrophes,

famines,

and mass

arrests,

the

fine and

applied

arts became

more

florid,

pictorial subjects

more

abundant,

and

construction

projects

more

grandiose.

There seems to be a diabolical

logic

in these

disparities,

and it is tempting to read the disengagement as the direct result of an

emphatic propaganda

that

replaced complete

information

with

half-truths,

fables,

and illusions.

But this is

only

one

of

many components

that must be

4. For

the Russian

and another

English

translation with the first

and second lines

reversed,

see

Vladimir

Markov and

Merrill

Sparks,

Modern Russian

Poetry

(New

York:

Bobbs-Merrill,

1967),

824-825.

vW

??


27/31

A collection

of

essays

on

Stalin's transformations

of

nature,

Velikie

sooruzheniia

stalinskoi

epokhi

Great

Constructions

of the Stalin

Epoch),

published

in

Moscow

in

1951,

contains

sections that could

just

as

well

have

been written about

Egypt: "Nastuplenie

na

peski"

(Attacking

the

Sands),

"Pokorenie

pustyni" (Vanquishing

the

Desert),

and

"Bogatye

urozhaia

oroshaemykh

polei"

(The

Rich

Harvests

of the

Irrigated

Fields).35

Posters of the 1930s and 1940s also urged the viewer to "Overcome the

Drought "

(fig.

27). Appropriately

enough,

camels are the beasts of

burden

in

the

Salt Mines in

Central Asia

poster

referenced

earlier

(fig.

4).

The

pharaonic

metaphor

is

enticing,

but in

order to

render it more

credible

the

question

as to

why

Stalin

might

have chosen

to

identify

himself with

the

dynasties

of

Cheops,

Ramses,

or Tutankhamen must

be answered.

First,

many

regarded

-

and still

regard- pharaonic Egypt

as a

highly

successful

society

with advanced

technology,

effective law

and

order,

and

very

efficient

means

of

communication

and

transportation-

a

society

that

Stalin would have wished to emulate. Second, there was the precedentof

Egyptian

culture

in

Russian

culture:

from the

authentically

ancient

sphinxes

at

the

Academy

of Arts Embankment

on the River

Neva in

St.

Petersburg

in the

late

eighteenth

century

to

Aleksandr Pushkin's fictional

Egyptian

Nights

of the

1830s;

from

the

importation

of

Napoleon's

Egyptian

taste

into

early nineteenth-century

Russian architecture and

furnishings

to

the

cult of

Cleopatra

in Russia's

fin-de-siecle

poetry

and

dance;

from

the

Egyptian

motif on a

pre-revolutionary

elevator

to the mummies

displayed

59

prominently

in

the main

exhibition area

of

the

Alexander

III

Museum

in

Moscow (now the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts). This is not to say that

Stalin was

especially

aware

of

Russia's

Egyptomania,

but the

artistic,

literary,

and

decorative sources

were

there,

and

their forceful

presence

helps

to

explain

the continued fascination

with

Egypt

during

the Soviet

period.

This

is

reflected

in the

publication

of

several

important

art historical

surveys,

including

Vladimir

Pavlov's The

Sculptural

Portrait in

Ancient

Egypt

and

Moisei

Ginzburg's

Egypt36-although

the

passion

for

things

Egyptian

also

ran

high

in other

countries,

such

as Great

Britain,

France,

and

Germany, particularly

when

archaeological

discoveries

were made

in the

1920s and 1930s.

The last

line of

"May

There

Always

Be

Sunshine,"

the

song

that unifies

this

essay, "May

there

always

be

me,"

expresses

a

simple

desire that

suggests

the

most solid

bridge

between Soviet

and ancient

Egyptian

culture: the

life

everlasting,

the

immortality

and

superhumanity

to which the

healthy

Soviet

workers,

ample

peasants,

and

smiling

children

bear

testimony

in

the

sunlit

photographs

and

paintings

of the 1930s

and 1940s.

Surely

the most

obvious

symbol

of this

aspiration

is the

Lenin mausoleum

on

Red

Square

35. A. V. Topchievet al., Velikieooruzheniia talinskoi pokhiMoscow:Molodaiagvardiia,1951).

36.

Vladimir

Pavlov,

Skul'pturnyi

ortret

v Drevnem

Egipete

Moscow-Leningrad:

skusstvo,

1937);

Moisei

Ginzburg,

Egipet

Moscow:

Akademiia

rkhitektury,

944).



28/31

fig.

28

Lenin

ying

in state.

