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Socialist in Form, “National” in Content? Art and Ideology in Soviet Tajikistan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2020

Karolina Kluczewska Open the ORCID record for Karolina Kluczewska [Opens in a new window]  and
Niso Hojieva
Karolina Kluczewska*
Affiliation:
University of Giessen, Germany Tomsk State University, Russia
Niso Hojieva
Affiliation:
Independent researcher, Tajikistan
*
*Corresponding author: Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article examines the nexus between art and its ideological function, both discursively and in practice, in the Soviet socialist republics. Scrutinizing the case of visual monumental art in Soviet Tajikistan in the 1970s and 1980s, it can be seen that the geographical and cultural distance from Moscow, in addition to complex multi-actor and multi-level policy implementation channels, allowed for non-conventional artistic practices to develop in the Soviet periphery. The article highlights the role of local officials and, in particular, artists in re-appropriating the official identity formation process with specific ideas of “nationhood,” religion, and gender relations, while at the same time aspiring to comply with the dominant socialist realism doctrine. It is argued that, contrary to the prominent slogan “socialist in content, national in form,” artworks produced in the Soviet periphery were often socialist in form and “national” in content. While the artists skillfully worked within the monumental art tradition promoted by the state, thus relying on a socialist form, not infrequently the meaning of their works distorted, or even contradicted, the official ideology. Often this subversion was non-deliberate. Ultimately, however, the artworks ended up strengthening an autonomous local agency that policy-makers in Moscow sought to eradicate.

Keywords

artgenderidentityIslamSoviet Union
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , March 2022 , pp. 372 - 394
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Association for the Study of Nationalities

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