Editing Socialist realism (section)

=== Important groups ===
[[File:Mitrophan Grekov 02.jpg|thumb|[[Mitrofan Grekov]]. Tachanka. 1924]]
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines socialist realism as "a Marxist aesthetic theory calling for the didactic use of literature, art, and music to develop social consciousness in an evolving socialist state".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialist+realism|title=Definition of Socialist Realism |website=www.merriam-webster.com|language=en|access-date=2019-02-18}}</ref> Socialist realism compelled artists of all forms to create positive or uplifting reflections of socialist utopian life by utilizing any visual media, such as posters, movies, newspapers, theater and radio, beginning during the Communist Revolution of 1917 and escalating during the reign of Stalin until the early 1980s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theartstory.org/movement-socialist-realism.htm|title=Socialist Realism Movement Overview|website=The Art Story|access-date=2019-02-18}}</ref>

[[Vladimir Lenin]], head of the Russian government 1917–1924, laid the foundation for this new wave of art, suggesting that art is for the people and the people should love and understand it, while uniting the masses. Artists [[Naum Gabo]] and [[Antoine Pevsner]] attempted to define the lines of art under Lenin by writing "The Realist Manifesto" in 1920, suggesting that artists should be given free rein to create as their muse desired. Lenin, however, had a different purpose for art: wanting it functional, and Stalin built on that belief that art should be agitation.<ref name="theartstory.org">{{Cite web|url=https://www.theartstory.org/movement-socialist-realism.htm|title=Socialist Realism – Concepts & Styles|website=The Art Story|access-date=2019-02-18}}</ref>

The term ''Socialist Realism'' was proclaimed in 1934 at the Soviet Writer's congress, although it was left not precisely defined.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/socialist-realism|title=Socialist realism – Art Term|last=Tate|website=Tate|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-02-18}}</ref> This turned individual artists and their works into state-controlled propaganda.

After the death of Stalin in 1953, he was succeeded by [[Nikita Khrushchev]] who allowed for less draconian state controls and openly condemned Stalin's artistic demands in 1956 with his "[[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|Secret Speech]]", and thus began a reversal in policy known as "[[Khrushchev Thaw|Khrushchev's Thaw]]". He believed that artists should not be constrained and should be allowed to live by their creative talents. In 1964, Khrushchev was removed and replaced by [[Leonid Brezhnev]], who reintroduced Stalin's ideas and reversed the artistic decisions made by Khrushchev.

However, by the early 1980s, the Socialist Realist movement had begun to fade. Artists to date{{When|date=April 2021}} remark that the Russian Social Realist movement as the most oppressive and shunned period of Soviet Art.<ref name="theartstory.org" />

==== Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AKhRR) ====
The Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia ([[AKhRR]]) was established in 1922 and was one of the most influential artist groups in the USSR. The AKhRR worked to truthfully document contemporary life in Russia by utilizing "heroic realism".<ref name="Ellis, Andrew 2012, p. 22" /> The term "heroic realism" was the beginning of the socialist realism archetype. AKhRR was sponsored by influential government officials such as [[Leon Trotsky]] and carried favor with the [[Red Army]].<ref name="Ellis, Andrew 2012, p. 22" />

In 1928, the AKhRR was renamed to Association of Artists of the Revolution (AKhR) in order to include the rest of the Soviet states. At this point the group had begun participating in state promoted mass forms of art like murals, jointly-made paintings, advertisement production and textile design.<ref name="Ellis, Andrew 2012, p. 35">Ellis, Andrew. ''Socialist Realisms: Soviet Painting 1920–1970''. Skira Editore S.p.A., 2012, p. 35</ref> The group was disbanded April 23, 1932 by the decree "On the Reorganization of Literary and Artistic Organizations"<ref name="Ellis, Andrew 2012, p. 35" /> serving as the nucleus for the Stalinist [[USSR Union of Artists]].

==== Studio of military artists named after M. B. Grekov ====
{{Expand section|date=April 2021}}
Studio of military artists was created in 1934.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://burneft.ru/archive/issues/2015-04/67|title=От основания до современности К 80-летию Студии военных художников имени М.Б. Грекова – Бурение и Нефть – журнал про газ и нефть|website=burneft.ru}}</ref>

==== The Union of Soviet Writers (USW) ====
The creation of [[Union of Soviet Writers]] was partially initiated by [[Maxim Gorky]] to unite the Soviet writers of different methods, such as the "proletarian" writers (such as [[Fyodor Panfyorov]]), praised by the Communist Party, and the ''poputchicks'' (such as [[Boris Pasternak]] and [[Andrei Bely]]).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://voplit.ru/article/nado-prekoslovit-m-gorkij-i-sozdanie-soyuza-pisatelej/|title = 'Надо прекословить!' М. Горький и создание Союза писателей}}</ref> In August 1934, the union held its first congress where Gorky said:
{{blockquote|The Writers' Union is not being created merely for the purpose of bodily uniting all artists of the pen, but so that professional unification may enable them to comprehend their corporate strength, to define with all possible clarity their varied tendencies, creative activity, guiding principles, and harmoniously to merge all aims in that unity which is guiding all the creative working energies of the country.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1934-2/writers-congress/writers-congress-texts/gorky-on-soviet-literature/|title=Gorky on Soviet Literature|date=August 15, 2015|website=Seventeen Moments in Soviet History}}</ref>}}

One of the most famous authors during this time was [[Alexander Fadeyev (writer)|Alexander Fadeyev]]. Fadeyev was a close personal friend of Stalin and called Stalin "one of the greatest humanists the world has ever seen."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bennett |first1=James |title=Subsidizing Culture: Taxpayer Enrichment of the Creative Class |date=2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |location=New York |isbn=9781351487726 |page=98 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pSwrDwAAQBAJ |access-date=14 August 2021}}</ref> His most famous works include ''The Rout'' and ''[[The Young Guard (novel)|The Young Guard]]''.