From

t

Arkhitekturaavzoleia

'

'1

Lenina

(The

Architecture

i

of

the Lenin

Mausoleum)

a1

(Moscow:

osudarstvennoe to

izdatel'stvo

rkhitektury

_ad

.

igradostroitel'stva,

1950).

Institute of

Modern

Russian

Culture,

:

Los Angeles.

at the foot of

the

Kremlin

wall,

a

stone's throw from

the

River

Moscow,

and

inspired directly

by the

experience

of

ancient

Egypt (fig.

28).

There

is

evidence

to

suggest

that

Stalin,

who

supervised

the

plans

for

the

granite

mausoleum

and followed

the

mummification

of

Lenin at all

phases,

was

guided

by the

same

arguments

and rituals that

inspired

the

Egyptians

to

create

their

pyramids,

their

sarcophagi,

and their

statuary.

The ancient Egyptians believed in life after death, and tried to preserve

the human

body

as

its

container

and vehicle for

the

journey

of

the

spirit.

Before

they perfected

the

technique

of

mummification,

the

early Egyptians

placed

a

sculptural

likeness of the deceased

within the

tomb,

so

the

effigy

could assimilate the soul

(a

practice

reminiscent

of the

multiplicity

of

statues

to

Lenin after his

death).

Since the

pharaoh

was God and

his

sepulcher

the first abode

of

his

soul,

the structure of the

sepulcher

had to

be durable and well

appointed

-which is

why

the

pyramids

were

con-

structed to withstand time and were

equipped

with the

appurtenances

of

the

deceased

for the

voyage beyond.

The alabaster

sarcophagi,

the texts

and

images (during

the

later

dynasties),

and,

of

course,

the actual

process

of

embalming

were

applied

or

interpreted

in the

entombment

of Lenin.7

Completed

in

October

1930

(corresponding

with the thirteenth anniver-

sary

of the October

Revolution),

the

permanent

mausoleum

betrayed

a

clear debt to

pharaonic

architecture

(both

Aleksei

Shchusev,

its

architect,

and

Ignaty Nivinsky,

its

interior

designer,

were well

versed

in

Egyptian

antiquities).

The

polished

surfaces

of

marble,

granite,

and

porphyry,

the

mummy

of

Lenin under the

plate-glass pyramid

installed on the oxidized

37. For

information

on

the

embalming

of

Lcnin,

see

Ilya Zbarsky

nd

Samuel

Hutchinson,

Lcnin'sEnbalmers

London:

Harvill, 1998).



29/31

fig. 29

Anastas

Mikoian,

Viacheslav

Molotov,

Stalin,

and

Mikhail

Kalinin

top

the Lenin

Mausoleum,

Red

Square,

watching

gymnastics

display

on 6

July

1935.

From ovetskaiadetvora

(Soviet

Kids) Moscow:

Ogiz-lzogiz,

1936).

Institute

f Modern

Russian

Culture,

Los

Angeles.

bronze

base,

the staircase

leading

to

the room

of

mourning,

the interior

decorated

in

black and

red,

the diffused

lighting,

the

proximity

to the river

of the

capital

-all remind

us

of

the

great

pyramids

of

Saqqara

and Giza.

Why

was Stalin so enthusiastic

about

embalming

Lenin,

in

spite

of the

adamant

protests

of Nadezhda

Krupskaia,

Lenin's

widow?38

Why

did

he undertake the

extraordinary

measure

of

placing

the

body

on a

catafalque

in

a mausoleum

in

order

to observe an eternal

lying-in-state,

just

as

he was

condoning

the

widespread

destruction

of

saints'

relics

in the

monasteries

and churches?

First,

because

a

primary

avenue

of scientific

inquiry

in

the

early

years

of the Soviet

state revolved

around the

quest

for

overcoming

death;

centers such as the

Institute

for

Rejuvenation

in

Moscow conducted

extensive medical research

in

this

field.39The

embalming

of

Lenin,

therefore

(and

of Stalin

later),

held

deep

symbolic

value and

was a

clear,

though

illusory,

reference to

the

triumph

over death.

The

Committee

for the

Embalming

of

Lenin,

directed

by

V.

N.

Vorob'ev

and Boris Zbarsky throughout the late 1920s, concluded:

[The

embalming]

rests

on solid scientific

principles,

which allow

us to

count

on a state

of

preservation

of Vladimir Il'ich's

body

for a

long

time

-several

decades;

and can be

viewed like this

in a closed

glass

casket

as

long

as the

necessary

humidity

and

temperature

conditions

are observed.4

61

?^\

%

:

^

;.ts

I

38.

