Socialist realism, also called socrealism (from Russian sotsrealizm), is a style of art that shows life in a positive and realistic way. It was created in the Soviet Union and was the main cultural rule in that country from 1932 to 1988. It was also used in other socialist countries after World War II. The idea was first announced by the First Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934, which said it was the only acceptable way to create art in all forms of media.

The main goal of socialist realism was to show how society was changing in a positive way, especially through the ideas of Marxism and Leninism, such as the freedom of workers. In visual art, this style used methods similar to traditional academic art and classical sculptures. Socialist realism usually avoided complex meanings, but some sources may offer different views.

After World War II, socialist realism became the official art style in communist countries that supported the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, it was the main form of approved art from the early 1920s until it was no longer official in the late 1960s, ending with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Unlike other countries, socialist realism in the Soviet Union lasted longer and had stricter rules. It should not be confused with social realism, a style of art that shows everyday life and social issues, which became popular in the United States during the 1930s.

History

Socialist realism was created by many artists over many years in a society with many different people. Early examples of realism in Russian art include the work of the Peredvizhnikis and Ilya Yefimovich Repin. These works did not have the same political meaning as later ones, but they used techniques that later artists would use. After the Bolsheviks took control of Russia on October 25, 1917, there was a big change in the style of art. There had been a short time of artistic experimentation between the fall of the Tsar and the rise of the Bolsheviks.

Soon after the Bolsheviks took power, Anatoly Lunacharsky became the head of Narkompros, the People's Commissariat for Enlightenment. This made him responsible for deciding how art should look in the new Soviet state. Lunacharsky did not force artists to follow one style, but he created a system of art based on the human body. This system later influenced socialist realism. He believed that seeing a healthy body or a friendly smile could improve people’s lives. He thought art could directly affect people and could be used to help them in the right way. By showing the "perfect person" (the New Soviet man), Lunacharsky believed art could teach people how to be good citizens.

Two main groups debated the future of Soviet art: futurists and traditionalists. Russian Futurists, who had made abstract or leftist art before the Bolsheviks, believed that communism needed to break completely from the past, so Soviet art should do the same. Traditionalists believed that art should show realistic scenes of everyday life. Under Lenin’s rule and the New Economic Policy, some private businesses were allowed, which let both futurists and traditionalists create art for people who could afford it. By 1928, the Soviet government had enough power to stop private businesses, ending support for groups like the futurists. At this time, even though the term "socialist realism" was not yet used, its main features became common.

According to the Great Russian Encyclopedia, the term "socialist realism" was first used in a newspaper article by Ivan Gronsky, chairman of the Union of Soviet Writers, on May 23, 1932. The term was approved by high-level politicians, including Joseph Stalin. Maxim Gorky, who supported socialist realism in literature, wrote a famous article titled "Socialist Realism" in 1933. At the 1934 Congress, four rules for socialist realism were set:

• Proletarian: Art should focus on workers and be easy for them to understand.
• Typical: Art should show scenes from everyday life.
• Realistic: Art should look like real life.
• Partisan: Art should support the goals of the state and the Communist Party.

The goal of socialist realism was to control how people expressed emotions in art so that it promoted Soviet ideals. The Communist Party was always shown in a positive way. Key ideas included partiinost' (being loyal to the party), ideinost (including approved ideas), klassovost (showing class differences), and pravdivost (being truthful). Ideinost was especially important: the message of the art was more important than its style. This helped identify formalism, which was art that focused more on style than on its subject.

Socialist realism aimed to show an ideal Soviet society. It celebrated the present and the future, making everything look positive. Tragedy or sadness was not allowed unless it was shown in the past or in other places. This created a style later called "revolutionary romanticism."

Revolutionary romanticism showed workers, whether in factories or farms, in a positive light. It taught people how their lives had improved because of the revolution and how they should behave. The goal was to create what Lenin called "a new type of human being": the New Soviet Man. Art, especially posters and murals, was used to spread party values to many people. Stalin called socialist realist artists "engineers of souls."

Common images in socialist realism included flowers, sunlight, healthy bodies, youth, flight, industry, and new technology. These images showed the hopeful future of communism and the Soviet state. Art was not just for beauty; it had a purpose. Soviet leaders believed that art should help society, as Georgi Plekhanov, a Marxist thinker, said: "Art is useful only if it shows actions, emotions, or events that matter to society."

Themes in socialist realism focused on the beauty of work, the achievements of individuals and groups for the good of everyone, and clear messages that taught people. Artists could not show life as they saw it if it criticized communism. People who were neither good nor bad could not be shown, as the idea of pure good or evil did not exist. Art showed health and happiness, with paintings of busy workers and happy families.

Creativity was important in socialist realism. Artists used styles that made art look as realistic as possible. Painters showed strong, happy workers and farmers. During Stalin’s time, many portraits of Stalin were made to praise him, all in a realistic way. The most important thing for a socialist realist artist was not to follow their own artistic ideas, but to support politics, creating a style that focused only on realism.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines socialist realism as "a Marxist idea that art and literature should be used to teach people about socialism and help society improve." Socialist realism required artists to show positive, uplifting images of socialist life using any form of art, such as posters, movies, newspapers, theater, and radio, starting with the Communist Revolution of 1917 and continuing during Stalin’s rule until the early 1980s.

Vladimir Lenin, who led Russia from 1917 to 1924, started this new style of art. He believed art should be for the people and that people should understand and love it. Artists like Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner tried to explain what art should be under Lenin by writing "The Realist Manifesto" in 1920, saying artists should be free to create as they wished. Lenin, however, wanted art to be useful, and Stalin later supported the idea that art should help society.

Reception and impact

Stalin's opponent, Leon Trotsky, strongly disagreed with Stalin's strict method for handling the arts. Trotsky believed that forcing all culture to follow the same ideas showed the harmful effects of Stalinism. He described how different schools of writing were forced to stop one by one, and how strict control was used in areas like farming and music. He thought socialist realism was a made-up idea created by Stalin's government to control the arts.

The influence of socialist realist art is still visible today, even after it was no longer the only style supported by the government. Before the Soviet Union ended in 1991, the government had already started to use less censorship. After Stalin died in 1953, a leader named Nikita Khrushchev criticized the earlier government's strict rules. This change gave artists more freedom to try new styles, but the shift happened slowly. It was only after the Soviet Union completely fell apart that artists were no longer controlled by the Communist Party. Many socialist realist styles remained popular until the middle to late 1990s and early 2000s.

In the 1990s, many Russian artists used elements of socialist realism in a humorous or mocking way, which was very different from how it was used before. When artists stopped following socialist realism, there was a major change in power. Artists began including subjects that the Soviet government would not have allowed. Without government control over how art looked, artists gained power that had not been seen since the early 1900s. In the years right after the Soviet Union fell, artists showed socialist realism and the Soviet past as painful experiences. By the next decade, artists treated these topics with more distance and less emotion.

Western countries often do not see socialist realism in a positive light. Democratic nations view the art from this time as false, comparing it to their own style of art called Capitalist realism. Art historians who do not support Marxism often see communism as a system that limits artistic freedom and slows the development of capitalist culture. In recent years, there has been an effort to reclaim socialist realism in Moscow with the opening of the Institute of Russian Realist Art (IRRA), a museum with three floors dedicated to preserving 20th-century Russian realist paintings.

Notable works and artists

Hanns Eisler wrote many songs for workers, marches, and ballads about political topics, such as Song of Solidarity, Song of the United Front, and Song of the Comintern. He helped create a new style of music that inspired people through revolutionary songs. He also composed larger works, like Requiem for Lenin. Eisler’s most important pieces include the cantatas German Symphony, Serenade of the Age, and Song of Peace. His music blends elements of simple revolutionary songs with more complex styles. His orchestral music is known for its detailed and skillful use of instruments.

The rise of the labor movement led to the creation of revolutionary songs, which were performed at protests and meetings. Famous examples include The Internationale and Whirlwinds of Danger. Notable songs from Russia are Boldly, Comrades, in Step, Workers' Marseillaise, and Rage, Tyrants. These songs influenced Soviet mass songs, which became a major type of music in the Soviet Union, especially during the 1930s and during wartime. Mass songs affected other music styles, such as art songs, operas, and film scores. Popular mass songs include Song of the Homeland by Dunaevsky, Katiusha by Isaakovsky, Hymn of Democratic Youth of the World by Novikov, and Sacred War by Aleksandrov.

In the early 1900s, people began discussing how film could be used by the Soviet government. Leon Trotsky believed movies could replace the influence of the Orthodox Church in Russia. In the 1930s, Soviet filmmakers used a style called socialist realism. A famous film, Chapaev, showed how the people shaped history. Other films with themes of revolution include The Youth of Maxim by Kozintsev and Trauberg, Shchors by Dovzhenko, and We Are from Kronstadt by Dzigan. Films about building a better society under socialism include A Start Life by Ekk, Ivan by Dovzhenko, Valerii Chkalov by Kalatozov, and the film version of Tanker "Derbent" (1941). Some films showed people from the Soviet Union fighting foreign enemies, such as Alexander Nevsky by Eisenstein, Minin and Pozharsky by Pudovkin, and Bogdan Khmelnitsky by Savchenko. Films about Soviet leaders include a trilogy about Lenin by Yutkevich. Socialist realism also influenced Hindi films in the 1940s and 1950s, such as Neecha Nagar by Chetan Anand, which won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and Two Acres of Land by Bimal Roy, which also won a prize.

The painter Aleksandr Deineka created works showing scenes from World War II, farms, and sports. Other artists, such as Yuriy Pimenov, Boris Ioganson, Isaak Brodsky, and Geli Korzev, were called "unappreciated masters of twentieth-century realism." Another artist was Fyodor Reshetnikov. Socialist realist art was accepted in the Baltic countries, inspiring many artists. One example was Czeslaw Znamierowski, a Lithuanian painter born in Latvia. He painted large landscapes and scenes of everyday life. His famous works include Before Rain (1930), Panorama of Vilnius City (1950), The Green Lake (1955), and In Klaipeda Fishing Port (1959). His art is displayed in the Lithuanian Art Museum.

Isaak Brodsky painted portraits of important figures, such as Kliment Voroshilov (1929), Kliment Voroshilov Skiing, and Day of Soviet Constitution (1930).

Martin Andersen Nexø used socialist realism in his writing. His stories combined strong opinions, criticism of capitalism, and a desire to show how society could align with socialist goals. His novel Pelle, the Conqueror is a classic example of socialist realism.

Bruno Apitz’s novel Nackt unter Wölfen was released on the same day as the opening of the Buchenwald Monument in 1958. Louis Aragon’s book The Real World showed the working class as a powerful force. He also wrote The Communist Man, a collection of essays. In A Knife in the Heart Again, Aragon criticized American influence in Europe. His novel The Holy Week describes an artist’s journey toward the people against a large social and historical background.

Maxim Gorky’s novel Mother (1906) is often called the first socialist-realist novel. Gorky also wrote a pamphlet titled On Socialist Realism, which explained the goals of Soviet art. Other important works include Cement by Fyodor Gladkov (1925), How the Steel Was Tempered by Nikolai Ostrovsky (1936), and The Road to Calvary by Aleksey Tolstoy (1922–1941). Yury Krymov’s novel Tanker "Derbent" (1938) showed how Soviet sailors changed because of the Stakhanovite movement. In India, Thol by D. Selvaraj is an example of Marxist Realism and won a literary award in 2012.

Sculptor Fritz Cremer made monuments to honor victims of Nazi camps, such as Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, and Ravensbrück. His bronze sculpture in Buchenwald shows the liberation of the camp by prisoners in 1945. This work is a key example of socialist realism in East Germany. The figures in the sculpture symbolize the role of communists in freeing people. The German Democratic Republic used these sculptures to show its connection to the anti-fascist struggle.

Claudia Cobizev was a Moldovan sculptor known for her gentle depictions of women and children. Her most famous work, Cap de moldoveancă, was displayed at the Paris International Exhibition and received praise.

Theater became a place where socialist realism reached people. This happened in the Soviet Union and other countries, such as China. After the 1917 revolution, people tried to change what theater was, aiming to bring actors and audiences closer together. In the early 1920s, creativity flourished, with groups like the TEO Narkompros (Department of Fine Arts) leading the way.

Soviet Union

Socialist realism was the official art style in the Soviet Union for more than fifty years. It was used along with the Socialist Classical style of architecture. In the early years of the Soviet Union, Russian and Soviet artists used many different art forms with the support of Proletkult. Revolutionary politics and new, non-traditional art styles were seen as working well together.

Later, members of the Communist Party rejected these styles because they did not like modern art forms such as Impressionism and Cubism. Socialist realism was partly a response to the rejection of these styles, which were called "decadent." Lenin believed that non-representative art forms were not understood by the working class and could not be used by the state for propaganda.

Alexander Bogdanov argued that changing society to communist principles meant that bourgeois art would not be useful. Some of his followers even suggested destroying libraries and museums. Lenin disagreed, believing that art should use the heritage of the past. He said, "Proletarian culture must be the logical development of the knowledge people have collected under capitalist, landowner, and bureaucratic societies."

