The Soviet Era Of Ussr
1251 WordsNov 3, 20156 Pages
Soviet Russia was a uniquely difficult culture for artists to not only thrive in, but to survive in as well. The Soviet Era marked one of the few times in history that artists were judged primarily on how well they matched the party’s agenda, rather than on their artistic achievements. Music, for the most part, was not banned entirely, but converted into a propagandist tool used by the government to encourage optimistic feelings toward its own policies. However, musicians who created works that were objectionable to the party, or to Stalin personally, often had their works banned and were exiled to Siberia. Many musicians were even murdered because party leaders did not feel that their music was art for the people. Communist leaders…show more content… 1 as his graduation piece at the Petrograd Conservatory. He would go on to compose 15 symphonies, along with numerous operas, quartets, and ballets. Shostakovich would come to be known worldwide as one of the most significant composers of classical music in the 20th century. However, the path was not easy for Shostakovich. In fact, it has been said that nobody suffered more for their music than Dmitri Shostakovich did, and that he and his family were “under constant threat of arrest, exile, or worse.”
To completely understand the roots of Shostakovich’s struggles, it is important to first understand the brutal environment in which he lived. The communist government had control of nearly every aspect of society, including the arts. Stalin knew of the impact that the arts had on society, so he wanted to ensure that the arts went along with their socialist agenda. The first official statement about Socialist Realism was publicized in 1934:
Socialist Realism, being the basic method of Soviet literature and literary criticism, demands from the artist a truthful, historically concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development. At the same time, the truthfulness and historical concreteness of the artistic depiction of reality must coexist with the goal of ideological change and education of the workers in the spirit of socialism.
The communist party wanted to be backed by the arts to help spread loyalty and raise empathy towards the Soviet and