Editing Socialism (section)

== Culture ==
{{see also|Proletarian literature|Counterculture|New York Intellectuals|New Left|Surrealism|Russian Futurism|Constructivism (art)|Constructivist architecture|Russian avant-garde}}
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|bgcolor=|quote=Under Socialism, solidarity will be the basis of society. Literature and art will be tuned to a different key. |source=—Trotsky, ''Literature and Revolution'', 1924<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=Literature and Revolution |date=2005 |publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-931859-16-5 |page=188 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MG-981usVQEC&dq=Under+Socialism,+solidarity+will+be+the+basis+of+society.+Literature+and+art+will+be+tuned+to+a+different+key.+All+the+emotions+which+we+revolutionists,+at+the+present+time,+feel+apprehensive+of+naming+%E2%80%93+so+much+have+they+been+worn+thin+by+hypocrites+and+vulgarians+%E2%80%93+such+as+disinterested+friendship,+love+for+one%E2%80%99s+neighbor,+sympathy,+will+be+the+mighty+ringing+chords+of+Socialist+poetry+..&pg=PA188}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Trotsky on the Society of the Future (1924) |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/themilitant/1941/v05n34/trotsky.htm |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref>}}

In the Leninist conception, the role of the vanguard party was to politically educate the workers and peasants to dispel the societal [[false consciousness]] of institutional religion and nationalism that constitute the [[Cultural hegemony|cultural ''status quo'']] taught by the [[bourgeoisie]] to the proletariat to facilitate their economic [[Exploitation of labour|exploitation]] of peasants and workers. Influenced by Lenin, the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party]] stated that the development of the socialist workers' culture should not be "hamstrung from above" and opposed the ''[[Proletkult]]'' (1917–1925) organisational control of the national culture.<ref>Central Committee, "On Proletcult Organisations", ''[[Pravda]]'' No. 270, 1 December 1920.</ref> Similarly, Trotsky viewed the party as transmitters of culture to the masses for raising the standards of [[education]], as well as entry into the cultural sphere, but that the process of artistic creation in terms of language and presentation should be the domain of the practitioner. According to political scientist Baruch Knei-Paz in his book ''[[The Social and Political Thought of Leon Trotsky]]'', this represented one of several distinctions between Trotsky's approach on cultural matters and [[Socialist realism#Stalin era|Stalin's policy in the 1930s]].{{sfnp|Knei-Paz|1978|pp=[https://archive.org/details/socialpoliticalt0000knei/page/300/mode/2up?q=proletarian+culture 289–301]}}

[[File:Libro Los Viejos Abuelos Foto 68.png|thumb|450px|[[Man at the Crossroads|Man, Controller of the Universe]] produced by Mexican artist [[Diego Rivera]]]]

In ''[[Literature and Revolution]]'', Trotsky examined aesthetic issues in relation to class and the Russian revolution. Soviet scholar Robert Bird considered his work as the "first systematic treatment of art by a Communist leader" and a catalyst for later, Marxist cultural and critical theories.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bird |first1=Robert |title=Culture as permanent revolution: Lev Trotsky's Literature and] Revolution |journal=Studies in East European Thought |date=1 September 2018 |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=181–193 |doi=10.1007/s11212-018-9304-6 |s2cid=207809829 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11212-018-9304-6 |language=en |issn=1573-0948}}</ref> 

In ''"[[Problems of Everyday Life]]"'', a contemporaneous book which further articulated his views on culture and science, Trotsky argued that cultural development was a prerequisite for socialist reconstruction.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |author-link=Leon Trotsky |title=Problems of Everyday Life: Creating the Foundations for a New Society in Revolutionary Russia |date=May 1998 |publisher=Pathfinder Press |isbn=978-0-87348-854-9 |pages=1–10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t0CdMQAACAAJ |language=en}}</ref> In particular, he argued that cultural development would accentuate industrial and technical progress. He viewed both elements to be interrelated components as part of dialectical interaction in which he viewed the low level of Russian [[technology|technique]] and [[expertise]] to be a function of cultural backwardness. According to Trotsky, Western industrial techniques and products such as the [[radio]] should not be rejected due to their status as a product of a capitalist system but rather absorbed into the Soviet socialist framework to facilitate new forms of techniques and cultural production.<ref name="Knei-Paz 282">{{harvp|Knei-Paz|1978|pp=[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Social_and_Political_Thought_of_Leon/GUAFAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=political+and+social+thought+trotsky&dq=political+and+social+thought+trotsky&printsec=frontcover 282–300]}}</ref> In this interpretation, the [[Technology transfer|transference of techniques]] brought new cultural changes in terms of rationalism, [[efficiency]], exactitude and [[service quality|quality]].<ref name="Knei-Paz 282"/>

Trotsky would later co-author the 1938 ''[[Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art]]'' with the endorsement of prominent artists [[Andre Breton]] and [[Diego Rivera]].{{sfnp|Deutscher|2015|pp=1474–1475}} Trotsky's writings on literature such as his 1923 survey which advocated tolerance, limited censorship and respect for literary tradition had strong appeal to the [[New York Intellectuals]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Patenaude |first1=Betrand |chapter=Trotsky and Trotskyism |title=The Cambridge History of Communism |volume=1, World Revolution and Socialism in One Country 1917–1941R |date=21 September 2017 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-108-21041-6 |page=204 |language=en}}</ref>

Prior to Stalin's rule, [[Russian literature#Early post-Revolutionary era|literary, religious and national representatives]] had some level of autonomy in [[Soviet Russia]] throughout the 1920s but these groups were later rigorously repressed during the [[Stalinism|Stalinist era]]. [[Socialist realism]] was imposed under Stalin in artistic production and other creative industries such as [[music]], [[film]] along with [[sports]] were subject to extreme levels of political control.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Derek |title=Censorship: A World Encyclopedia |date=1 December 2001 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-136-79864-1 |page=2083 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gDqsCQAAQBAJ&q=stalin+mass+censorshipI&pg=PA2092 |language=en}}</ref>

The [[counter-cultural]] phenomenon which emerged in the 1960s shaped the [[intellectual]] and radical outlook of the [[New Left]]; this movement placed a heavy emphasis on [[anti-racism#Anti-racism and socialism|anti-racism]], [[anti-imperialism]] and [[direct democracy]] in opposition to the [[culture of capitalism|dominant culture]] of advanced [[industrial capitalism]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rossinow |first1=Doug |title=The New Left in the Counterculture: Hypotheses and Evidence |journal=[[Radical History Review]] |date=1 January 1997 |volume=1997 |issue=67 |pages=79–120 |doi=10.1215/01636545-1997-67-79 |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/radical-history-review/article-abstract/1997/67/79/88154/The-New-Left-in-the-Counterculture-Hypotheses-and?redirectedFrom=PDF}}</ref>
Socialist groups have also been closely involved with a number of counter-cultural movements such as [[Vietnam Solidarity Campaign]], [[Stop the War Coalition]], [[Love Music Hate Racism]], [[Anti-Nazi League]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Høgsbjerg |first1=Christian |title=Trotskyology: A review of John Kelly, Contemporary Trotskyism: Parties, Sects and Social Movements in Britain |journal=International Socialism |date=18 October 2018 |issue=160 |url=https://isj.org.uk/trotskyology/}}</ref> and [[Unite Against Fascism]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Platt |first1=Edward |title=Comrades at war: the decline and fall of the Socialist Workers Party |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/uncategorized/2014/05/comrades-war-decline-and-fall-socialist-workers-party |magazine=[[New Statesman]] |date=20 May 2014}}</ref>