See

Ibid.,

especially haps.

2

and 3.

39.

The architectKonstantinMel'nikov

was

especially

nterested

n

rejuvenation

nd

immortality.

See S.

FrederickStarr,

Melnikov.

olo

Architect

n a Mass

SocietyPrinceton,N.J.:

Princeton

University

Press,

1978),

especially hap.

10.

40. Boris

Zbarsky,

Mavzolei

Lenina

(Moscow:

OGIZ, 1946),

37.



30/31

For

Stalin,

there was also

the

appeal

of the ancient

ritual

of the

early

dynasties,

whereby

the

aged

leader

was killed

in order to make

room

for

his

younger

successor. The

"ritual

sacrifice"

of Lenin

countenanced

the

ascension of

Stalin,

so

that

Stalin,

standing atop

the

mausoleum,

now

controlled the

dynasty bequeathed

to him

(fig.

29).

Nikolai Stoiarov's

1950

history

of

the mausoleum reinforces the

message:

The name of

Lenin,

written on the

mausoleum,

sounds as a call to

battle,

an

appeal

or

victory.

Lenin lives with

us,

he leads us.

Stalin

s Lenin

today.41

This,

of

course,

echoes the

maxim

that

for

decades

graced

the

streets and

squares

of the

Soviet Union:

"Lenin

lived,

Lenin

lives,

Lenin will

live."

Once

again,

Stalin's

pharaonic

connections

-the solar

power,

the

water-

works,

and the bid

for

eternity-bring

us back to the

images

of

aridity

and

fluidity.

It

is

tempting

to

forge

a

relationship

between the

impending

drought

of 1933 and

the

imposition

of

Socialist Realism the

following

year-in broader terms, between the human desert of the "Great Terror"

and the false waters of

propaganda,

bringing

a

plenitude

of

ideological

irrigation.

In

the

shifting

sands of Stalin's

Russia,

people

vanished,

the

gulags

crisscrossed

the

Siberian

tundra,

and the

regime

of

secrecy

and

reticence vied with the

uniformity

and silence of a

natural desert.

True,

there were

oases,

real and

metaphorical,

restorative and

invigorating,

such

as

Gor'ky

Park,

genuine

achievements

in

mass

literacy

and

heavy industry,

62

and

enduring

works of literature and

art,

which attracted

unfailing

optimism

with

their technical

virtuosity.

But as

the

Stalin era recedes ever further

into the myth of history, the abiding danger becomes the temptation to see

only

the

oases,

not

the

desert,

and to

delight

in the

mirage

of

Socialist

Realism while

forgetting

the

cruelty

of the

unrelenting

sun.

Stalin's dream of

immortality

did

not

come to

pass,

and

the

great

visions

and

projects

of

his culture

proved

to be

fragile

illusions. The canals did

not

function,

and the

damming

of the rivers and the

irrigation

of the

deserts

brought

ecological

disaster.

The

Palace

of

the Soviets was

never

built,

the Exhibition

of

Economic Achievements continues to

crumble,

and the

question

still

lingers

whether Lenin's

body

will be

buried

and

the mausoleum demolished. The brilliant sun high in the sky has been

eclipsed,

the

gods

cast

down,

nothing

seems to remain from that

grandiose

legacy,

and

the

little

song

"May

There

Always

Be Sunshine"

transposes

into a

lamentation.

But

perhaps

not all is

lost,

for

there

is

still the third

and most

uplifting

line of the

refrain,

"May

there

always

be

Mama."

Just

one

year

before

Stalin's

death,

the

Socialist Realist

Fedor

Reshetnikov

41. Nikolai

Stoiarov,

Arkhitektura

mavzoleiaLenina

(Moscow:

Gosudarstvennoezdatel'stvo

arkhitektury gradostroitel'stva,

950),

86.



31/31

fig.

30

Fedor

Reshetnikov,

Bad

Grades,

Again ,

oil on

canvas,

102

x

94

cm,

1952.

State Tretiakov

Gallery,

Moscow.

Courtesy

of Galart

Publishing,

Moscow.

Ci;

0:

CL

63

painted

his sentimental Bad

Grades,

Again 42

(fig.

30),

which now

might

read as a

metaphor

for Mother Russia

chiding

little

Joseph:

the school

of

life has treated him

harshly

and his

dreams

are in smithereens. So the

happy

note

on

which to finish this

melancholy essay

about

a

regime

that

proved

to be so mortal is that there's

always

mother: Ra

may

fade,

but

Isis lives on. o

Stalin as Isis and Ra Socialist Realism and the Art of Design

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