The Formation of Soviet Culture and Ideology by the
Creative Intelligentsia
65
industrial modernisation, to promote the USSR’s industrial achievements,
and to develop the social activity and creative life of every Soviet man and
woman. On the other hand, the intelligentsia themselves understood the
importance of their activities in achieving industrial modernisation and in
the process of reshaping people’s mindsets to this end. All these
circumstances led to the creation of remarkable pieces of poetry, prose,
music, theatre and art. These works were vital in the development of USSR
and remain of great interest today.
The Formation of Soviet Culture and Ideology by the Creative Intelligentsia
of the Centralno-Chernozemnyi Region
(Abstract)
This article focuses on the influence of cultural workers in solving the urgent problems of
the industrial modernisation of the USSR. Archival documents show how the creative
intelligentsia carried out work with the population implicitly directed towards the
acceleration of industrial modernisation. Questions of the construction of culture were of
great importance to the party and State, which needed to attract the intelligentsia’s aid in
forming a new Soviet ideology and culture. This ideology, based on the principles of
denying past cultural developments, aimed to form a new type of person willing to work
for the homeland and for its ideals, rather than for money. It was up to the intellectuals -
through posters, works of art, paintings, music and dramatic performances - to create this
new Soviet citizen.
Thanks to their output, the symbols of the Soviet era were recognisable in any
society. Cultural workers served as a “starting point” for others, offering a “guiding light”
on the path to modernisation. Creative intellectuals helped to form a new type of Soviet
personality: the worker capable of self-sacrifice for the sake of collective and State interests.
The party and government tightly controlled this process of creating a new culture
and new models of spiritual development, setting up special monitoring bodies and
authorities for censorship, whose task was to inspect works for their appropriateness. If
their authors did not reflect the position of the Party and the country’s leadership on the
processes of industrialisation, collectivisation and cultural promotion, then they faced
repression on many levels, beginning with exclusion from the unions and ending with the
death penalty.
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66
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Keywords:
industrial modernisation, the Soviet government, art workers, methods
of work with the population.
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro