History and cultural studies [Izd. second, revised and additional] Shishova Natalya Vasilievna
14.2. The formation of the Soviet system (1917 - 1930s)
General characteristics of the period
The process of formation and approval of the Soviet system took place in complex, constantly changing conditions, which significantly influenced its forms, methods and pace. It can be divided into several stages.
The most important events of the first stage (1917–1920) were the October Revolution, which unfolded under the conditions of the ongoing World War I, and the ensuing bloody civil war, which lasted four years. The post-war reconstruction and socio-economic transformations in the 1920s took place against the backdrop of a relative stabilization of the world economic and political system. However, the decade ended with a severe global economic crisis in 1929-1932. The thirties were a period of forcing a social experiment with the aim of building socialism in our country. It took place in conditions when fascist parties came to power in a number of European countries, proclaiming a policy of national revenge, when the international situation sharply worsened, and the threat of a new world war became a reality.
In 1917, Russia experienced a revolutionary explosion of tremendous force. According to a number of historians, it was not so much a natural result of the previous development of capitalist relations (as was traditionally considered in Soviet historiography), but a form of resolving the most acute socio-economic and political contradictions Russian society. The imposition and interweaving of social contradictions that need to be resolved is the “challenge” of history that Russia had to respond to. Researchers believe that the leading contradictions were caused by Russia's lagging behind the advanced, industrialized countries in the field of technology, labor productivity, armament of the army, and the general culture of the population. That is, just those that made the implementation of a general civilizational breakthrough urgent. The country was faced with the tasks of industrialization, restructuring the agricultural sector of the economy, raising the general level of culture of the population, democratizing public life, expanding the rights and freedoms of the individual. Russia has already begun to solve them, but the implementation of new trends was hindered by traditional social structures and relations.
Another group of contradictions were the specific internal disagreements of Russian society: between peasants and landowners, workers and entrepreneurs, interethnic, between the center and the outskirts, etc. The defining factor in this group was the gap between the autocratic form of government and the interests of the majority of society.
Another group of contradictions resulted from the hardships of the world war. The growing economic ruin, the threat of famine, the bitterness of losses and defeats, fatigue and disappointment in the war gave rise to protest in various sections of the population. It was precisely these contradictions that were destined to play the role of the detonator of a revolutionary explosion.
Ideology. Political system
In 1917, Russia was literally swept by a wave of broad popular movements. The only party that, on the crest of this wave, was able not only to rise to power, but also to keep it, was the Bolshevik Party. It was this party and the ruling elite formed on its basis that acted as an initiative, creative minority, which was to take on the task of resolving socio-economic and political contradictions.
What predetermined the victory of the Bolsheviks in the struggle for power? First of all, they proposed as their immediate program a whole series of political slogans that reflected the urgent, vital interests of various social movements. The Bolsheviks promised peace to the war-torn people, land to the peasants, factories to the workers, and demanded that all power be transferred to the Soviets, which were representative bodies created democratically.
Moreover, the Bolshevik Party not only proposed political slogans that accurately took into account the alignment of forces, but also implemented them immediately after the conquest of power. The first decrees of the Soviet government - on peace, on land, on workers' control, as well as the "Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia" provided him with the support of peasants, workers, front-line soldiers, representatives of national minorities. The Bolsheviks proposed to society as the main goal and main value orientation the construction of a communist society - a society of social justice, where oppression and exploitation of man by man will be destroyed. Although their program contained only the most general, very brief description of the future structure, the communist ideal was firmly established in the mass consciousness, became a generator of social optimism, a means of uniting and mobilizing the masses. In other words, he connected, brought together into one whole on certain stage the elite and the masses.
It is natural to ask why this happened. The first to reflect on this topic were historians and philosophers of the Russian diaspora - L. Karsavin, N. Berdyaev, G. Fedotov, S. Frank and others. This problem also attracted the attention of historians in post-Soviet Russia. According to researchers, the social ideal proposed by the Bolsheviks coincided with the stable moral and ethical orientations of national self-consciousness. It is characterized by the search for truth and goodness, higher justice, faith in the possibility of a kind of kingdom of God on earth, arranged on the principles of brotherly love and understanding. As N. A. Berdyaev noted, “communism included familiar features” of the spiritual ideal of a significant part of Russian society: “the thirst for social justice and equality, the recognition of the working classes as the highest human type, the disgust for capitalism and the bourgeoisie…”.
In developing policies in various fields, the Bolsheviks proceeded from the provisions of Marxist theory. The ideological determinism of the policy of the ruling party is one of the most important features of Soviet society. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that Marxism is a rather contradictory and complex scientific doctrine, the assimilation of which requires a certain level of education, culture, and requires great effort and time. The vast majority of not only the population of the country, but also members of the ruling party did not have all this. Therefore, already in the 1920s, there was a tendency to compress Marxist-Leninist theory into generalized formulations that had the character of an official doctrine. This process culminated in 1938 with the publication of a brief "History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)", after which a special resolution was adopted declaring the book "an encyclopedia of basic knowledge in the field of Marxism-Leninism."
The main political process of the 1920s and 1930s was the formation of state institutions and power mechanisms of the Soviet system. The Civil War showed the inconsistency of the Bolshevik idea of the dictatorship of the people through the Soviets, since even then the difference in the nature of the Soviets, which reflected the opposing interests of various social groups, was already manifested. In conditions of war and devastation, only a rigid centralization of control could correct the situation. The powers of the central executive authorities were consistently expanded, a large number of emergency bodies were created that exercised power powers in addition to the Soviets.
In the 1920s, the process of concentrating the main functions government controlled in the hands of the party-state apparatus was completed, a new ruling stratum was formed - nomenclature. The nomenclature (from Latin - a list) is a list of the most important posts and positions in state, Soviet, economic and other bodies, candidates for which were previously considered and approved by party committees. The nomenklatura is also called the people who occupied these posts and constituted a special social group with their own interests, lifestyle, ideology, and privileges.
In the same years, a change of elites took place in the ruling party itself, real power passed from the old Bolsheviks into the hands of the nomenklatura, which was formed primarily from the replenishment that came to the party in the years civil war and after its completion. People from the lower classes of society brought with them social anger and cruelty into political life and power structures. These people lacked experience, knowledge, education, common culture, so they tried to compensate for all this with loyalty to the party and enthusiasm. Gradually, the criterion of devotion, first to the idea, and then to the people who personified it, became the main one in the selection and placement of personnel.
In the 1930s, after a wave of mass repressions, the new "socialist" intelligentsia became one of the main sources of replenishment of the leading cadres. The circumstances under which this layer of Soviet leaders (young, energetic, but inexperienced) came to the fore left a deep imprint on their fate. The psychology of the nominees of the 1930s is well revealed in one of A. Beck's novels, The New Appointment. The hero of the novel was a man of this time: ““Soldier of the Party” - these were not empty words for him. Then, when another expression came into use, “Stalin’s soldier”, he proudly and, no doubt, rightfully considered himself such a soldier ... " The main life commandment of people of this type was the obligatory and unconditional execution of orders. Soon after October revolution the anti-democratic nature of the new government began to manifest itself. This was evidenced by the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, the deprivation of political rights of certain groups of the population, the violation of freedom of speech, the press, the introduction of censorship, and much more.
During the civil war, all parties, except for the Bolsheviks, were finally ousted from political life. In 1922–1923 a number of trials took place over the former political allies of the Bolsheviks - the Mensheviks and the Left Social Revolutionaries, who were accused of crimes against the Soviet regime. These parties were banned. Thus, the creation of a one-party political system was completed.
The forcing of socialist construction in the 1930s on the basis of coercion and violent methods led to a toughening of the political regime in the country. A special place in the mechanism of power was occupied by punitive and repressive bodies (NKVD, NKGB, etc.), controlled only by Stalin. The country was swept by mass repressions. The trials of the old intelligentsia, specialists (the so-called “Shakhty case”, “academic case”, the trials of the Industrial Party, the Labor Peasant Party) supplemented the judicial and non-judicial reprisals against the remnants of the opposition party groups (L. Kamenev, G. Zinoviev, N. Bukharin, A Rykov and others), party and military personnel. The peak of mass repressions occurred in 1936–1938. Their main goal is to relieve social tension by identifying and punishing "enemies", suppressing any oppositional sentiments in the bud, and ensuring the unconditional power of the center over the periphery. The number of political prisoners in the 1930s exceeded 3 million people.
Elected authorities, democratic rights and freedoms, proclaimed by the Constitution of 1936, were of a formal nature. The real power was in the party-state apparatus, which relied on social demagogy and the revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses, on the one hand, and on punitive and repressive bodies, on the other. The new government sought to control all spheres of public life without exception - the economy, culture, social relations, spiritual life. The nationalization of public life is the most important trend in the development of the Soviet political system in the 1920s and 1930s, which makes it possible to characterize it as totalitarian.
Economy
In the sphere of economic relations, the Bolsheviks considered it necessary to abolish private ownership of the means of production as the basis of exploitation, commodity-money relations as an instrument of class violence. They were to be replaced by public property, the organization of society according to the type of communes, and broad self-government of the working people. According to a number of philosophers (S. Frank, N. Berdyaev), the Bolsheviks' calls for the destruction of private property were supported by millions because they corresponded to the deep aspirations of the national character. The Russian people did not have "disinterested faith in the sanctity of the principle of ownership" (S. Frank). Russia was a country where big money did not inspire unconditional respect, and public recognition had to be earned in other ways. According to M. Tsvetaeva, "the awareness of the untruth of money in the Russian soul is indestructible."
The theoretical ideas of the Bolsheviks determined the first steps in the economic field. In 1917–1920 land, thousands of industrial enterprises, banks, transport and communications, trade, housing stock were nationalized. Thus, a powerful public sector was created in the economy. Very soon it became clear that in conditions of war, an acute shortage of raw materials, fuel, labor, food, emergency measures were needed in order to get the economy going. The emerging management system was based on the principles of monopolization of the produced product, centralized distribution, command (directive) method of management, forced labor. Such measures as the curtailment of money circulation, equalization in payment and distribution, the abolition of payment for heating, food, utilities, transport, consumer goods, created an external, formal resemblance to the communist society as it seemed at that time. Hence the name of the economic policy of the period of the civil war - war communism.
Gradually, measures that the ruling party itself initially assessed as forced began to be seen as optimal for moving towards communism. There was a growing conviction in the party that the policy of war communism could be used even after the end of the war to restore the economy and build socialism. However, attempts to preserve and strengthen the military-communist measures led to a sharp aggravation of social tension, caused a total crisis of the Soviet system. Particular dissatisfaction, up to open resistance, was caused by the surplus appropriation among the peasants - a system of procurement of agricultural products, which deprived them of their interest in increasing production beyond the bare necessities, since the "surplus" was confiscated in favor of the state. It became clear that a revision of the ways of overcoming the crisis and advancing towards socialism was necessary. These difficult tasks were solved within the framework of the New Economic Policy (NEP), which the party launched in 1921.
The new policy was based on the idea of allowing various forms property in the country's economy, including private. Economic levers were supposed to be the main ones in the management of the national economy, it was with their help that it was supposed to establish an exchange between the city and the countryside, instead of curtailing commodity-money relations, freedom of trade was proclaimed. The surplus appropriation was replaced by a tax in kind, which created the economic interest of the peasants in the restoration and expansion of production.
The NEP was a cycle of successive measures to overcome the crisis. They were dictated by objective circumstances (like war communism once was), but gradually came to be seen by Lenin and some other Bolshevik leaders as a possible program for building socialism by economic means. However, by the end of the 1920s, the situation had changed. 1927 was the year of "military anxiety" caused by the complication of diplomatic relations between the USSR and a number of countries, in 1929-1932. the global economic crisis broke out. The leadership of the Communist Party came to the conclusion that the aggressiveness of imperialism was growing, that a new phase of wars and revolutions was approaching. In this regard, the task was to strengthen the USSR as the base of the world revolution, to create a powerful military-political potential. This presupposed the acceleration of the pace of socialist transformations and, above all, the implementation of the accelerated industrialization of the country.
The transition to a new political course - the offensive of socialism along the entire front - was also due to the preservation of the "military-communist" ideology among a significant part of the ruling elite - to quickly, on the basis of enthusiasm, storm to introduce socialism. The year of the “great turning point” was 1929. The new course in the economy included: the curtailment of the NEP, the abolition of independent enterprises, the replacement of commodity-money relations between them with directive planning and state supply; a significant expansion of capital investments in industry while reducing investments in the social sphere; complete collectivization based on the use of violent methods, a sharp increase in state grain procurements on the basis of coercion; transition from predominantly economic to predominantly command, administrative methods of management.
The result of the economic breakthrough of the 30s was the creation of a powerful industry capable of mastering the production of products of any degree of complexity, the opening of about 9 thousand industrial enterprises. In terms of industrial production, by the beginning of the 1940s, the country had taken second place in the world after the United States. However, the lag of our economy from the level Western countries managed to overcome only in the basic sectors of heavy industry, the development of which was given special attention, since they were the most advanced in that era (energy, metallurgy and engineering, chemical industry), were the basis of the military-industrial complex and at the same time "industrializing industry" - a transmission mechanism industrial technology to other sectors of the economy.
Forced industrialization plunged the country into a state of general mobilization and tension, as in war, because plans, as a rule, were unrealistic. Increasing economic chaos and social disorder, they caused an increasing need for state management of the economic sphere, which replaced the laws of a market economy.
The administrative-command system, which became the main means and result of the forced transformations of the 1930s, contained deep contradictions; limited opportunities economic development. Based on the execution of orders from the center, it extinguished and limited the initiative and independence of producers, did not create conditions for their interest in the growth of production.
The end of the 1920s and 1930s became the time when the ruling party again and again tried to realize its ideas about a socialist society, completely abandon the use of economic levers (including money circulation) in organizing economic life, relying on enthusiasm, impulse and revolutionary impatience of the masses. However, each time this turned out to be impossible and it was necessary to retreat, soften the tough economic policy, look for ways to stabilize the situation in industry and agriculture.
social structure. public consciousness
The establishment of the political system, transformations in the field of the economy were associated with complex processes that took place in the social sphere. After the end of the civil war, Russian society was a society of broken social layers and ties. Changed dramatically social structure. The human losses were huge - since 1914 they amounted to about 20 million people; more than 2 million people emigrated from Russia. There was a liquidation of the remnants of the exploiting classes - the nobility, the bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy, the clergy, the officers, the bourgeois intelligentsia. The urban population decreased, the number of industrial workers in the leading industrial centers decreased by 5-7 times, the process of declassing the proletariat began - the workers returned to the countryside to peasant labor. White and red terror, devastation, famine, epidemics claimed thousands of lives, gave rise to child homelessness (in 1922 there were about 7 million homeless children), and led to a sharp increase in crime. Society as a whole was tired of the war, upheavals, and needed a respite.
The transition to the New Economic Policy was welcomed by the general population. The peasantry got the opportunity to manage their land. The recovery of industry and commerce created new jobs. This policy was supported by a significant part of the intelligentsia, as they expected that within its framework a class of new owners would grow and strengthen, which would force the authorities to abandon extremism in the economy and politics and evolve towards the formation of "normal" bourgeois-democratic orders. These sentiments were reflected in the collection of articles "Change of milestones" (Prague, 1921), which gave the name to the whole trend - "Smenovekhovism".
However, there were also social forces in society that were not interested in the NEP. The Bolsheviks, seeking to destroy the old society and thus clear the way for the construction of a new one, turned to the lowest, most obscure and uneducated sections of the working class and peasantry. It seemed to them that the less these people were attached to the old, by definition bourgeois culture, the easier and faster they would accept the new socialist ideals. Back in 1918, M. Gorky wrote that the Bolsheviks put forward "inflammatory slogans, awakening the basest and darkest instincts of the crowd." The consequence of this was that the value orientations, moods, life aspirations of the lower social strata, declassed elements began to play a significant role in society. The slogan of social justice was perceived by them as a call for the redistribution of social wealth, transformed in their minds into an accessible and understandable one - "rob the loot." It was these social strata who had a negative attitude towards the NEP, which forced them to put up with property differences. The townspeople were dissatisfied with the continued unemployment, rising food prices, and the abolition of cards. A significant part of the peasant poor sought to improve their situation on the basis of the principle: "Take away and divide." Many could not calmly look at private Nepmen who were fattening in expensive restaurants: “What did you fight for in civilian life ?!” These sentiments were also strong among party and Soviet workers. The transition to speeding up socialist construction at the end of the 1920s was close to the psychology of the backward sections of the workers and peasants, who were inclined to assault methods, striving to break out of difficulties faster, in spite of everything.
From the end of the 1920s and during the 1930s, the trend in the social sphere to oust those social groups that were not associated with state or collective, cooperative property was gaining strength. Severe tax pressure and repressive measures led to the disappearance of the Nepman bourgeoisie (owners and tenants of small and medium-sized industrial enterprises, private traders). As a result of the policy of complete collectivization and the liquidation of the kulaks, individual peasants disappeared in the countryside, and a collective-farm peasantry was formed. At the same time, according to various estimates, from 5 to 7 million peasants and members of their families became victims of repression, about 5 million people died from the famine of 1932-1933. in the grain regions of the country, which was the result of the use of emergency measures during grain procurement.
In 1933, the passport system was introduced, but the collective farmers were not issued passports and they were actually attached to the collective farms, not having the right to leave the village without permission.
An extremely important process, reflecting the structural changes in Soviet society during this period, was a sharp increase in the number of factory workers, the urban population. Thus, during the first five-year plan alone, the number of workers increased from 2.7 to 12.4 million people. In total, from 1926 to 1939, the urban population increased by 30 million people. These changes in the social sphere testified to the transition from the traditional to the industrial type of society.
The position of the intelligentsia remained difficult, the policy of the ruling party towards it was contradictory. On the one hand, in the conditions of unfolding industrialization, the Soviet government needed specialists and sought to win them over to its side using various means, and on the other hand, it had a deep distrust of them. At the same time, the technical intelligentsia associated with production was declared closer to the class of the proletariat than the humanitarian one. This approach led to the emigration and forced expulsion from the country in the 1920s of a large number of representatives of the creative intelligentsia.
In the 1930s, the policy towards the old intelligentsia became even tougher. A number of public trials took place over its representatives, who were accused of wrecking and helping class enemies. These processes made it possible to make the intelligentsia responsible for economic difficulties, disproportions and disruptions in the economy that arose as a result of forcing industrialization (that is, to remove responsibility for the above from the leadership of the country and the party). The old specialists were to be replaced by the new intelligentsia, which was formed from workers and peasants.
Forced industrialization, the chaotic and unplanned growth of cities led to interruptions in their food supply, and an aggravation of the housing problem. Financial situation workers and their families deteriorated, there was a decline in real wages. At many construction sites, the principle has triumphed: "first - the factory, then - the city." The already huge, as they said then, “commodity hunger” sharply escalated. Constant interruptions in the supply of cities forced the introduction of a rationing system for the distribution of goods. In the second half of the 1930s, the situation of workers and peasants began to improve, but the actual standard of living of most urban strata was below the level of 1928. But even a temporary stabilization of the situation, a certain increase in well-being contributed to an increase in enthusiasm, which was expressed, in particular, in the development of the Stakhanov movement .
Under the influence of the fundamental changes that took place in various spheres of society, a new type of personality began to take shape. In Soviet historiography, this process was viewed as a process of improving human nature, cultivating new qualities in him - collectivism, comradeship, selflessness, devotion to socialist ideals, the ability to subordinate personal interests to public ones. In literature recent years assessments have changed - the Soviet person has lost attractive qualities and acquired negative traits: he is a slave, a performer, his ideal is wretched equality. Many philosophers and historians of the Russian diaspora, as well as Western researchers, did not assess changes in the Russian national type so unequivocally.
Obviously, the personality type of a Soviet person was formed under the influence of various factors. The upheavals experienced by the country, accelerated industrialization and urbanization (growth of cities) led to the fact that millions of people appeared in the country, cut off from their native soil, forced to part with their usual rural way of life, to master a new urban life. People who, for various reasons, have been knocked out of their social cells, who have lost contact with traditional culture and habitual way of life, with difficulty getting used to life in the city, taking root in a new place.
The rapid increase in the number of people associated with modern technology, industrial labor, has significantly changed the socio-cultural characteristics of society. The Russian philosopher N. Berdyaev called the technology and technization of life a force "having almost cosmic significance for the fate of mankind." He emphasized that technogenic civilization turns a person into the image and likeness of a machine, leads to the disintegration of a person into certain functions, the leveling of the personal, individual beginning in a person, facilitating the ability to manipulate him. Moreover, these processes do not depend on the social system, they are a natural consequence of the transition to an industrial and urban society.
One of the most important factors in the formation of a special type of personality of a Soviet person was the official ideology, which affirmed in society a new system of values, moral and ethical attitudes. She claimed to be universal, the embodiment of truth and historical justice, while the ideals she proclaimed had to be taken on faith, and their implementation belonged to the future. In addition, the radical reorganization of society and man, necessary for the realization of socialist ideals, was supposed to be carried out using violence. AT new system human individuality was valued low, everyone had to feel first of all a participant in the construction of a new society, ready to sacrifice everything for the common cause. However, recognizing the importance of the official ideology in the life of Soviet society, one cannot but agree with those researchers (A. Gurevich, I. Kondakov) who believe that mainly those aspects of ideology that find their soil in cultural archetypes, in the mentality of the people take root in society processed in accordance with them.
At one time, N. Berdyaev, G. Fedotov, N. Lossky wrote that the striking difference between a Soviet person and a Russian is apparent. Thus, according to Fedotov, the revolution destroyed only the upper historical layers in the Russian person, which were formed in the 18th-19th centuries, and led to the triumph of the Moscow type: “The age-old habit of obedience, the weak development of personal consciousness, the need for freedom, the ease of life in a team,“ in service and tax ”- this is what unites a Soviet person with old Moscow”. The transfer of the capital to Moscow can in this sense be regarded as a symbolic act. The Soviet government also worked on the Russian man - thanks to her, he learned "the superficial, narrowed content of modern civilization - military sports life, Marxism, Darwinism and technology".
Despite all the difficulties, the scale of the socio-economic transformations of the 1930s gave rise to people's feelings of optimism and belonging to a great era. Generations of people who grew up under the Soviet regime, sincerely devoted to it and ready to defend it with weapons in their hands, entered into life. They believed that the most progressive and just social system was being created in our country. In the diary of Zhenya Rudneva, a Moscow schoolgirl who was a pilot during the war, one can read the following lines written in 1937: “You find the only joy in the newspapers when you read about us, about the USSR - my wonderful Motherland. Today is exactly one year from the day when Comrade Stalin made a report on the draft Constitution, in 10 days - Constitution Day, in 17 days - elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Everyone is in high spirits ... I live a full-blooded life. And how can I not love my Motherland, which gives me such a happy life?!”
