The Formation of Soviet Culture and Ideology by the
Creative Intelligentsia
59
representatives of science and culture, and distinguished writers and
journalists who had obeyed the Soviet government were all actively
performing before the population. “I like the naive pride and patriotism of
the Soviet people,” Lion Feuchtwanger wrote in his book:
“The young people have created something spectacular at the cost of heavy
sacrifice; they stand in front of their creation and cannot believe that they
managed to do it and they are glad of their achievement.”
14
Pressmen propagandising Russia’s industrial growth were under the
control of Glavlit (The Main Directorate for Literary and Publishing
Affairs) and the Union of Soviet Writers, as confirmed by historic data and
correspondence with regional branches of the Union of Soviet Writers in
Voronezh, Kursk, Tambov and Orel. For example, there was a case in
which an issue of the Voronezh digest Na Novyh Putyah containing articles
by O. Kretova and B. Peskov devoted to the problematic state of the
construction of the Moscow-Donbass highway was delayed.
15
The situation
received the following comment:
“These days this problem is being discussed in the regional committee of
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks). All relevant
materials have already been given to I. M. Vareikis (the secretary of the
regional committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
[Bolsheviks]) and a decision will be made in the near future. This problem is
very urgent and the leaders of the Union of Soviet Writers are preoccupied
with it.”
16
It is necessary to mention that delaying the issue of Na Novyh Putyah
was not the only solution to this problem: several
communist writers were
sent to Voronezh to examine the situation with the highway in detail.
The strategy of forced modernisation in the Soviet system was closely
allied to the development of social creativity because it helped to control
and hold back social tension in the country. Thus, the third function of the
creative intelligentsia was their active role in directing the energies of the
working class not only towards the building of the country but also in the
development of amateur performances.
17
To achieve this, the intelligentsia engaged closely with the population.
Along with state cultural institutions, many different cultural clubs and
societies were founded. The government began creating favourable
14
Bugrov 1986, p. 12.
15
SAVR, fund 842, list 3, doc. 18, p. 9-10.
16
RSALA, fund 645, list 1, doc. 149 (2), p. 103.
17
Yakovlev 1999, p. 53. The ruling Politburo of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
“on party politics in the field of literature” from 18 June 1925.
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro
V. M. Kuzmina, J. G. Simonova, A. V. Tretyakov
60
conditions for the population’s cultural education and recreation by
establishing cultural centres, palaces of culture, Red Army Houses, etc.
18
Cultural clubs appeared in Voronezh, Kursk, Tambov, Borisoglebsk,
Elets and Oboyan.
Alongside these, proletarian clubs were founded in
urban areas. Various kinds of musical and theatrical amateur groups, brass
bands, folk bands, singing and dancing circles, living newspapers
19
(for
example, the
Golubaya Bluzka) and other agitprop theatre collectives were
formed. Despite many difficulties caused by a lack of money, musical
instruments, printed materials, qualified stage directors and composers,
multiple small amateur theatre groups arose in various cities in the 1920s,
joined by an ever-increasing number of plant, factory, industrial,
construction and transport workers.
20
On 7 July 1930, exactly these forms of work were mentioned in the
report of the First Year Plan of the development of Amateur Arts. It was
resolved “to recognise the policy of developing amateur arts in rural and
urban areas as being necessary and important to the building of socialism
and the cultural revolution.”
Members of the Central Committee, in a number of resolutions
passed during the period of industrial modernisation, drew attention to the
need to develop amateur activities amongst the working class. In the
meetings of the Department of Propaganda and Agitation of the Regional
Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1934-1936) the
problem of training personnel for urban and rural cultural establishments
remained high on the agenda.
21
The Soviet government did its best to make the population feel
involved in the social processes taking place in the country. Unity between
government and the public was considered a means to solve some of the
most urgent problems. Thus the fourth role of representatives of the
creative intelligentsia was to propagandise the ideas of socialism among
people of different backgrounds - giving performances and holding rallies
for workers, staging concerts for inmates of the psychiatric hospital in the
village of Sapogovo, etc.
For example, on 12 August 1921, a theatre troupe called Calais (from
Tambov) staged a play called Ne Vse Kotu Maslenitsa (Every Dog has His
Day) by А. Ostrovskiy. Before the play several speakers delivered speeches.
The play tackled the problem of a severe famine affecting the main grain-
growing regions of the Soviet Union, including Povolzhye, as a result of
18
Obshchestvenno-politicheskiy, 14, 2002, p. 8-9.
19
Living newspaper: theatrical groups presenting factual information on current events.
20
RSALA, fund 645, list 1, doc. 103 (1), p. 52.
21
Kuzmina 2013, p. 204.
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro