Editing Soviet Union (section)

== Culture ==
{{Main|Culture of the Soviet Union}}
{{See also|Soviet cuisine|Music of the Soviet Union|Fashion in the Soviet Union|Broadcasting in the Soviet Union|Printed media in the Soviet Union|Samizdat}}
[[File:Марш энтузиастов.ogg|thumb|The 'Enthusiast's March', a 1930s song famous in the Soviet Union]]
[[File:Vladimir Vysotsky.jpg|thumb|upright|Soviet singer-songwriter, poet and actor [[Vladimir Vysotsky]] in 1979]]
The culture of the Soviet Union evolved through several stages during its existence. During the first decade following the revolution, there was relative freedom and artists experimented with several different styles to find a distinctive Soviet style of art. Lenin wanted art to be accessible to the Russian people. On the other hand, hundreds of intellectuals, writers, and artists were exiled or executed, and their work banned, such as [[Nikolay Gumilyov]] who was shot for alleged conspiracy against the Bolsheviks, and [[Yevgeny Zamyatin]].<ref>'On the other hand{{nbsp}}...' See the index of ''Stalin and His Hangmen'' by Donald Rayfield, 2004, Random House</ref>

The government encouraged a variety of trends. In art and literature, numerous schools, some traditional and others radically experimental, proliferated. Communist writers [[Maxim Gorky]] and [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]] were active during this time. As a means of influencing a largely illiterate society, films received encouragement from the state, and much of director [[Sergei Eisenstein]]'s best work dates from this period.

During Stalin's rule, the Soviet culture was characterized by the rise and domination of the government-imposed style of [[socialist realism]], with all other trends being severely repressed, with rare exceptions, such as [[Mikhail Bulgakov]]'s works. Many writers were imprisoned and killed.<ref>{{harvnb|Rayfield|2004|pp=317–320}}</ref>

Following the [[Khrushchev Thaw]], censorship was diminished. During this time, a distinctive period of Soviet culture developed, characterized by conformist public life and an intense focus on personal life. Greater experimentation in art forms was again permissible, resulting in the production of more sophisticated and subtly critical work. The government loosened its emphasis on socialist realism; thus, for instance, many protagonists of the novels of author [[Yury Trifonov]] concerned themselves with problems of daily life rather than with building socialism. Underground dissident literature, known as ''[[samizdat]]'', developed during this late period. In architecture, the Khrushchev era mostly focused on functional design as opposed to the highly decorated style of Stalin's epoch. In music, in response to the increasing popularity of forms of popular music like [[jazz]] in the West, many jazz orchestras were permitted throughout the USSR, notably the Melodiya Ensemble, named after the principle record label in the USSR.

In the second half of the 1980s, Gorbachev's policies of ''[[perestroika]]'' and ''[[glasnost]]'' significantly expanded [[freedom of expression]] throughout the country in the media and the press.<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 August 2023 |title=Mikhail Gorbachev {{!}} Biography, Facts, Cold War, & Significance {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mikhail-Gorbachev |access-date=4 October 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>