1920–28
The day after the coup of 25 October 1917 that gave
itive Aesthetic (1903, republished more than once
power in Russia to the Bolsheviks, the long-time rev-
after the Revolution), envisaged the human organism
olutionary and art-theorist Anatoli Lunacharsky was
in terms of bio-mechanics and art which provided a
appointed head of Narkompros, the People’s Com-
“direct positive affect” acting on the body. Lu-
missariat for Enlightenment, the body responsible for
nacharsky imagined an aesthetic of regular forms,
art and education in the new state. Lunacharsky in-
rhythm, symmetry and rousing saturated colours.
herited a parlous situation. In Moscow and Petrograd
He assessed realistic painted images in simplistic
art treasures were being ruined and collections ran-
fashion as something like the equivalent of real-world
sacked in continued fighting; from 1918 until 1921
objects: a still-life, he argued, could provide power-
the Bolsheviks were involved in a full-scale civil war
ful taste and smell sensations. The sight of a healthy
and the opportunities for cultural development and
body, intelligent face or friendly smile was essential-
the production of art were minimal.
ly life-enhancing. Lunacharsky also aimed to dissolve
Lunacharsky appealed to artists to come to the
the opposition of materialism and idealism, as had
assistance of the new government. His call was first
Avenarius. Art was above all integral to the struggle
heeded above all by radical artists, the Russian fu-
for a better world. Artists should depict “the perfect
turists or “left” artists: those described today as mem-
person” or “the person striving for perfection” in an
bers of the Russian avant-garde. David Shterenberg,
art that Lunacharsky dubbed “realistic idealism”.
a “decided modernist” in Lunacharsky’s words, be-
The “realist-idealists” would transform the earth in-
came head of the Narkompros art department, Izo,
to a work of art and help in the education of the
where he surrounded himself with like-minded in-
“perfect person”. Lunacharsky’s ideas were in so
dividuals, including Vladimir Tatlin, Kazimir Male-
many respects echoed in the theory of Socialist Re-
vich, Vasily Kandinsky and the poet Vladimir
alism when it emerged some thirty years later that they
Mayakovsky. The critic Nikolai Punin edited the Izo
must be considered the prime pre-revolutionary
newspaper, Art of the Commune, where he identified
source.
the practice of his colleagues as the essential art of
One of the organizations sponsored by Narkom-
the new dispensation: “communism, as a theory of
pros was the proletkult (proletarian culture) movement
culture, cannot exist without futurism”. The futur-
headed Lunacharsky’s old friend, Alexander Bog-
ists envisaged Soviet art as a complete rupture with
danov. Like Lunacharsky, Bogdanov had speculated
the past. But even during the period of their ascen-
about art and culture long before the October Rev-
dancy there were polemics between artists of the left
olution. His science-fiction novel Red Star (1907)
and right, between futurists and traditionalists, and
imagined the art of a long-established socialist soci-
in the emergent discourse around art the crucial con-
ety on Mars as shown to a tourist, Lenni (possibly, a
cepts of realism and materialism began to be associ-
reference to Lenin, born Vladimir Ulyanov, the ori-
ated, too, with the work of traditional painters.
gin of whose nickname is shrouded in mystery to this
Lunacharsky’s own aesthetic thinking derived
day). On Mars the main theme of art is “the glorious
from empirio-criticism, a term used to describe the
human body”. Architecture is functional and devoid
work of the nineteenth-century philosophers Ernst
of decoration; the “aesthetic of powerful machines and
Mach and Richard Avenarius. Mach’s outlook was a
their harmonious movement” is pleasant to the Mar-
kind of phenomenalism which recognized only sen-
tians. After 1917 the proletkult movement grew to the
sations as real. Avenarius dreamed of a “bio-mechan-
point that by 1920 it was claimed it united “about a
ics” which would explain the functioning of the hu-
million workers”. The resolutions of the first all-Russ-
man organism in the world. Lunacharsky’s colleague
ian conference of the proletkults in the same year de-
in revolution but earlier rival in polemics, Lenin, ob-
scribed art as organizing cognition, feelings and as-
jected violently to Mach and Avenarius, especially
pirations “by means of living forms” and as “the most
Mach, and wrote a long and detailed tract to de-
powerful weapon for the organization of collective
bunk them entitled Materialism and Empirio-Criticism
forces”. Through the great wedge of such utterances
(1909) (Einstein, meanwhile, recognized Mach’s
the principle of the organizing capacity of art entered
thinking as a forerunner of his General Theory of Rel-
the Soviet cultural consciousness.