Modern art styles did not use this heritage, which clashed with Russia's long tradition of realism and made the art scene complex. Even during Lenin's time, government officials began to control art to fit propaganda goals. Leon Trotsky argued that "proletarian literature" was not Marxist because the working class would lose its identity in a classless society. However, his ideas were not accepted.

Socialist realism became official state policy in 1934 when the First Congress of Soviet Writers met. Stalin's representative, Andrei Zhdanov, strongly supported it as "the official style of Soviet culture." This was because other styles were seen as "decadent," not understood by the working class, or against the revolution. At the time, many landscapes, portraits, and genre paintings focused only on technical skills and seemed free from ideology.

Artists of that time, including Vladimir Gorb, Boris Korneev, Engels Kozlov, Felix Lembersky, Oleg Lomakin, Samuil Nevelshtein, Victor Oreshnikov, Semion Rotnitsky, Lev Russov, and Leonid Steele, created portraits. Landscapes were painted by Nikolai Galakhov, Vasily Golubev, Dmitry Maevsky, Sergei Osipov, Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Alexander Semionov, Arseny Semionov, and Nikolai Timkov. Genre paintings were created by Andrey Milnikov, Yevsey Moiseenko, Mikhail Natarevich, Yuri Neprintsev, Nikolai Pozdneev, Mikhail Trufanov, Yuri Tulin, Nina Veselova, and others.

In 1974, a show of unofficial art near Moscow was destroyed by water cannons and bulldozers (see Bulldozer Exhibition). Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika led to more interest in alternative art styles in the late 1980s. However, socialist realism remained the official state style until 1991. After the Soviet Union fell, artists were finally allowed to create art without government censorship.

Other countries

After the Russian Revolution, socialist realism became a popular type of art and writing around the world. In the 1920s, socialist ideas in literature appeared in Germany, France, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Writers like Louis Aragon, Johannes Becher, and Pablo Neruda helped shape socialist realism in these countries.

During the 1950s, architects were seen not only as builders of buildings but also as people who could influence people’s feelings and beliefs. They were expected to create designs that showed strong ideas and feelings of stability and power. In the mid-1960s, art in the Warsaw Pact countries became more relaxed and decorative, often inspired by posters and drawings. Today, North Korea, Laos, and Vietnam still use these styles, while socialist realism had little influence in non-Communist countries, where it was often viewed as a way for the government to control artists.

Yugoslavia was an exception among Communist countries. After a disagreement with the Soviet Union in 1948, it stopped using socialist realism and allowed more freedom for artists. In Albania, socialist realism was the main art style until 2017, when three works from the socialist era were shown at an art event called documenta 14.

In Indonesia, a group called Lekra, linked to the Communist Party, promoted socialist realism for artists and writers. It was banned by the president in 1966 after conflicts with other groups.

In China, socialist realism was influenced by Soviet styles and the ideas of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Works like Virgin Soil Upturned and Harvest were widely shared in China. Chinese artists also adopted socialist realism through lessons from Soviet teachers, such as Konstantin Maksimov. A painting called The Heroic Death of Liu Hulan is considered a classic example of this style.

In East Germany, socialist realism began after World War II, as the country tried to move away from Nazi ideas. Leaders defined realism as a way to show real life and avoid fake or unrealistic ideas. They looked to historical figures like Albrecht Dürer and Thomas Müntzer, who were seen as symbols of German history and revolution.

East German artists used socialist realism to teach people about their history and the struggles of the working class. One artist, Werner Tübke, painted scenes inspired by the Renaissance style, which the government called "heritage" art. His work History of the German Working Class Movement showed events from the past in a way that connected to socialist ideals.

After 1972, when East and West Germany signed a treaty, East German artists had more opportunities to travel and learn from Western artists. This led to more interest in socialist realism outside of East Germany.

Gender in socialist realism

During the Russian Civil War (1917–1922), posters and propaganda often showed men as workers, farmers, and soldiers. When women were included in these images, they were usually shown as symbols, like "Mother Russia" or "freedom," or as nurses and victims. These symbolic women were often dressed in long dresses, had long hair, and sometimes showed bare chests. The image of the working class, which helped the Bolsheviks gain power, was shown as strong, masculine, and dignified, often as blacksmiths.

