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p G. Yermash

p Art is one of the forms of man’s creative activity. The artist’s task is to create a work of art, but the creative meaning of artistic activity is greater than this. By stimulating the spiritual development of both man and society, art creates something new in reality itself. Nonetheless, art is frequently placed in opposition to life itself with the intention of reducing its participation in the revolutionary development of society.

p The progressive forces of a society struggle to unite art with the revolutionary historical process; thus, socialist realism inherits and develops the progressive traditions of genuine art. As the method of Soviet art, socialist realism can only be described adequately by means of all the aesthetic categories. In the present essay we shall speak about only one of these categories—socialist realism as a type of creation.

p An integral part of this method is social involvement and orientation around resolving social tasks by artistic means; this is the internal stimulus to the artist’s creative process and it transforms his art from ‘purely’ artistic activity into genuine creativity, i.e., into a factor in social construction and in man’s spiritual and social development.

p The essence ot genuine creativity is its actively progressive social role. Art actively participates in man’s evolution; people draw spiritual sustenance from works of art inspired by progressive ideas and then, inspired by these works, take part in the task of social development. The chain ‘man-art-progress’ cannot drop a single link without risking to destroy the system of progressive social development as a whole.

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p In order to help transform life the artist must have a knowledge of life’s many objective laws. Therefore, genuine artistic activity cannot be autonomous, alien to and independent of society, or purely formal. On the contrary, it grows out of the artist’s contact with reality and is permeated by his striving to artistically assimilate this reality.

p By his creative activity man most fully expresses his freedom and sovereignty, and his ability not only to reflect reality but also to transform it. Creation is the highest and most complex manifestation of man’s spiritual and practical relationship to the world.

p Socialist realism is a creative method. It postulates the active artistic assimilation of historical reality and the participation of art in the revolutionary transformation of this reality by specifically artistic means.

p Speaking at the First Congress of Soviet Writers, Maxim Gorky emphasised that “socialist realism proclaims that life is action, creativity."  [262•1  More recently, Mikhail Sholokhov also spoke about this particular quality of socialist art in his Nobel Prize speech:

p “I am speaking of the realism that expresses the idea of life’s rejuvenation, its refashioning for the good of mankind.... Its specific feature is a view of the world that rejects mere contemplation of or retreat from reality, and calls to battle for the progress of mankind...."  [262•2 

p The art which is linked to socialist experience and to the practice of revolutionary transformation has opened up a new spiritual and artistic sphere which is continuing to expand and to develop new strength. Socialist experience is now not only the experience of class struggle but also the experience of triumph by the working masses in creating a developed socialist society; this experience does not belong to one nation only but is an ever-expanding international experience encompassing different countries and continents. Art throughout the world is linked to the present-day revolutionary process.

p The Soviet working class and the Communist Party are guided in their activity by the scientific Marxist outlook and by the Marxist theory of the revolutionary transformation of social relations. This outlook greatly enriches Soviet socialist art, enabling it to penetrate into the objective essence of reality and consolidate its social function. Of course, to create a work which can have a deeply 263 progressive effect on man and society and become a very real factor of progress is a complex task, but one which can nonetheless be resolved by genuine art.

p The task of linking art with the revolutionary struggle of the working class was defined and argued by Lenin in his article “Party Organisation and Party Literature”. Lenin wrote: “We are faced with a new and difficult task. But it is a noble and greatful one—to organise a broad, multiform and varied literature inseparably linked with the Social-Democratic working-class movement."  [263•1 

p In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century many representatives of critical realism continued to draw inspiration from a way of life which was fast disappearing: the poetry of nobility’s “country seats”, the uniqueness of village life, and so on. Other aesthetic currents counterposed art to reality and poeticised an escape from reality. The creative activity of the founders of socialist realism, and above all, Maxim Gorky, was directed towards artistic assimilation of the new and revolutionary processes taking shape in reality.

