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Philosophy of art in the Soviet Union

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

John Somerville
John Somerville*
Affiliation:
Hunter College
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Extract

If the contemporary Soviet philosopher were asked to give a brief answer to the question, what is art, his reply would probably be that art is a reflection of reality, a reality that is largely social. What does he mean by this reply? First of all, that the subject matter of art is to a great extent made up of the social life of man, which is like a cornucopia whence flow situations, problems, themes, materials, conflicts, and struggles with which the artist deals. These things cannot help but be “reflected” in his work. It is not meant, however, that this reflection is in the nature of an inert and passive image which exercises no influence on what it reflects. As we shall see, the influence which it exerts, directly and indirectly, is very important.

Type
Articles
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 4 , Issue 3-4 , December 1945 , pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1945

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References

1 Dealt with below. J. S.

2 Cf. Plekhanov, Art and Society.N. Y. Critics Group Series, No. 3. J. S.Google Scholar

3 In English translation in Literature and Marxism: A Controversy by Soviet Critics, Ed. Angel Flores, p. 9. Critics Group Series, No. 9.Google Scholar

4 A Soviet reference work on the history of literature and literary criticism. At one time it was regarded as a standard authority.

5 Op. cit., pp. 9-10.

6 Op. cit., p. 31

7 Quoted op.cit., p. 43.

8 Quoted op. tit., p. 44.

9 Op. tit., p. IS.

10 Levin, F., a Soviet theorist, characterizes a certain textbook, written under the influence of vulgar sociology, as one that “represents a ‘scolding’ of the classical writers.“ Op. til., p. 67.Google Scholar

11 Pp. 311–312, Chicago: Kerr, 1904 Google Scholar.

12 Zetkin, Clara, Reminiscences of Lenin, p. 12. N. Y.: International, 1934 Google Scholar

13 “The Tasks of the Youth Leagues,” Speech Delivered at the Third All-Russian Congress of the Russian Young Communist League, October 2, 1920, Selected Works, ix, 470, 471.Google Scholar

14 Gathered together and translated into English in “Dialectics,” No. 6, Critics Group Press, Flores, Angel N. Y. Ed.. Several also appear in Lenin, Selected Works, vol. xi Google Scholar

15 Op. tit., p. 18.

16 For example, Walt Whitman makes this observation in Democratic Vislas: “America demands a poetry that is bold, modern, and all-surrounding and cosmical, as she is herself. It must in no respect ignore science or the modern, but inspire itself with science and the modern.” P. 315.Google Scholar

17 The most comprehensive of Soviet encyclopedias—a work projected in sixty-five volumes, some forty-five of which have been completed to date.

18 LXIV, 678 [Translation J. SJ.Google Scholar

19 Loc. cit., p. 675 [Translation J. SJ.Google Scholar

20 His report on “Soviet Literature” at the Congress of Soviet writers (1934), printed in English translation in Problems of Soviet Literature, Moscow: Cooperative Publishing Society, 1935.Google Scholar

21 This term is commonly used to cover the whole Soviet philosophy of art. Strictly speaking, it might be said to mean the theory of criticism within that philosophy of art.

22 The writer has tried to present documentation and data on some of the broader aspects of this problem in his chapter on Soviet philosophy in Twentieth Century Philosophy ed. Runes, N. Y. Philosophical Library, 1943, and in a paper on “Soviet Science and Dialectical Materialism” before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, printed in Philosophy of Science, January, 194.5Google Scholar

23 Article 121 of the Constitution guarantees the right of “instruction in schools being conducted in the native language.” Albert Rhys Williams reports that in 1940, “Teaching was going on in 75 languages.” (The Russians p. 183. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1945.) Soviet scholars have created alphabets for some forty languages which previously did not possess a written form. Books are published in languages numbering around a hundred. There are more than one hundred and fifty racial and national groups in the U.S.S.R., of which some fifty or sixty would probably be regarded as having significant populations, quantitatively speakingGoogle Scholar

24 That is, during the period of socialism. The theory usually has been that when world wide communism comes about, a single language and culture may evolve. Cf. Stalin's discussion of this point in his 1925 lecture at the University of the Peoples of the East, Leninism, I, 1934 edition. His thesis is that the process of encouraging and developing national cultures during the period of the building of socialism will make richer and deeper any universal culture that may later emerge, since this culture will represent a fusion of previously elaborated elements rather than an imposition of some one system and the suppression of others.

24 Lavretski, A., “Gorki on Socialist Realism.” International Literature, No.4, 1937.Google Scholar