At the same time, the consequence of mass repressions, the establishment of an administrative-command system, became such features of public consciousness and behavior as the refusal of independence in decision-making, blind obedience to orders, fear of responsibility, the folding of the psychology of the “man-cog” in the state mechanism, the fall of creative initiative, fear and suspicion.
Soviet society was characterized by a willingness to take what was desired for reality, a rejection of criticism and doubts about the superiority of its own development model. The public consciousness perceived and evaluated the past and present through the prism of rigid dual categories. The division of the world into “us” and “them”, into friends and enemies, oriented, aimed society at struggle. "We" are the first and only country of socialism, "they" are the hostile capitalist environment, the clash of these two worlds is inevitable. A typical image of the USSR is given in one of Stalin's speeches of those years: “Among the raging waves of economic shocks and military-political catastrophes, the USSR stands apart like a cliff, continuing its work of socialist construction, the struggle to preserve peace”. This specificity of social consciousness is very accurately reflected in the poetic lines:
... I remember, I did not regret the holiday
No black ink, no white,
The whole world on white and red
Shared unconditionally.
… I knew about the Azov blast furnaces
And that Rome is on strike again.
And I burned with love for my friends
And he was irreconcilable to enemies!
E. Vinokurov. From poems about childhood
The psychology of life in a besieged fortress, the expectation of war, the need to be vigilant in the midst of numerous external and internal enemies, firmly entered the consciousness of pre-war society.
culture
In the 1920s and 1930s, complex and contradictory processes took place in the sphere of culture. The element of destruction brought to life by the revolution dealt a tangible blow to Orthodox culture, the culture of the Russian provinces, and the estate culture. At the same time, the revolution could not overnight extinguish the creative energy of the Russian cultural revival. It is his impulses that explain the emergence in the early 1920s of many new artistic movements, scientific schools in sociology, psychology, pedagogy, and the natural sciences.
Despite the hardships of the civil war, folklore and ethnographic expeditions were organized, new museums and publishing houses were created. One of the most famous is the World Literature publishing house, which carried out a lot of educational work. Its editorial board included M. Gorky, A. Blok, N. Gumilyov, E. Zamyatin, K. Chukovsky. Many literary circles and studios appeared, in which people from various social strata were engaged, they were led by famous writers, such as, for example, V. Khodasevich, A. Bely. The amateur theatrical movement gained wide scope.
Thus, the revolution simultaneously manifested both a destructive and a creative force. The dominance of destructive tendencies was explained not only by the fact that the revolution itself is called upon primarily to destroy, but also by the fact that for the most part not cultural forces capable of positive work were involved in active actions, but the most undeveloped and dark ones. As these forces became more and more firmly established in the state, they crushed under themselves the element of creative energy that made its way at the initial stage of the revolution.
important place in cultural life The 1920s were occupied by discussions about attitudes towards the cultural heritage of the past and about what the new culture should be like. Supporters of the left currents considered it necessary to abandon bourgeois culture, to break with the past, to create something absolutely new outside of historical and cultural traditions. In 1917, the Proletarian Culture (Proletkult) organization was formed, whose members were opponents of the old culture and advocated the creation of a new one, insisting that it be purely proletarian, that is, it should be addressed to the proletariat and created only by proletarian artists and writers.
In addition, representatives of the avant-garde believed that art is a means of transforming social reality and educating a new person. The most important position of their aesthetic system: art is not only a way of reflecting the real world, real reality, but also a means of transforming and changing it. A prominent figure in Proletkult A. Gastev introduced the term "social engineering". In relation to art, it meant a radical restructuring of art by means of not only social life, but also the human psyche. One of the leaders of the Left Front (LEF) group, the futurist S. Tretyakov, wrote that "the art worker must become a psycho-engineer, a psycho-constructor...".
The idea of "forging a new man" by means of literature and art was one of the central ideas in the discussions of the creative intelligentsia of the 1920s, it was shared by representatives of various currents of the Russian avant-garde. The LEF group, which included V. Mayakovsky, D. Burliuk, O. Brik, was engaged in the search for new expressive forms to solve this problem in literature, in the theater - Vs. Meyerhold, in architecture - K. Melnikov, in cinema - S. Eisenstein, G. Kozintsev and many others. In the visual arts, the left movements were represented by: the Society of Easel Artists (OST), the 4 Arts group (K. Petrov-Vodkin, P. Kuznetsov), the Society of Moscow Artists (OMH) (P. Konchalovsky, I. Mashkov, A. Lentulov, R. Falk), constructivists (V. Tatlin, L. Lissitzky), etc.
Supporters of the left movements, due to their revolutionary nature, found themselves in the center of a social explosion, they were the first to cooperate with the new government, seeing in it a kindred force. They took part in the implementation of the monumental propaganda plan, were engaged in the "revolutionary" design of cities. M. Chagall, one of the "founding fathers" of modern art, and during the years of the revolution - Commissar of the People's Commissariat for Education, later wrote about this time: "...Lenin turned Russia upside down just like I do in my paintings".
The fundamental concept of creating a new man put forward by the avant-garde became the main task of Soviet culture. However, on the issue of expressive means and forms of the new culture, the ruling party made a choice in favor of traditionalism and realism, banning experiments in this area by directive order (Decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the restructuring of literary and artistic organizations” of April 23, 1932) and declaring socialist realism the unified and obligatory artistic method for Soviet literature and art. This choice was made largely in connection with the belief of the Bolsheviks that the new culture, which will have to appeal to the undereducated and cultural sections of the population, should use the most familiar and understandable forms for these social strata.
The Charter of the Union of Soviet Writers, established in 1934, formulated the basic principles of the new method, stated that it “requires 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 be combined with the task of ideologically reshaping and educating the working people in the spirit of socialism..
One of the main tasks of Soviet art was to create the image of a positive hero, an active life changer, selflessly devoted to the party and the state, to whom all Soviet people, especially young people, were to be equal. hallmark art became social optimism. They permeated the novels of M. Sholokhov, L. Leonov, V. Kataev, N. Ostrovsky, the films “Chapaev” by S. and G. Vasiliev, “Earth” by A. Dovzhenko, “Deputy of the Baltic” by I. Kheifits and A. Zarkhi, “ Komsomolsk" by S. Gerasimov, a trilogy about Maxim G. Kozintsev and others.
The most talented works of those years reflected the remaining inertia of the revolutionary upsurge, the romantic vision of the events of the revolution and the civil war, the enthusiasm of the creators of the new society, who sincerely believed in the possibility of realizing their dreams.
In the 1930s, artistic culture became more and more canonical; a strict hierarchy of genres and themes was established in it. She openly focused on the "social order" of the ruling elite. For example, paying great attention to showing the events of the revolution and the civil war, creating images of leaders, artists, writers, filmmakers often deliberately created pictures and images that had little in common with reality. So, in the official portraits of Stalin, the shortcomings of his physical appearance disappeared - he appeared before the audience not alive, real person, but a symbol, the personification of an idea. At the same time, domestic history was undergoing a significant transformation in literature and art.
Not only the past, but also the future was subject to transformation on the basis of ideological attitudes. Thus, “defense literature”, “defense cinematography”, which appeared in the 1930s as a response to the growing military threat, portrayed the future war in full accordance with official forecasts as a dashing campaign, as an instant victory over the enemy without casualties and difficulties. For example, the hero of the film "Tankmen" was sent to reconnaissance, but overfulfilled the task - he began hostilities, reached Berlin and captured Hitler. After the outbreak of the war, one of the leaders of the Union of Writers A. Surkov was forced to admit that “... before war, we often disorientated the reader about the true nature of future tests. We portrayed the war too lightly. I don't want to offend anyone, but the slogans "and we are in the water. we won’t drown, and we won’t burn in fire”, “ebullient, powerful, invincible by anyone…” cultivated thoughtless narcissism… Before the war, we served the reader war in a colorful candy wrapper, and when this candy wrapper unfolded on June 22, a scorpion crawled out of it, which painfully bit our hearts - the scorpion of the reality of a difficult, big war ".
The specifics of the mass audience of the 1930s (primarily the low level of education and culture) not only determined its interest in the most understandable and accessible forms of cultural life (especially cinema), but also made them extremely effective. B. Babochkin, analyzing the success of the film "Chapaev", wrote that for the audience of the 30s, the immediacy of the perception of the film, "complete faith in the authenticity, the primordial nature of the events taking place was approaching its absolute, its hundred percent". Visual screen images, like the heroes of literature, firmly entered the minds of people, were perceived by them with great confidence. The possibilities of art were actively used by the ruling elite to create a myth about happy life people building socialism to manipulate public consciousness.
The main criterion for assessing works of culture in the 30s was their compliance with the official ideology. An uncompromising struggle was waged against cultural figures whose works did not meet the strict requirements of "socialist realism". Thus, in the second half of the 1930s, a campaign was carried out to overcome "formalism" and "naturalism" in art. D. Shostakovich, S. Eisenstein, N. Zabolotsky, Yu. Olesha, I. Babel were accused of formalism. Artists A. Lentulov and D. Shterenberg were called "dirty bastards with malicious intent."
The most important feature of Soviet culture was the strict control over it by the party and the state. Already in the 1920s, cultural institutions were nationalized, and a management system began to take shape, which lasted until the 1990s. In 1922–1923 Glavlit and Glavrepertkom were created, which monitored compliance with censorship requirements in the press and the repertoire of theaters and cinemas.
The party-state control over various spheres of cultural life intensified even more in the 1930s. Then creative unions were created, outside of which the work of cultural figures was impossible, as well as a number of special bodies that carried out centralized management of culture: the All-Union Committee for Radio Broadcasting, the Committee for the Arts, the Main Directorate of Cinematography, the All-Union Committee for Higher Education, etc.
In relation to the cultural heritage, the principle of "mastering" it was proclaimed, that is, the need for cultural continuity and the preservation of tradition was recognized. However, mastery meant rethinking, reassessment spiritual heritage past from the point of view of the class interests of the proletariat. The whole culture was divided into progressive and reactionary, which could and should have been discarded. As a result, for a number of generations of Soviet people, literature, art, philosophy of the early 20th century. remained unknown, as they were assessed as decadent and decadent.
In the 1930s, a pragmatic, utilitarian approach to culture intensified, its development was directly linked to the solution of current economic problems. Under the conditions of accelerated industrialization, one of the most important tasks of the cultural revolution was recognized as the rapid training of a sufficient number of workers with the necessary knowledge and skills. If on the eve of the October Revolution three-quarters of the adult population of Russia could neither read nor write, by the mid-1930s the vast majority of the adult population had become literate. During this period, not only primary, but also secondary and higher schools developed rapidly. As in other areas of culture, the class approach was consistently implemented in the education system. Those from workers and peasants enjoyed the preferential right to enter universities, the admission of "socially alien elements" was limited.
An analysis of the socio-cultural processes of this period shows that Soviet culture was formed as an urban, industrial culture. In this capacity, it opposed not only bourgeois culture, but also peasant culture. At its core, it was popular culture. It closely intertwined processes inherent in the culture of the era of industrial revolutions, and specific ones, due to the peculiarity of the development of Soviet society. The former include, first of all, the democratization of culture and education, the emergence and spread of new types of art based on the use of technical means (radio, cinema), thanks to which the achievements of culture became available to the widest sections of the population, and the formation of mass culture.
The specificity of Soviet culture was its deep ideologization, the directive approval of a single artistic method (unification of culture), the restriction of freedom of creativity, the loss of a significant part of the cultural heritage, the annihilation (destruction) of cultural traditions, the elevation of mass culture to the rank of official, a utilitarian attitude towards it, isolation, isolation from world culture.
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Education
The 1930s is one of the most controversial periods in the history of not only the political, economic, but also the cultural development of the Soviet state. In the field of education, the fight against illiteracy continued. The first five-year plan provided for the introduction by 1932 of universal primary education for children of primary school age. However, scarce funding, a weak material base, and the lack of a sufficient number of teachers and textbooks did not allow universal education to be carried out as scheduled. Universal compulsory primary education throughout the country was introduced by the end of the second five-year plan (1937). Increased funding made it possible in the 1930s to build more than 30 thousand school buildings, produce about 300 million copies of stable textbooks in all subjects, and double the network of pedagogical educational institutions for teacher training. In 1937, universal compulsory seven-year (incomplete secondary) education was introduced in the cities, and in 1939 the task of transitioning to universal secondary education (ten-year education) was set. Since 1940, education in the senior classes has become paid (300 rubles per year). Most of the urban youth after the general education school went to vocational schools and factory training schools (FZO), which prepared a personnel reserve of skilled labor.
In the early 1930s, the theory of the withering away of the school, which had prevailed in the 1920s, was rejected. Comprehensive education was accompanied by a serious reform of primary and high school, a turn to the traditions of the pre-revolutionary school. Schools introduced a strictly defined schedule of classes, strict regulation of the educational and social work of schoolchildren. Lesson has become the main form of organization of the educational process. Instead of "loose books" stable textbooks on the basics of sciences were introduced. But, as in the 1920s, they tried to bring training closer to production. Most of the schoolchildren carried out social work within the framework of the pioneer and Komsomol organizations.
In 1934, by a decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the teaching of history in schools was restored, and historical faculties were opened at Moscow and Leningrad universities, which trained highly qualified teachers of history.
The 1930s also saw major changes in higher education. If in 1928 a course was taken for accelerated training of specialists, a shortened course of study, narrow specialization, which reduced the quality of education, then from 1932 the emphasis was placed on the quality and fundamental nature of training specialists. Entrance examinations to universities were restored, the brigade-laboratory method of teaching was replaced by a lecture-seminar method, and collective responsibility for the quality of education became individual. Canceled party mobilization to study at universities (thousanders), booking places for women, social restrictions on admission to universities and, finally, the famous workers' schools. To increase the responsibility and role of teachers in the educational process, the Council of People's Commissars established academic degrees and titles in 1934. The increase in spending on higher education has made it possible not only to improve the quality of training of specialists, but also to significantly expand the geography of higher education. By the end of the 1930s, more than 100 cities in all the republics of the USSR had universities and institutes. More than 800 thousand students studied at 820 universities, of which about 60% were women. On January 1, 1941 in national economy USSR, 908 thousand specialists worked with higher education. More than half of them came from a worker-peasant environment.
Hundreds of universities and thousands of technical schools contributed to the rapid growth of the Soviet intelligentsia. By the beginning of the 1940s, its number reached 14 million people, of which 2.4 million had higher and secondary specialized education (17%). The proportion of practitioners remained significant; specialists without the necessary education, engaged mainly in mental work. In general, the intelligentsia of the USSR became of the same type in socio-economic and ideological-political terms. The Constitution of 1936 proclaimed it to be a working and fully corrected part of society. However, the party and state leadership of the USSR denied her an independent role in the life of society, considering her as a "stratum", standing in third place after the working class and the collective farm peasantry.
The science
In the 1930s, the main feature of the development of science was a sharp turn towards the needs of the country's economic development. As before, the main scientific center of the country was the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, whose branches since 1932 began to be created in the capitals union republics. More than a thousand research institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and economic people's commissariats worked out the main scientific and technical problems envisaged by state plans.
In the early 1930s, based on the developments of Soviet chemists headed by academician S.V. Lebedev, the production of synthetic rubber from ethyl alcohol was launched. In 1932, geologists led by academician I.M. Gubkin discovered new oil-bearing regions in the Urals and Bashkiria, called the "Second Baku". Academician N.I. Vavilov collected the world's largest unique collection of cultivated plants from five continents for study and practical use. Especially significant were the scientific developments of physicists - A.F. Ioffe, S.I. Vavilov, D.S. Rozhdestvensky, P.L. Kapitsa, I.E. Tamm, I.V. Kurchatov, L.D. Landau and many others working for the defense. In 1933, the Jet Propulsion Study Group (GIRD) created and launched the first Soviet rockets. This group included the future creator of the world's first jet weapon ("Katyusha") A.G. Kostikov and the future chief designer spaceships S.P. Korolev. The beginning of the study of the stratosphere by Soviet scientists dates back to this time. In 1933, the first Soviet stratospheric balloon "USSR" rose to a height of 19 km. In 1934, the second stratospheric balloon "Osoaviakhim-1" with the crew climbed to a height of 22 km. The second space reconnaissance ended in the death of the crew, but this did not stop scientific development.
A special page in the scientific annals of the 1930s was written by Arctic explorers led by O.Yu.Shmidt. In July 1933 he led a scientific expedition through Arctic Ocean on the ship "Chelyuskin", which soon fell into ice compression and sank in February 1934. In the distant Chukchi Sea, on a drifting ice floe, polar explorers created a "Schmidt camp". Only in April they were removed from the ice floe. For heroism in the rescue of polar explorers, the Soviet government for the first time awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union pilots. In 1937, the study and development of the Arctic was continued by I.D. Papanin, E.T. Krenkel, E.K. Fedorov, P.P. Shirshov. For 274 days, the four polar explorers drifted on an ice floe in the ocean for more than 2,500 km. Reference meteorological and radio stations were created in the region of the North Pole. Thanks to them, in 1937 pilots V.P.
The Soviet aircraft industry also achieved significant success (development of the design of an all-metal aircraft by A.N. Tupolev and others), but at the end of the 1930s, many scientists, including aircraft designers, were arrested. Some of them continued their work in custody in special laboratories of the NKVD system.
In the field of social sciences, special importance was attached to a new reading of the history of the Communist Party. The work of historians was personally closely followed by I.V. Stalin, who demanded that Trotskyist concepts be eradicated in historical-party science. In 1938, under the editorship of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, with the participation of I.V. Stalin, the "Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks" was published, which for many years became the main reference point for socio-political research. Raised into a dogma, the Short Course became, in fact, a historical justification for the regime of personal power.
In 1937-1938. the scientific historical school of Academician M.N. Pokrovsky, who died in 1932, was sharply criticized. His name was removed from the name of the Moscow state university, which in 1940 was named after M.V. Lomonosov.
In the second half of the 1930s, the process of politicization and ideologization of Soviet science intensified sharply. AT scientific discussions began to actively use political labels. Opponents were often deprived not only of work in their specialty, but of freedom and life. In 1935, the president of VASKhNIL, N.I. Vavilov, was removed from the leadership of the academy and was soon arrested. Two subsequent presidents were shot, and VASKhNIL was headed by T.D. Lysenko, who promised Stalin to solve the grain problem by breeding branchy wheat. The ideologization and politicization of science had a detrimental effect on the development of scientific research in the USSR.
Literature and art
Literary and art workers in the 1930s had to be guided by the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks "On the restructuring of literary and artistic organizations" (1932). All associations of creative intelligentsia were liquidated, the process of creating new unified "industry" organizations of the republican and all-Union scale began. In 1932, the Union of Soviet Architects, the Union of Soviet Writers, and republican unions of Soviet composers and artists were created. A major event in the cultural life of the country was the 1st Congress of Soviet Writers, which took place in August 1934 and elected A.M. Gorky as chairman of the board of the Union of Writers. Gorky, who finally returned to his homeland in 1931, became an active propagandist of socialist realism, which was proclaimed the main artistic method. He demanded to combine the historical concreteness of the artistic depiction of reality with the education of the working people "in the spirit of socialism." JV Stalin considered socialist realism as the most important means of creating Soviet culture - "national in form, socialist in content."
In 1936-1937. a struggle was launched against formalism in literature and art. Innovation in the musical and theatrical arts was condemned; the development of the genre of satire, love lyrics, contemporary drama was discouraged; non-political topics were curtailed. In books, films, plays, music dominated military theme. This was explained by the need to "morally arm" the people on the eve of the inevitable and imminent war. It was not easy to deviate from the general line of the party in literature and art, and it was dangerous to criticize it.
To the number major achievements Soviet literature of the 1930s includes the novels "The Life of Klim Samgin" by A.M. Gorky, "Virgin Soil Upturned" by M.A. Sholokhov, "How the Steel Was Tempered" by N.A. Ostrovsky, "Peter the First" by A.N. books for children by A.P. Gaidar, K.I. Chukovsky, etc. The poetic work of A.A. Akhmatova, B.L. It should also be noted the dramaturgy of N. Pogodin, L. Leonov, Vs. Vishnevsky and others.
The largest phenomena in musical life were the works of S.S. Prokofiev (music for the film "Alexander Nevsky"), A.I. Khachaturian (music for the film "Masquerade"), D.D. Shostakovich (opera "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District", banned in 1936 "for formalism"). The songs of I.Dunaevsky, A.Aleksandrov, V.Soloviev-Sedogo gained wide popularity.
Cinematography made a significant step in its development (films "Chapaev" by S. and G. Vasilyev, "Deputy of the Baltic" by I. Kheifits and A. Zarkhi, "Alexander Nevsky" by S. Eisenstein, comedies by G. Alexandrov "Merry Fellows" and "Circus ").
Historical and revolutionary themes were actively developed in painting (“Death of the Commissar” by K. Petrov-Vodkin, “Defense of Petrograd” by A. Deineka, “Trumpeters of the First Cavalry Army” by M. Grekov, etc.), as well as the portrait genre (works by M. Nesterov , P. Korina and others). The most outstanding sculptural work of the 1930s was the monument to V. Mukhina "Worker and Collective Farm Girl".
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After the revolution, the country faced numerous tasks in the sphere of spiritual life. Objectively, it was necessary to increase the literacy of the population; take measures to develop new priority areas in science; to train the cadres of scientific, technical and creative intelligentsia, corresponding to the tasks of an industrial society; to ensure the connection of science with production, the use of its results for the needs of industrialization. At the same time, the authorities needed to assert their ideological influence in society. To solve this problem, it was supposed to actively use the possibilities of literature, art, and the humanities.
Already in the years of the civil war, work began to eliminate the illiteracy of the country's population. The society “Down with illiteracy” was created, the leadership of which included the head of the legislative branch M. I. Kalinin, the leader of the party and chairman of the government V. I. Lenin, the People’s Commissar of Education A. V. Lunacharsky and others. Thousands of new schools were opened across the country where both children and adults were taught basic literacy skills (reading, numeracy, writing). Activities in this direction gave an impressive result - by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, more than 80% of the country's population was literate.
By the mid 1930s. In general, the Soviet education system took shape, which included primary, general secondary, secondary specialized and higher education. In the pre-war years, the transition to compulsory universal seven-year education was completed and the task of transition to universal secondary education in urban centers and seven-year education in rural areas and national regions was set. The network of universities in the country has grown more than 8 times and amounted to 817 universities and institutes. As a result, the number of specialists in the USSR increased from 1.5 million in 1917 to 20 million in 1941.
At the same time, the ideological control over the activities and mindsets of the intelligentsia was quite strict. In the late 20's - early 30's. demonstrative trials took place: the Shakhty case, the “case of academicians”, the case of the Labor Peasant Party, etc. In the early 30s. the creation of mass public organizations began, uniting the intelligentsia and putting it under the control of the party: the Union of Writers, the Union of Composers, the Union of Architects, the Union of Artists, the All-Union Society of Inventors, etc.
At the same time, the state allocated huge funds for the development of scientific research, primarily in the fundamental fields of knowledge. As a result, important discoveries were made in the study of the atomic nucleus (A.F. Ioffe), the development of the theory of space flight (K.E. Tsiolkovsky), and the theory of jet propulsion (F.A. Zander). Great importance was attached to the development of the Northern Sea Route and the study of the Arctic (O. Yu. Schmidt, ID Papanin). The works of I. P. Pavlov in the field of physiology have received worldwide recognition. N. I. Vavilov was recognized as the world's largest specialist in genetics. The encyclopedic scientist V. I. Vernadsky created fundamental works on the theory of the biosphere. A significant breakthrough was made by Soviet specialists in the field of aircraft construction (A. N. Tupolev) and rocket science (S. P. Korolev). Pilots (V. P. Chkalov, G. F. Baidukov, A. V. Belyakov, M. M. Gromov, V. S. Grizodubova, M. I. Raskova, P. A. Osipenko, V. K. Kokkinaki), who tested new models of aviation equipment in the prewar years and made non-stop flights to Far East, North Pole, to America.
However, many scientists were forced to leave the country during the years of the civil war and after it, as they did not want to put up with the new political regime. The Soviet government itself initiated the expulsion of the largest representatives of the humanities intellectuals, representing the pre-revolutionary scientific school - P. A. Sorokin, N. A. Berdyaev and others. Many of the remaining scientists (A. F. Losev, P. A. Florensky, etc.) were subjected to political repression.
Since the mid 30s. a new stage in the development of artistic culture begins. The method of socialist realism becomes official and the only acceptable one. He meant the creation of works that reveal the issues of socialist construction and view the surrounding reality through this prism.
In the literature of the 30s. along with the names of A. M. Gorky (who returned to the country after emigration), A. N. Tolstoy, and other writers with pre-revolutionary fame, new names appeared - M. A. Sholokhov (“Quiet Don”), M. S. Shaginyan (“ Hydrocentral”), V.P. Kataev (“Time, forward!”), I. Ilf and E. Petrov (“The Twelve Chairs”, “The Golden Calf”). Soviet children's literature was formed, represented by the works of S. Ya. Marshak, K. I. Chukovsky, A. P. Gaidar, B. S. Zhitkov, and others.
A feature of the fine arts was the predominance of ceremonial painting, as well as paintings on the themes of the revolution and civil war, the construction of socialism. The recognized masters of this direction were S. V. Gerasimov (“Collective Farm Holiday”), K. S. Petrov-Vodkin (“Death of the Commissar”), A. A. Deineka (“Defense of Petrograd”), M. M. Grekov (“ Trumpeters of the First Cavalry Army”), B.V. Ioganson (“Interrogation of the Communists”).
The musical life of the country was inextricably linked with the names of the largest composers S. S. Prokofiev, D. D. Shostakovich, A. I. Khachaturian, T. N. Khrennikov, D. B. Kabalevsky, I. O. Dunaevsky and others.
A technical revolution took place in the cinema - domestic film and film equipment appeared, a series of large film studios opened. The first Soviet sound film was the painting by N. V. Ekk “A ticket to life”. main theme cinema was the life of Soviet people, their participation in the events of the revolution (“Deputy of the Baltic” by I. E. Kheifits and A. G. Zarkha; “October” by S. M. Eisenstein; “Lenin in October” and “Lenin in 1918” M I. Romm), civil war (“We are from Kronstadt” by E. L. Dzigan; trilogy about Maxim by G. M. Kozintsev and L. Z. Trauberg; “Chapaev” by S. and G. Vasiliev), industrialization and collectivization, development of remote areas of the country (“Seven Brave”, “Komsomolsk” by S. A. Gerasimov). The first musical comedies "Merry Fellows" and "Volga-Volga" (G. V. Aleksandrov), historical films "Peter the Great" (V. M. Petrov), "Alexander Nevsky" (S. M. Eisenstein) were released.
Thus, in the 1920-30s. the country has made significant progress in the development of science, education and culture. The illiteracy of the main part of the population was eliminated. A unified system of national education took shape. A new engineering, technical and creative intelligentsia has been formed. The largest discoveries were made in the fundamental fields of science, development, and technical thought received. At the same time, culture, science and education were placed under state control. The ideological influence on their activities has increased significantly. Many representatives of science, culture and art were repressed, and some bright works of art never reached the reader and viewer (the novels by M. A. Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita”, A. P. Platonov “The Juvenile Sea”, “The Pit”, “Chevengur”; paintings by P. N. Filonov, K. S. Malevich and others).
The formation of a new culture in the 1930s. Turn to patriotism in the mid-1930s (in culture, art and literature). The first congress of Soviet writers and its significance. Socialist realism as a new artistic method. Contradictions in its development and implementation.
In the public consciousness of the thirties, faith in socialist ideals, the enormous authority of the party, began to be combined with "leaderism." Social cowardice has spread in broad sections of society, the fear of breaking out of general series. The essence of the class approach to social phenomena was reinforced by the personality cult of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. The principles of the class struggle were also reflected in the artistic life of the country. Thus the Soviet national culture by the mid-thirties, it had developed into a rigid system with its own socio-cultural values: in philosophy, aesthetics, morality, language, life, and science. Loyalty to the cause of the Party and the Government, Patriotism, hatred of class enemies, cult love for the leaders of the proletariat, labor discipline, law-abidingness and internationalism dominated among the values of official culture. All figures of literature and art were united in single unified unions. From August 17 to August 31, 1934, the first congress of writers took place. "Social realism" was declared the creative method of Soviet literature and art. For the first time this term appeared on May 25, 1932 on the pages of Literaturnaya Gazeta, and a few months later its principles were proposed as fundamental for all Soviet art at Stalin's mysterious meeting with Soviet writers at Gorky's apartment (October 26, 1932). At this meeting, the foundations of the future organization of writers were also laid. Thus, literature was assigned the role of an educational tool, and nothing more. The only artistic method of socialist realism has been established. Acting as the "main creative method" of Soviet culture, socialist realism prescribed the content and structural principles works, suggesting the existence of a "new type of consciousness", which appeared as a result of the approval of Marxism - Leninism. Socialist realism was recognized once and for all as the only true and most perfect creative method. This definition of social realism relied on Stalin's definition of writers as "engineers of human souls". Thus, artistic culture and art were given an instrumental character, that is, the role of an instrument for the formation of a "new man" was assigned. After the establishment of Stalin's personality cult, the pressure on culture and the persecution of dissidents intensified. Literature and art were placed at the service of communist ideology and propaganda. In the literature of the 30s. along with the names of A. M. Gorky (who returned to the country after emigration), A. N. Tolstoy, and other writers with pre-revolutionary fame, new names appeared - M. A. Sholokhov (“Quiet Don”), M. S. Shaginyan (“ Hydrocentral”), V.P. Kataev (“Time, forward!”), I. Ilf and E. Petrov (“The Twelve Chairs”, “The Golden Calf”). Soviet children's literature was formed, represented by the works of S. Ya. Marshak, K. I. Chukovsky, A. P. Gaidar, B. S. Zhitkov and others. building socialism. The recognized masters of this direction were S. V. Gerasimov (“Collective Farm Holiday”), K. S. Petrov-Vodkin (“Death of the Commissar”), A. A. Deineka (“Defense of Petrograd”), M. M. Grekov (“ Trumpeters of the First Cavalry Army”), B.V. Ioganson (“Interrogation of the Communists”). The musical life of the country was inextricably linked with the names of the largest composers S. S. Prokofiev, D. D. Shostakovich, A. I. Khachaturian, T. N. Khrennikov, D. B. Kabalevsky, I. O. Dunaevsky and others. a technical revolution took place - domestic film and film equipment appeared, a series of large film studios opened. The first Soviet sound film was the painting by N. V. Ekk “A ticket to life”. The main theme of the cinema was the life of Soviet people, their participation in the events of the revolution (“Deputy of the Baltic” by I. E. Kheifits and A. G. Zarkhi; “October” by S. M. Eisenstein; “Lenin in October” and “Lenin in 1918” "M. I. Romm), civil war ("We are from Kronstadt" by E. L. Dzigan; trilogy about Maxim G. M. Kozintsev and L. Z. Trauberg; "Chapaev" S. and G. Vasiliev), industrialization and collectivization, development of remote areas of the country (“Seven Brave”, “Komsomolsk” by S. A. Gerasimov). The first musical comedies "Merry Fellows" and "Volga-Volga" (G. V. Aleksandrov), historical films "Peter the Great" (V. M. Petrov), "Alexander Nevsky" (S. M. Eisenstein) were released. Thus, in the 1920-30s. the country has made significant progress in the development of science, education and culture. The illiteracy of the main part of the population was eliminated. A unified system of national education took shape. A new engineering, technical and creative intelligentsia has been formed. The largest discoveries were made in the fundamental fields of science, development, and technical thought received. At the same time, culture, science and education were placed under state control. Many representatives of science, culture and art were repressed, and some bright works of art never reached the reader and viewer (the novels by M. A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", A. P. Platonov "The Juvenile Sea", "The Pit", "Chevengur"; paintings by P. N. Filonov, K. S. Malevich and others).
