Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

 

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