p The historical quality and artistic advantage of socialist realism consists in the fact that it has linked itself to a revolutionary, historically progressive and genuinely creative social movement and adopted a communist world outlook which reflected most accurately then and continues to reflect now the real historical perspectives of social development.

p To artistically assimilate socialist reality was a new creative problem which inspired the finest artists.

p After the October Revolution, when a new socio-historical reality permeated by the constructive activity of the workers, peasants, and all labouring masses arose, Soviet artists devoted themselves to assimilating the characteristics of socialist reality and to affirming its moral and philosophical ideals and aesthetic values.

p This movement achieved unusual breadth. Maxim Gorky, for instance, inspired writers to search and to discover new things by his own personal example—by his travels throughout the Soviet Union and by his series of sketches about the new work being done by the Caspian oil-riggers and by Armenian peasants. In his later years he organised the journal Our Achievements and began publication of a series of books entitled People of the Second FiveYear Plan in which the processes of socialist development found their first artistic generalisation.

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p Creativity is sometimes considered to consist only of the invention of a new manner of writing. But socialist realism resolves much deeper creative tasks. The artist guided by socialist realism must discover what is genuinely new and progressive in the depths of complex and contradictory reality; he must understand the laws of social movements; he must possess the strength and courage to tight for the affirmation of his ideals; he must possess great talent in order to find effective artistic means (language, form, images) with which to affirm the pre-eminence of the socialist and communist principles of life and world outlook, of the new morality and new standards of tastes.

p A lesser art, one which only invents a new manner of writing, is incompatible with creative tasks of such scope and complexity. True art requires higher inspiration, great effort and a marked talent.

p The founders of socialist realism, such as Gorky, Mayakovsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Vera Mukhina, Boris Johansson-Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, and Isaac Dunayevsky were artistic giants, accomplished and innovative creators. Their discoveries defined the direction in which socialist realist art developed; in the Soviet Union this art continues to grow and to reveal its potential, to show great national and individual diversity, and to manifest its dynamism and capacity for renewal. The creative potential of this art cannot be compared with the’ebb and flow of mosaic trends of modernistic art which sometimes leave valuable cultural deposits, but ones which are only temporary and incomplete.

p Socialist realism is a profound and all-encompassing creative process, inexhaustible because it is linked to historically progressive social practice and is saturated with the content, goals, images and ideas of this practice.

p Romain Rolland was attracted by socialist realism’s energetic and hardy character, and he wrote of it: “In my research into socialist realism I want to show its renewal of subjects and characters, its harmonious health, and its mighty power."  [264•1 

p Given current conditions, socialist realism is going through a new stage of development in which it is expanding and deepening its contact with reality, as well as actively dealing with the vital problems of our time.

p A profound and scientific study of the functioning of objective laws of contemporary social development in all spheres of social activity has been undertaken by Soviet scholars. If socialist realist art does not take part in this study then it will fall behind the 265 other forms of spiritual experience and become isolated. It is noteworthy that Soviet painters, sculptors, and graphic designers are now willingly participating in cultural life at the most important new construction projects of the Ninth Five-Year Plan. This feeling of personal participation in the process of communist construction, the enrichment of art by direct impressions from life, the act of entering into the very essence of reality and into people’s lives—all this has enormous importance for the development of art.

p The changes taking place in contemporary Soviet life are not only in the social, economic and political spheres but also in the spiritual life of the people who are building communism. Changes are taking place in people’s opinions, tastes, moral standards and ideals, and in their ideas and feelings. The moral stimulus to work for society is becoming stronger, as is the sense of Soviet patriotism and internationalism. Man’s spiritual life is being imbued with a new meaning. Present-day socialist realism is particularly interested in man’s spiritual life and is attempting to analyse complex psychological processes. This is particularly important now that the attention of Soviet society is fixed on the problems of the communist education and harmonious development of the individual.