Why in the history of Soviet culture is the period of the 1990s called the "Cultural Revolution"? Lesson assignment.
Economic transformations in the USSR set the task of raising the educational level of the population. Pedagogical experiments of the 1920s were unsuitable for this. , a fixed schedule, marks, etc. New programs and textbooks were created. In 1934, the teaching of history and geography was restored, and then other disciplines. 1. Development of education. School in the collective farm named after Karl Marx. Kabardino-Balkaria.
20 thousand new schools were opened in the country. There were 35 million students in the USSR. According to the 1939 census, literacy was 87.4%. books in 1937 amounted to 700 million copies. They came out in 110 languages of the peoples of the USSR. 1. Development of education. Rural school for adults.
The development of science in the USSR proceeded under powerful ideological pressure. Those who disagreed with this approach were subjected to harassment and repression. Serebrovsky. Lysenko explained his actions by defending Darwinism and Michurin's theory from “bourgeois science.” Subsequently, many geneticists were repressed, and genetics itself was banned. 2. Science under ideological pressure. D. Nalbandyan. Session of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
Stalin paid great attention to historical science. History began to be interpreted as the history of the class struggle. In 1938, the “Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks” was published, edited personally by Stalin. He glorified Stalin and in fact became the official interpretation of the foundations of Marxism-Leninism and issues of the history of the CPSU (b). On its basis, unofficial schools in historical science were destroyed, irreparable damage was caused to it. 2. Science under ideological pressure. S.Vavilov, N.Koltsov, A.Serebrovsky
Despite ideological pressure, representatives of the natural sciences were able to achieve outstanding success. S. Vavilov (optics), A. Ioffe (crystal physics), P. Kapitsa (microphysics), I. Kurchatov (nuclear physics) and others have enriched world science. Chemists N.Zelinsky, A.Bakh, S., Lebedev made fundamental discoveries in the field of obtaining artificial substances and organic food products. 3. Successes of Soviet science. A. Ioffe and P. Kapitsa
Soviet biologists-N. Vavilov, V. Pustovoi, V. Williams and others. Mathematics, astronomy, mechanics, physiology achieved significant success. Geology and geography acquired a huge development during this period. This was due to the beginning of the industrial development of Siberia and the Far East .New deposits of minerals were discovered: oil in the Volga region, coal in the Moscow region and Kuzbass, iron in the Urals, etc. 3. Successes of Soviet science. V.S. Pustovoit
In the 30s. the liquidation of dissent in artistic culture was completed. From now on, art should follow one direction - socialist realism and show life as it should be in the view of the party leaders. Art began to plant myths and create an illusion, that the happy time has already come. Using it, the authorities skillfully manipulated public opinion and directed it in the right direction. 4. Socialist realism. P. Belov. Hourglass.
Cinematography made a huge contribution to the formation of a new consciousness. The documentary chronicle covered current events in the right light. In many ways, it owed its success to the outstanding directors D. Vertov, E. Tisse, E. Shuba. In 1931 in the USSR the 1st sound film was staged - “The Road to Life”. In the th color film - “Grunya Kornakova” Historical films were especially popular - “Chapaev, “We are from Kronstadt”, a trilogy about Maxim. 5.Soviet cinema. Frame from the film "Chapaev"
5.Soviet cinema. I. Ilyinsky and L. Orlova in the film "Volga-Volga". The musical films “Volga-Volga”, “Merry Fellows”, “Pig and Shepherd”, etc. were especially popular with the audience. “A lonely sail turns white.” On the eve of the war, a whole series of patriotic films appeared - “Alexander Nevsky, “Peter I”, “Minin and Pozharsky”. The most famous directors were S. Eisenstein, N. Eck, G. Alesandrov, I.Pyryev, V.Pudovkin.
The development of music was associated with the names of S. Prokofiev, D. Shostakovich, T. Khrennikov, I. Dunaevsky. Musical groups appeared - the Grand Symphony Orchestra, the Beethoven Quartet, etc. When evaluating the work of composers, the tastes of the leaders played a huge role, so D. Shestakovich was subjected to harsh criticism. , B. Mokrousov, M. Blanter, the Pokruss brothers were known throughout the country. 6. Music and painting. I. Dunaevsky and V. Lebedev-Kumach.
6. Music and painting. B. Johanson. Interrogation of communists. In the visual arts, the main thing was not the skill of the artist, but the ideological orientation of the plot, compliance with the principles of socialist realism. His classic was B. Ioganson, whose painting “Interrogation of the Communists” was awarded all possible awards. A. Deineka, Yu. Pimenov, M. Nesterov. M. Saryan, P. Konchalovsky, A. Lentulov.
7. Theatre. Literature. MI Kalinin among the awarded writers. Strict censorship left its mark on the quality of literature. Many one-day works came out of print. Nevertheless, many talented writers worked during this period. M. Gorky writes “The Life of Klim Samgin”, “Egor Bulychev and others.” M. Sholokhov, M. Bulgakov, V. Kaverin, A. Platonov and others.
In the end of the 20s. plays by Soviet playwrights begin to assert themselves on the stages of Soviet theaters. “Man with a Gun” by N. Pogodin, “Optimistic Tragedy” by V. Vishnevsky, “Tanya” by A. Arbuzov constituted the “golden fund” of the repertoire of many theaters. Plays by M. Gorky were successfully performed all over the country. The Soviet people were introduced to culture thanks to the rapid growth in the number of theaters, museums, philharmonic societies, and libraries. Talent reviews were held throughout the country. 7. Theatre. Literature. B. Shchukin as Lenin In the play "A Man with a Gun"
