1. Socialist Realism
Among the various Communist revolutionary activities, one which played an important role was artistic activity, whose style of creation was called “socialist realism.” What, then, was socialist realism? Lenin said that art should stand on the side of the proletariat, as follows:
Art belongs to the people. The deepest wellspring of art must be found among the wide-ranging class of laborers…. Art should be based on their feelings, thoughts, and demands, and should grow along with them. 15
[Literature] must become party literature…. Down with non-partisan writers! Down with literary supermen! Literature must become part of the common cause of the proletariat, “a cog and a screw” of one single great Social-Democratic mechanism set in motion by the entire politically-conscious vanguard of the entire working class. 16
Also, the founder of socialist realism in literature, Maxim Gorky (1868 -1936), stated the following about socialist realism: For us writers, it is necessary in our life and in our creative work to stand on the high viewpoint―and only on that viewpoint that can see clearly all of the filthy crimes of capitalism, all of its mean and bloody intentions, and all of the greatness of the heroic activities of the proletariat. 17 In the contemporary age, writers assume the mission to play two roles at the same time, that of a midwife [to socialism] and a grave digger [to capitalism]. 18
The main goal of socialist realism lies in inspiring a socialistic, revolutionary world view, or world sense. 19
To state these sentiments in another way, writing poetry and novels, painting, and so forth, should all be carried out for the sole purpose of exposing the crimes of capitalism and praising socialism, and works should be created to inspire readers and viewers to stand up for revolution, with a righteously burning mind. Socialist realism was formulated by Soviet artists under the guidance of Stalin in 1932, and came to be applied to all artistic fields, including literature, drama, cinema, painting, sculpture, music, and architecture. It advocated the following:
(1) To describe reality accurately with historic concreteness in its revolutionary development.
(2) To match one’s artistic expression with the themes of ideological reform and the education of the workers in the socialist spirit.
What is the theoretical ground that gave rise to such socialist realism? This ground can be found in the Marxist theory of “basis and superstructure.” Marx stated in the Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy as follows: The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness [including art]. 20
Stalin further elaborated the theory of “basis and superstructure” as follows:
Having come into being, it [the superstructure] becomes an exceedingly active force, actively assisting its base to take shape and consolidate itself…. The superstructure is created by the base precisely in order to serve it, to actively help it to take shape and consolidate itself. 21
The superstructure is the product of one epoch, the epoch in which the given economic base exists and operates. The superstructure is therefore short-lived; it is eliminated and disappears with the elimination and disappearance of the given base. 22
To synthesize and summarize, the above quotes are saying that “Communist art must actively cooperate in eliminating the capitalist system and its superstructure, whereas in Communist society [socialist society], it must actively serve to maintain and strengthen its economic system, while educating the working people.” Based upon this theory, socialist realism was established.