In 1920, Soviet artists began creating images of women workers for the first time. These women were shown with the same qualities as men—strength, dignity, and even power, like blacksmiths. In many 1920s paintings, men and women looked similar in size and clothing, but women were often shown in roles that supported men, such as assistants. These images of women as workers were rare but important because they marked the first time women were shown as part of the working class. This change happened around the same time the government introduced new laws allowing divorce, abortion, and more freedom in personal relationships.

Before 1920, peasant women were rarely shown in socialist art because the style of art called "socialist realism" was just beginning. Peasants were usually shown as bearded men in simple clothes with tools like scythes. After 1920, artists began drawing peasant women, who were often shown as strong, full-figured women with scarves around their heads. However, these images were not always positive. Some artists used the word "baba," a term that had been used to mock peasant women and women in general during the time of the Tsarist rulers.

From 1917 to 1930, Soviet artists had more freedom to create art that expressed the goals of the revolution. Many artists were part of a movement called "constructivism," which used abstract shapes and modern designs for propaganda posters. Others used realistic styles. Women artists were important in this period, with famous names like Alexandra Exter, Natalia Goncharova, and others. These women challenged the idea that men had always been the main artists. A historian named Christina Kiaer said that the shift away from market-based art helped women artists succeed, especially before 1930, when a group called the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AKhRR) was more equal in treating men and women.

In 1930, when Stalin became the leader of the Soviet Union, the government started controlling art more strictly. Socialist realism became the main style, focusing on realistic, idealized images of workers and peasants. The AKhRR became more strict, favoring oil paintings (a style mostly used by men) over posters and other art forms where women had worked. Artists were now expected to create images of the "New Soviet Man," a symbol of an ideal person living under socialism. This figure could be male or female, but the word "chelovek" (meaning "person") was masculine, so men were often used to represent both genders.

The government claimed that the "woman question" (how to treat women) was solved by 1930, so there was little discussion about how women should be shown in art. Talking about differences between men and women or about sexuality was avoided, as it was seen as unimportant compared to the goal of building socialism. Nudes of men and women were rarely shown, and some critics said Socialist Realist art avoided the problem of women being objectified, unlike art in capitalist countries. However, the government banned abortion and homosexuality, made divorce harder, and removed women’s groups from the government. The "New Soviet Woman" was often shown working in jobs like aviation, engineering, and politics, which were traditionally male roles. This was meant to show that Soviet women had more opportunities than women in the United States, where only 28.3% of the workforce was female in 1950, compared to 51.8% in the Soviet Union.

Despite these changes, many images from before and after World War II still showed women in traditional, unequal roles. Historian Susan Reid said that the focus on male leaders like Lenin and Stalin created a culture where men were seen as the main figures to look up to. Policies in the 1930s forced many women to take on all childcare duties, leaving them with the "double burden" of working and raising children. The government promoted the idea of the "housewife-activist," showing women as unpaid helpers who supported their families and the state.

Women were also more often shown as peasants than as workers, especially during wartime when men were needed for military service. This reflected old ideas that some scholars say showed that women were still seen as less important than men in capitalist societies. In the Stalin era, images of peasant women were more positive than in the 1920s, and they were used to challenge the "baba" stereotype. However, peasants were still seen as backward compared to the idealized workers. An example is the statue "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" (1937) by Vera Muhkina, where a man is shown as the worker and a woman as the farmer, showing the different roles people had to take during wartime.

Painting

• N. Kasatkin. Pioneer-girl with book (1926)
• Vladimir Pchelin, Lenin Assassination Attempt (1927)
• Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, The death of the Political Commissar (1928)
• Sergey Malyutin, Partisan
• Wojciech Weiss, Manifesto (1949/1950)
• Mitrofan Grekov, Trumpeter and standard-bearer (1934)
• The Green Lake by Czeslaw Znamierowski, measured 145 by 250 centimeters, 1955
• Female Partisan in Battle, National History Museum, Tirana, Albania
• "We Will Fulfill the Party's Commission!" by Igor Berezovsky, 1957

Sculpture

• Artistic stories about the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw
• "Stone as a Symbol of Workers' Power" by Ivan Shadr (1947)
• Stalin Monument in Prague -Letná (built between 1955 and 1962)
• The African Renaissance Monument in Senegal, created by Mansudae Overseas Projects

Reliefs

• A sculpture in Gori, Georgia, where Stalin was born
• The front of a building on Marszałkowska Street, Warsaw
• The front of a building on Marszałkowska Street, Warsaw