Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

V. M. Kuzmina, J. G. Simonova, A. V. Tretyakov 

 

56

modernisation, the government intended that USSR should catch up with 

the West, achieve economic independence, modernise its defence industry 

and develop its basic industries (energy industries, chemical industries and 

engineering). 

 

 

 

Fig. 1. Poster “Cultural live-productive work” (1930) 

 

In the resolution On Perspectives of the Industrial Development of the 

Centralno-Chernozemnyi Region, the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the 

National Economy of the USSR confirmed that the internal resources of 

the region had not been taken into account in the Five-Year Plan, hence the 

major problems of industrial modernisation had not been solved. By 

internal resources, the government referred to not only human, economic 

and natural factors but also ideological ones. According to the listed 

circumstances, it was necessary to shake up the work of the Komsomol

4

 

                                                 

4

 Komsomol: the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

---

The Formation of Soviet Culture and Ideology by the Creative Intelligentsia 

 

57

and Party organisations, and actively use representatives of the intelligentsia 

to help solve the problem of mobilising the population.

5

 

As the regions were agrarian, the government had one more problem 

to tackle - stimulating the transition from peasantry to working class. To 

this end it was important to excite the population about the change. To 

build a socialist society, an economic spurt was needed to catch up with the 

economic growth in developed European countries; the Soviet government 

chose the course of forced industrialisation to achieve this. To achieve all 

their stated objectives the government had to encourage the population by 

all possible means, methods and forms. Party members assigned this job to 

cultural figures amongst the intelligentsia.

6

 There were a number of facets to 

this approach. 

Firstly, art workers were required to raise the cultural and educational 

levels of the population, because the new government needed to develop a 

new generation of Soviet workers and peasants. The work of the 

intelligentsia was vital to achieving this. It was recorded at a meeting of the 

Narkompros (People’s Commissariat for Education) Arts Sector on 13 July 

1930 that “It is necessary to move the centre of gravity to villages and 

industrial areas because the public demand for culture is very high.”  

In fact, the efforts of the literati, artists, musicians and actors were 

already focused on cultural work before this meeting took place. Literary 

types were involved in educational activities with the population. The 

creative intelligentsia founded various clubs, village libraries and reading-

rooms; organised literary events, musicals, concerts in rural areas; and 

arranged meetings with actors and politicians. Voronezh writers and poets 

strove to reflect the innovations brought about by the Soviet government 

on the pages of Voronezh Kommuna and Nasha Gazeta. Local journalists, 

writers and poets, such as M. Lyzlov, M. Kazartsev, P. Zagorovskiy, V. 

Korablinov, I. Gilevich, A. Shubinand and others who were members of the 

literary cenacle “Chernozem,” were in fact carrying out government 

assignments.

7

 

The new life of the peasantry, described in the works of members of 

various literary cenacles, can be confirmed by pieces of folk literature from 

Voronezh, Kursk, Orel, Lipetsk and other regions. 

We used to be illiterate, 

Uninformed and unenlightened. 

But yesterday in our izba

8

 

                                                 

5

 RSALA, fund 645, list 1, doc. 149 (2), p. 127. 

6

 Izvestia, 17 August 1921, p. 3. 

7

 Kuzmina 2011, p. 82. 

8

 Izba: Farmstead. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

---

V. M. Kuzmina, J. G. Simonova, A. V. Tretyakov 

 

58

We were reading Gorky. 

The class struggle, which had worsened in rural areas during the 

period of collectivisation, was reflected in the Russian chastushki

9

 such as 

“Do not threaten us, kulaks; we are not afraid of you” and “All the kulaks 

were turned out of the village yesterday.” Most new chastushki were 

devoted to the building of socialism and description of the unremitting toil 

of the Soviet people. Earlier literary characters were replaced by 

kolkhozniks,

10

 tractor-drivers, combine-operators, agronomists, team-

leaders, Stakhanovites,

11

 etc. The policy of industrialisation was reflected in 

the peasant folk literature in Kursk, Voronezh and Tambov regions:

12

 

We used to pray to God 

For sending rain to us 

Now the irrigation canal 

Is being built by us. 

A second role of art workers was to take an active part in propaganda, 

highlighting the achievements of the industrial modernisation of the 

country. Thus in literature, theatre, painting and cinema a unique genre 

reflecting the ideas, goals, challenges and achievements of industrial 

modernisation emerged.  

Researchers such as S. G. Kara-Murza, G. V. Grachev, I. K. Melnik 

and A. A. Andreev have published studies on propaganda as a means of 

manipulation and persuasion, both on individuals and on a societal level.

13

 

Outside Russia, Harold P. Lasswell, Elliot Aronson, Anthony R. Pratkanis, 

L. Voytasik, Herbert Marcuse, O. Thompson, W. Lippman, Richard Harris 

and others have studied the importance of various social groups as a means 

of social influence and governance.  

During the period under consideration, oral propaganda was 

continually gaining in scope. As declared at a meeting of the leadership of 

the Arts Sector of the RSFSR Central region in 1929, “The idea of the 

enlightenment of the peasantry and the working class should run through all 

public events, beginning with public libraries.” Meetings, lectures, reports, 

discussions, dialogues and performances were very important in the 

Centralno-Chernozemnyi region.  Central figures of the Communist Party, 

commissars, leaders and members of the Party apparatus, outstanding 

                                                 

9

 Chastushka: simple rhyming poem. 

10

 Kolkhozniks: collective farmers. 

11

 Stakhanovites: mass movement in the USSR involving followers of Aleksey Stakhanov, 

innovators in socialist production aiming for workers, collective farmers and technical 

workers to significantly exceed the established norms of production. 

12

 Lazutina 1970, p. 45. 

13

 Kara-Murza 2004, p. 34. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

---