Joseph Stalin was born in Georgia on December 18, 1878, though Stalin listed his birth as December 21, 1879, illustrating the many ways in which he chose to reconstruct his personal history. Stalin was born to violent parents, and in turn, he was often an abusive father. As a young man, Stalin had been snubbed by the Russian intellectual elite setting the stage for a spirit of revenge and a desire to form a personal “cult of personality”. Stalin was a ruler, a dictator and a tyrant, but under his developed “cult of personality”, there was a real person. He was cruel and vindictive, but was also a thinking, calculating, hard-working man possessed of an iron will and considerable intellect. In 1949, Stalin expelled Trotsky from the Soviet Union and attained power over 142 million people. Stalin set out to transform his country from a backward, agricultural country into a modern, industrialized, Socialist state. The result would be one of history’s greatest human tragedies.
Stalin created a new genre of art later to be known as “Socialist Realism”. Stalin spent immense sums to subsidize huge murals, gigantic frescoes, massive friezes, and colossal mosaics, each and every one of which proclaimed that life was becoming gayer and better with every year Russians lived under his leadership. All Stalinist art had to convey optimism and a type of fake realism which would persuade the masses of whatever message Stalin wanted. The images painted and recreated of Stalin, were not actually Stalin, but a new and improved ideal of what Stalin should look like. The artists themselves were willing to participate in this intellectual dishonesty hoping for improvement in their political and social standing. Though the art created was based upon a false ideal of a perfect Soviet Union, the artists’ honest efforts to portray, creatively, what was asked of them should not be overlooked. Even though this was a false reality, wasn’t surrealism, cubism and other genres meant to distort reality? Stalin’s use of art as a form of mega propaganda was extremely successful, and during the Second World War artist’s visions of Stalin transformed him from teacher and friend of the people to all-powerful defender of the Soviet Union. As John Steinbeck wrote,”Everything takes place under the fixed stare of the plaster, bronze, drawn or embroidered eye of Stalin.” Stalin’s image was everywhere, and through the work of these artists, he was elevated to the level of a God. Socialist Realism was a very successful and powerful form of art. This artistic movement represented the creative efforts of countless of Russian artists accomplishing the goal of a more positive, unified and glorified outlook for the masses. The artists’ ability to portray a more handsome and more benevolent ruler worked to calm the masses as well as keeping them in check. The decades of propaganda devoted to Stalin’s strength, wisdom, kindness and determination to destroy all enemies of the Soviet Union definitely contributed to the huge amount of grief exhibited by the Russian people upon his death.
After Stalin’s death, Khrushchev presented a report to the Twentieth Party of Congress entitled “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences”. This report outlined the details of Stalin’s murderous activities and the evils of self promotion. Considering the huge amount of art devoted to Stalin, it is amazing to note how quickly it all vanished after this speech. Statues were taken down, thousands of pictures disappeared and even Stalin’s own body was taken out of Lenin’s tomb, cremated and the ashes scattered. There must now be millions of Russians who have never seen one of these mandatory works of art devoted to Stalin, but is this a good thing. Shouldn’t the documentation of history always be available for us to remember and learn?
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The following articles and books were referenced in this blog:
http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Stalin-Biography-Jeffrey-Zuehlke/dp/0822534215