p Scholars of Soviet literature have noticed the deepening and enrichment of its social and psychological content. The most complex aspects of the human spirit have become the object of artistic enquiry—not only people’s thoughts and opinions, feelings and experiences, but also the imagination, the memory, and the subconscious. The works of Sholokhov, Chinghiz Aitmatov, and Sergei Zalygin have dealt with the spiritual and psychological traits of many types of people from a socialist background.

p The centre of attention in contemporary Soviet art is the theme of work and, above all, the theme of the working class. The working class is the creator of not only the material values, but also the spiritual values of contemporary life. Advanced moral standards emerge in working collectives and it is here that modern and humane relations among men are formed: this is a rich source for the creation of the most contemporary works of art—contemporary not only in form but also in content. Soviet artists and writers are faced with the enormously responsible task of reflecting the multiform activity and’ spiritual culture of a developed socialist society. This is a very difficult and complex artistic task. In this connection Sholokhov remarked in his speech at the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, speaking of the visible traits of communist transformation, that 266 literary success in this area was “not as great as both readers and writers might desire”. Art arising from socialist experience is moving forward, but it can only do so through searching, discovering, and by resolving the most complex creative tasks.

p In order to depict contemporary life the writer must be able to conceptualise new processes and phenomena never before portrayed in art. This is an artistic problem for the artist seeking to go beyond a simple and unimaginative reproduction of “life’s flow”. Art must offer a creative interpretation of life, otherwise it becomes nothing more than a mirror reflecting what is in front of it, or it becomes simple formalism.

p Socialist realist artists share a common body of ideas but this does not mean that their work is all the same. A Marxist-Leninist world outlook provides the type of methodological basis which makes it possible for art to grasp the essence of a wide variety of concrete processes. The conceptualisation of life’s phenomena and its end result—the ideological and philosophical content of a work of art—grow out of the individual characteristics of the thought processes of the artist capable of comprehending all the new phenomena and aspects of contemporary life.

p The methodological principle underlying socialist realism is its historicism, a concrete perception of reality in which separate phenomena are seen as socially interconnected and conditioned, in the light of their historical significance—a perception which takes each individual element as part of the whole and reveals the social background and historical scale of facts. For instance, the Soviet writer Sergei Zalygin has said that the artist “is always pulled in two directions, always moves in two different orbits: the contemporary and the historical”.  [266•1  Thus, facts don’t exist for the writer as isolated fragments of life, but rather each fact is a link in the historical chain, one part or one aspect of the social whole. The task of a creative artist, adhering to the principle of socialist realism, is to reveal the historical meaning and social interconnections of phenomena.

p The opponents of socialist realism often imagine that writing from a class and party position excludes a personal attitude to life and makes creative thinking an impersonal phenomenon, but this is an artificial dilemma. Among the founders of socialist realism are Gorky and Mayakovsky, both writers who consistently wrote from a position of partisanship but were nevertheless two entirely different personalities. Genuinely creative thought is a result of 267 discovering and giving meaning to new aspects of life and requires talent and an exceptionally strong and active mind as well.

p Some foreign theorists consider the most valuable characteristic of art to be its critical attitude towards reality and they discuss this concept in relation to socialist art. This theory, however, tends to undervalue the creative character of the art of socialist realism.

p A creative attitude of man towards reality is impossible without negation, but art cannot contain only negation. The summit of artistic creation is the discovery of what is new and progressive, something that can be opposed, by virtue of its greater perfection and adaptation to reality, to that which is out-moded, antihumane, and simply bad. The fact that art reflects and elevates progressive elements in reality gives it great importance in communist education and in the revolutionary transformation of society. The practical social significance of the process of artistic creativity lies in its emphasis on what is progressive. This does not mean, however, emphasis only on what is more rational but also on what is more real and valid, i. e., a realistic goal for society or real progress.

p That art criticises what is bad and affirms what is progressive is due to the dialectic of reality itself. Lenin wrote that “if any social phenomenon is examined in its process of development, relics of the past, foundations of the present and germs of the future will always be discovered in it...."  [267•1 

p The building of communism is a deeply revolutionary process. The real essence of art is a revolutionary view of the world and the struggle for what is new and progressive; the genuinely creative task of art, its active striving to participate in the communist transformation of society and of man, arises from this quality.

p A profound knowledge of reality and a genuinely scientific view of the world is required of the artist if he is to affirm the new and better elements in life; he also needs talent, imagination, fantasy, and an instinctive sense for imagery and prediction.

p The most outstanding examples of Soviet art clearly possess the historical optimism of a communist world outlook and a strength and talent in their affirmation of new and better elements in society. This is, however, a difficult creative problem which not every artist has been able to solve.

p The artist’s own creative make-up gives his art two distinct aspects: the objective aspect and the subjective aspect. Nevertheless, these two aspects are interconnected. Subject and object stand in a dialectical relation to each other and this relation is the 268 very basis of the creative process. Realistic art grows out of the artist’s interaction with objective reality at all levels of the creative process.

p Contemporary Soviet psychology is researching the mechanism of creative thinking in great detail. This research shows the organic connection in the haman consciousness between the creative faculties and reflection of life’s objective characteristics and laws.

p Aesthetics has given a great deal of attention to the problem of whether the artist himself, as an individual, can be a subject for artistic consideration. Can the artist’s inner world be an object of examination? Can art be the expression of this individual inner world?

p The artist himself, his life and his inner world can be part of the range of questions which properly form the subject of artistic enquiry, but only part, not the whole. External, objective reality is the most important and primary subject for the artist.

p This is so, firstly, because the artist’s life and inner world are only a small part of the infinite variety of the world, social structures, and mankind as a whole—all that makes up objective reality. To restrict the subject of art to one small part of reality would be to narrow its creative range and to impoverish its content.-Secondly, the artist’s personal characteristics and thought processes are, after all, conditioned by external reality.

p We do not wish to deny the significance of self-analysis by the artist in the creative process. Inasmuch as the most important subject for art is man himself, the artist’s self-analysis can be one source of understanding reality, social structures, and man in general. However, self-analysis is not sufficient in itself to be a subject for art and cannot replace an analysis of life in its entirety.

p All of these points are organically linked with the transformational function of art (which has precedence over all other functions), with the concept of art as an element in the building of a communist society, and with the principle of the national character of art. Lertin said that the workers and peasants “are entitled to real great art”.  [268•1 

p Socialist realist aesthetics examines the problem of artistic form in the light of these principles. The decisive factor here is, again, that socialist realist art is directed towards assimilating contemporary revolutionary social experience.

p The current stage of development in socialist realism is characterised by the fact that no one- artistic form is given 269 absolute precedence. Instead, a broad artistic ideal is developing which draws on an endless variety of form, takes into account a variety of specific national characteristics, individual searchings, and new means of artistic expression.

p Lenin’s article “Party Organisation and Party Literature" which contains the basis of the socialist realist theory of art, states that “greater scope must undoubtedly be allowed for personal initiative, individual inclination, thought and fantasy, form and content”.  [269•1 

p Socialist realist art’s creative approach to form is continuing to develop, but one must remember what is most important for the creative method of socialist realism. Formal structure cannot exist as an end in itself. A purely formal task is much more elementary than the search for artistic forms capable of expressing a complex content. Genuine artists search for this type of form because their art is directed towards the people as a whole and based on social reality. Because of this, the artist’s search for the appropriate form acquires far greater significance. It is not enough to invent a new formal method, it is necessary to find worthwhile content and forms of aesthetic value.

Socialist realism is principally distinguished from modernistic tendencies in contemporary art by its attempt to influence reality for the better through art. Genuine art is akin to the revolutionary practice of transforming the world. Anatoly Lunacharsky wrote in his essay “Music and Revolution" that “music and revolution are deeply related"  [269•2  and this applies to all forms of genuinely creative art.