ativity). But Lunacharsky built a whole system of
When it came to art, Lenin, who headed the
aesthetics on empirio-criticism. Foundations of a Pos-
Bolshevik Party until his death in 1924, was complete21
1. Boris Kustodiev (Astrakhan 1878 – Leningrad 1927) The Bolshevik, 1920 Oil on canvas, 101 x 141 cm Moscow, The State Tretyakov Gallery
24
2. Pavel Filonov (Moscow 1883 – Leningrad 1941) Formula of the Petrograd Proletariat, 1920–21 Oil on canvas, 154 x 117 cm Saint Petersburg, The State Russian Museum
26
3. Isaak Brodsky (Sofievka [Ekaterinoslav] 1883 – Leningrad 1939) Ceremonial Opening of the Second Congress of the Third International, 1921–24 Oil on canvas, 320 x 532 cm Moscow, The State Historical Museum 4. Pyotr Shukhmin (Voronezh 1894 – Moscow 1955) The Order to Attack, 1927 Oil on canvas, 239 x 282 cm Moscow, The Central Museum of the Armed Forces
27
28
5. Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (Khvalynsk [Saratov] 1878 – Leningrad 1939) Death of a Commissar, 1928 Oil on canvas, 196 x 248 cm Saint Petersburg, The State Russian Museum
6. Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (Khvalynsk [Saratov] 1878 – Leningrad 1939) Workers, 1926 Oil on canvas, 96 x 106.5 cm Saint Petersburg, The State Russian Museum
29
7. Aleksandr Deineka (Kursk 1899 – Moscow 1969) The Defence of Petrograd, 1928 Oil on canvas, 210 x 238 cm Moscow, The Central Museum of the Armed Forces
30
8. Yuri Pimenov (Moscow 1903–77) War Invalids, 1926 Oil on canvas, 265.6 x 177.7 cm Saint Petersburg, The State Russian Museum
9. Aleksandr Samokhvalov (Bezhetsk [Tver] 1894 – Leningrad 1971) Conductress, 1928 Oil on canvas, 130 x 112 cm Saint Petersburg, The State Russian Museum
32
33
53a-c. Geli Korzhev (Moscow 1925) Communists, triptych, 1957–60 a. Workers’ Studio (Homer), left panel Oil on canvas, 290 x 140 cm b. Raising the Banner, central panel Oil on canvas, 156 x 290 cm c. International, right panel Oil on canvas, 285 x 128 cm Saint Petersburg, The State Russian Museum
106
53b. Raising the Banner, central panel, 1960 Oil on canvas, 156 x 290 cm Saint Petersburg, The State Russian Museum
107
53a. Workers’ Studio (Homer), left panel, 1960 Oil on canvas, 290 x 140 cm Saint Petersburg, The State Russian Museum
53c. International, right panel, 1957–58 Oil on canvas, 285 x 128 cm Saint Petersburg, The State Russian Museum
54. Viktor Ivanov (Moscow 1909–68) A Family. Year 1945, 1965 Oil on canvas, 175 x 254 cm Saint Petersburg, The State Russian Museum
110
55. Mikhail Trufanov (Nizhnie Peny [Kursk] 1921 – Leningrad 1987) Miner, 1959 Oil on canvas, 194 x 151 cm Saint Petersburg, The State Russian Museum
56. Viktor Popkov (Moscow 1932–74) Builders of Bratsk, 1960 Oil on canvas, 183 x 302 cm Moscow, The State Tretyakov Gallery
112
57. Pavel Nikonov (Moscow 1930) Geologists, 1962 Oil on canvas, 185 x 225 cm Moscow, The State Tretyakov Gallery
113