The Formation of Soviet Culture and Ideology by the
Creative Intelligentsia
61
droughts in the summer of 1921. The spectators were, apparently, highly
satisfied with the performance. In spite of the fact that it was a weekday,
many came to watch the play, and the audience expressed sympathy with
victims of the famine. The proceeds from the play (94,000 rubles) were sent
to the famine-stricken population of Povolzhye. Music was equally
important. Between September 1920 and February 1921, one musical
troupe gave:
16 public concerts which were free of charge;
115 concerts in various institutions, hospitals and camps;
2 concerts with musical illustrations for children;
3 concerts in orphanages.
22
These performances were free of charge because their main purpose was
not only to cheer people up but to mobilise workers and peasants to work
hard, to help them build a “new life” in their “new country.”
In order to facilitate the process of modernisation, the government
rated any technical, cultural or social achievement very highly. The march of
science, successes in the health service, positive results in manufacturing
and the next generation’s upbringing were sources of pride for the Soviet
government.
23
Fig. 2. A. Deyneka,
Donbass, 1947
22
SAKR, fund 309, list 3, doc. 282, p. 22.
23
Ponomareva 2004, p. 474.
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro
V. M. Kuzmina, J. G. Simonova, A. V. Tretyakov
62
The Stakhanovite movement was one of the most widely popularised.
As a new stage of socialist competition, it was described in literature,
depicted in paintings and shown in cinemas and theatres. Works of the
artist A. Deyneka, such as Donbass (fig. 2), The Tractor Drivers,
The Stakhanovites and
The Space of Building Sites under Moscow testify to this.
Sheila Fitzpatrick, whose research focused on the Stakhanovite
movement, states that in the Soviet Union the movement worked perfectly
well.
24
Other researchers (K. Clark, J. Leyda) share this point of view.
“Heroes” and ordinary people are shown in feature and documentary films,
literature and painting connected to the Stakhanovite movement.
25
Fig. 3. A. Deyneka, Аt a Construction Site of New Shops, 1926
Many chastushki referring to ideas of socialist competition and the
achievements of the Stakhanovite movement appeared at this time, for
example:
26
I am a Stakhanovka in the kolkhoz
I have got a bonus.
And my darling entered
The Agricultural Academy.
24
Fitzpatrick 2008, p. 90.
25
Clark 1985, p. 136-141.
26
Lazutina 1970, p. 56.
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro
The Formation of Soviet Culture and Ideology by the
Creative Intelligentsia
63
Fig. 4. Soviet film posters promoting industrial development and the Stakhanovite
movement
27
27
RSASPH, fund 312, list 2, doc. 114,
p. 29. A transcript of the meeting of filmmakers in
the Editorial Office of the newspaper
Pravda, with the participation of Alexander
Dovzhenko.
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro
V. M. Kuzmina, J. G. Simonova, A. V. Tretyakov
64
In spite of its widespread propaganda value, the Stakhanovite
movement was short-lived. The Stakhanovite movement represented a type
of labour mobilisation during the industrial modernisation process,
28
in
which highly efficient work by individual peasants won them leading
positions in their kolkhozes. These opportunities were offered to both men
and women. The promotion resulted in very high social status, public
recognition (transmitted by the mass media through photographs and
articles in newspapers), awards, prizes and attendance of various all-USSR
events which took place in Moscow.
Thanks to the works of literature and cinema created by the artistic
intelligentsia, the government was able to raise a generation of unified
behind the idea of industrialisation and accepting responsibility for its
speed.
29
Outstanding cultural figures were needed to communicate the ideas of
industrial modernisation to the Soviet people. At a meeting of film industry
workers that took place in the editorial office of Pravda on 23 November
1935, A. Dovzhenko delivered a report stating that there were two
problems urgent to the government that it was up to the creative
intelligentsia to solve: “the problem of the kolkhozniks and Stakhanovites,
and the problem of defence.”
30
I. V. Stalin specifically mentioned the work of the creative
intelligentsia during the period of the industrial modernisation:
“The Soviet intelligentsia works devotedly towards the task of national
defence, continuously improving the armaments of the Red Army. It helps
the workers and the kolkhozniks to increase their industrial and agricultural
productivity, promoting Soviet culture and science even during periods of
war.
31
”
In 1939 the Soviet government awarded honours to 172 writers.
Poets, writers and other representatives of the intelligentsia had a genuine
opportunity to influence the minds of the peasantry and the working class.
Along with the intelligentsia, other state figures helped to solve the
problems of industrial modernisation. By the end of the 1930s the
population was highly mobilised.
32
Analysis of archival documents shows that on the one hand the
Soviet Party used the creative intelligentsia to assist in pursuing the policy of
28
Yakovlev 1999, p. 488.
29
Shubin 1984, p. 31.
30
SAKR, fund 209, list 8, doc. 54, p. 2.
31
Gorinov 1991, p. 89.
32
Maksimenkov 2003.
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro