Destalinization and taste, 1953-1963

Journal of Design History

Volumn 10, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 177-201

  Reid, Susan E ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34249195857     PISSN: 09524649     EISSN: 17417279     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jdh/10.2.177     Document Type: Review

References (200)

1. 'Voprosy dramaturgii. Za tochnost' i vyrazitel'nost' iazyka', Sovetskoe iskusstvo, 7 February 1953;
2. Editorial, 'Za posledovatel'noe provedenie printsipov sotsialisticheskogo realizma', Iskusstvo, no. 4, 1954, p. 4;
3. and F. Abramov, 'Liudi kolkhoznoi derevni v poslevoennoi proze', Novyi mir, no. 4, 1954, p. 225.
4. N.S. Khrushchev, speech to conference on construction questions, 7 December 1954, Pravda, 9 December 1954.
5. A. Saltykov, 'O khudozhestvennom kachestve promyshlennykh tovarov', Sovetskaia torgovlia, no. 9, 1954, pp. 22-31.
6. The term khaltura (lit. hack work) was used to translate 'kitsch' in a review of Clement Greenberg's essay 'Avant-Garde and Kitsch' by A. Chlenov, 'Tol'ko li nevezhestvo', Iskusstvo, no. 4, 1962, pp. 71-2. The characteristics Saltykov attributes to khaltura, including shoddiness, vulgarity, bad taste, derivativeness, and simulation, correspond to the conception of kitsch in English. The term poshlost' - roughly, vulgarity - was also widely used with these connotations: see note 79.
7. N. Zhukov, 'Vospitanie vkusa', Novyi mir, no. 10, 1954' pp. 159-76.
8. Readers' responses were also published: 'O vospitanii vkusa', Novyi mir, no. 2, 1955, pp. 247-54.
9. At the end of 1953, Novyi mir published Vera Panova's novel Seasons of the Year, which insisted that material things and decent living conditions mattered and affected man's ability to advance ideologically: 'Vremena goda', Novyi mir, two parts, November and December 1953.
10. Zhukov, 'Vospitanie vkusa', p. 162.
11. and Saltykov, 'O khudozhestvennom kachestve', pp. 29-30.
12. A. Kamenskii, 'Razmyshleniia u poloten sovetskikh khudozhnikov', Novyi mir, no. 7, 1956, pp. 194-5.
13. See the report on an important discussion of late 1955 in the Moscow Union of Soviet Artists (known variously as MOSKh, MSSKh, MOSSKh in accordance with changes in its status): 'Traditsii i novatorstvo', Iskusstvo, no. 2, 1956, pp. 17-22.
14. V. Kostin, 'O khudozhestvennosti', Iskusstvo, no. 2, 1956, p. 15.
15. On die moribund state of Soviet aesthetics in the postwar decade, see Iu. Rurikov, 'The individual, art, and science', Soviet Studies in Literature, no. 1,1965, pp. 4-6
16. (reprinted in English transl, from Voprosy literatury, no. 4, 1964).
17. Reformist polemics represented the development of Socialist Realism through the prism of the post-war period. In fact, at its inception in the early 1930s, artistic quality, or at least skill (masterstvo), was an important criterion of Socialist Realism. Compare Soviet sympathizer Jack Chen's discussion of the 'leftist prejudice' in the early revolutionary period that beauty was a bourgeois superstition', and his argument that beauty regained importance in the 1930s and 1940s, but was reconceived as pertaining to the relationship between the viewer and the work of art rather than a quality imminent in the art itself (i.e. the modernist or 'formalist' conception). Jack Chen, Soviet Art and Artists, Pilot Press, 1944, pp. 2-5, 58.
18. James P. Scanlan, Marxism in the USSR, Cornell University Press, 1985, pp. 297-9.
19. Some of the earliest attempts to reintroduce the problem of beauty include G. Nedoshivin, 'O probleme prekrasnogo v sovetskom iskusstve', in Voprosy teorii sovetskogo izobrazitel'nogo iskusstva, Moscow, 1950;
20. and N. Dmitrieva, 'Esteticheskaia kategoriia prekrasnogo', Iskusstvo, no. 1, 1952.
21. Kostin, 'O khudozhestvennosti', p. 15.
22. A. I. Burov, Esteticheskaia sushchnost' iskusstva, Iskusstvo, 1956, p. 11;
23. and see Scanlan, Marxism in the USSR, pp. 299ff.;
24. and Edward M. Swiderski, The Philosophical Foundations of Soviet Aesthetics: Theories and Controversies in the Post-War Years, D. Reidel, 1979.
25. Burov's book was signed to press on 25 January 1956, just before the Twentieth Congress opened. Other treatments of the problem of beauty include V. V. Vanslov, 'Sushchestvuet li prekrasnoe ob'ektivno?' Voprosy filosofii, no. 2, 1955;
26. his Soderzhanie i forma v iskusstve, Iskusstvo, 1956;
27. and his Problema prekrasnogo, Politicheskaia literatura, 1957;
28. Iu. Filip'ev, 'O krasote i ee roli v iskusstve', Iskusstvo, no. 8, 1960, pp. 28-33;
29. N. Dmitrieva, O prekrasnom, Iskusstvo, 1960;
30. E. Zhidkova, 'Puti prekrasnogo', Iskusstvo, no. 12, 1962, pp. 29-36;
31. and on 'technical aesthetics' and the category of beauty in industrial design, N. Voronov, 'Dizain, krasota, iskusstvo', Iskusstvo, no. 12, 1969, pp. 38-43.
32. N. Voronov, 'O nekotorykh voprosakh spetsifiki prikladnogo iskusstva', Iskusstvo, no. 4, 1956, p. 18.
33. see also A. Ginevskii, 'Nakanune s'ezda', Iskusstvo, no. 3, 1956, pp. 21-5.
34. K. Marx and F. Engels, Iz rannykh proizvedenii, Moscow, 1956;
35. To claim the reaffirmation of aesthetic experience as a 'return to Leninist principles' was problematic. For the contrary view that Lenin denied aesthetic value, see Margaret M. Bullitt, 'Toward a Marxist Theory of Aesthetics: the development of Socialist Realism in the Soviet Union', Russian Review, vol. 35, no. 1, 1976, p. 66.
36. D. T. Shepilov, 'Za dal'neishii rastsvet sovetskogo khudozhestvennogo tvorchestva', Iskusstvo, no. 2, 1957, p. 8.
37. 'Pervyi vsesoiuznyi s'ezd sovetskikh khudozhnikov', Iskusstvo, no. 3, 1957, pp. 3-36. The specificity and status of the so-called 'decorative-applied arts' figured large in the preliminary debates published in Iskusstvo in 1955-6.
38. As Nikita Voronov noted in 1956, the utilitarian arts were excluded from the category 'art' on the authority of the nineteenth-century Russian thinker Nikolai Chernyshevskii. Voronov, 'O nekotorykh voprosakh', p. 18.
39. 'Pervyi vsesoiuznyi s'ezd', p. 14.
40. Compare Margaret Rose's argument that the 'productivist' aesthetic of the 1920s avant-garde was closer to Marx's own aesthetic principles than was Socialist Realist naturalism: Margaret Rose, Marx's Lost Aesthetic, Cambridge University Press, 1985.
41. Gerbert Dubin, 'Dizain v sisteme sovremennoi sotsialisticheskoi kul'tury', in I. Korsakaite et al. (eds.), Iskusstvo Pribaltiki, Kunst, 1981, p. 307.
42. For the significance of 'dizain' in this period, see also Victor Buchli's discussion in this issue. For a Soviet definition of 'dizain', distinguishing it from decorative art or craft, see Voronov, 'Dizain, krasota, iskusstvo', pp. 38-43;
43. and for the history of the concept, N. Zaitseva, 'Chto takoe dizain?' Iunyi khudozhnik, no. 7, 1989, pp. 42-5.
44. This debate was initiated by I. Matsa, 'Mozhet li mashina byt' proizvedeniem iskusstva?' DI SSSR, no. 3, 1961, pp. 14-16.
45. Responses included Iu. Gerchuk, 'Mashina kak proizvedenie promyshlennogo iskusstva', DI SSSR, no. 2, 1962, pp. 31-3.
46. and 'Traditsii i novatorstvo', pp. 18-19.
47. Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, transl. Richard Nice, Routledge, 1984.
48. Vladimir Andrle, A Social History of Twentieth-Century Russia, Edward Arnold, 1994, p. 244;
49. and L. G. Churchward, The Soviet Intelligentsia, Routledge, 1973, pp. 3-4.
50. Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Cultural Front: Power and Culture in Revolutionary Russia, Cornell University Press, 1992, p. 4;
51. Churchward, The Soviet Intelligentsia;
52. Andrle, A Social History, pp. 239-44;
53. Dmitri N. Shalin, 'Intellectual culture', in Dmitri N. Shalin (ed.), Russian Culture at the Crossroads: Paradoxes of Postcommunist Consciousness, Westview Press, 1996, pp. 41-97;
54. and Vladimir Shlapentokh, Soviet Intellectuals and Political Power: The Post-Stalin Era, I. B. Tauris, 1990. Shlapentokh manifests the typical prejudices of Russian intellectuals in distinguishing between a 'true' and 'bogus-intelligentsia'.
55. For the significance 'professionalism' and 'painterly culture' held for reformist painters and their identification above all with the Cézannist tradition, see the statement by Pavel Nikonov in T. Iu. Vinogradova, comp., Nikolai Andronov, Nataliia Egorshina, Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1987, n.p.;
56. and N. Andronov, 'Zhivye traditsii', Iskusstvo, no. 9, 1962, p. 9.
57. In 1957 Party officials gained control of the Presidium (Politburo), hitherto dominated by government officials. See William J. Tompson, Khrushchev: A Political Life, Macmillan, 1995, pp. 174-99;
58. and Peter Hauslohner, 'Politics before Gorbachev: De-Stalinization and the roots of reform', in A. Dallin & G. Lapidus (eds.), The Soviet System in Crisis, Westview Press, 1991, pp. 42-5.
59. Hauslohner, 'Politics before Gorbachev', p. 45.
60. On leaving the exhibition '30 Years of MOSKh', Khrushchev reportedly told leaders of the art establishment, 'It is your business to fight against such phenomena as abstractionism. We won't have anything to do with it. You are artists, you are specialists in your own affairs and you must struggle with it.' Discussion in MOSKh, Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (henceforth RGALI) fond 2943, op. 2, ed. khr. 57. Similarly, Nina Moleva cites Khrushchev: 'Questions of evaluation of a work are your professional questions and you have no reason to call on me. Each should attend to his own affairs.' Nina Moleva, Manezh god 1962, Sovetskii pisatel', 1989, p. 8.
61. Discussion in MOSKh of Khrushchev's visit to the exhibition '30 Years of MOSKh' in December 1962, RGALI fond 2943, op. 2, ed. khr. 57, l. 38;
62. and E. I. Nikiforov, 'Iz fondov IsKhSD: Novoe o vystavke v Manezhe 1962 g.', Otechestvennye arkhivy, no. 2, 1993, p. 39.
63. For the argument that the Unions played an anti-totalitarian role, see N. Danilevich, 'Kak vyzhit' khudozhniku?' Sovetskaia kul'tura, 3 March 1990.
64. For a more critical assessment of the Union's ability to check the continued power of the command-administrative system and to prevent abuses of power, see Iu. Osmolovskii, 'Oglianis' v suete povsednevnosti', Tvorchestvo, no. 11, 1989, p. 1.
65. V. Kostin, 'V redaktsiiu gazety "Moskovskii khudozhnik"', Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 10, 30 November 1957;
66. and S. Rappoport, 'Podniat' rol' tvorcheskikh organizatsii', Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 5, May 1959.
67. The Moscow Artists' Union, founded 1932, was particularly insistent on its right to greater self-determination in the Thaw. Stalinists also seized the opportunity of the Party's commitment to devolution of control from the state bodies to social organizations, but, whereas reformers like Vladimir Kostin and Semen Rappoport proposed that the Ministry of Culture's responsibilities in regard to art be devolved to the nominally democratic, broad-based Artists' Union, the Stalinists proposed that they should be transferred to the élite Academy of Arts: E. Vuchetich, 'Velichie vremeni i iskusstvo', Izvestiia, 14 October 1959. In the event, the state bureaucracies retained considerable control.
68. Compare Craig Owens' discussion of the contested definition of 'the public' for art in the West: 'The public is a discursive formation susceptible to appropriation by the most diverse - indeed opposed - ideological interests ... Who is to define, manipulate and profit from the public today?': 'The Yen for Art', in Hal Foster (ed.), Discussions in Contemporary Culture, Bay Press, 1987, pp. 18, 23.
69. The popularity (narodnost') of art was one of the central precepts of Socialist Realism. However, the taste of the new Soviet audience was susceptible to manipulation by those in control of exhibiting art and mediating its reception. In a recent study of the role of ideological institutions in the 'formation of the Soviet reader', Evgenii Dobrenko has shown how state libraries determined readers' demands, such that Socialist Realism could be claimed to correspond to popular taste. Evgenii Dobrenko, 'Iskusstvo prinadlezhat' narodu. Formovka sovetskogo chitatelia', Novyi mir, no. 12, 1994, pp. 193-213.
70. On the problems of researching popular cultural preferences, see Maya Turovskaya, 'The tastes of Soviet moviegoers during the 1930s', in Thomas Lahusen (ed.), Late Soviet Culture, Duke University Press, 1993, pp. 95-107. Research is needed on the lay reception of art exhibitions in the Stalin period and on the way policy-makers used viewers' comments in visitors' books deliberately and selectively to construct the conception of 'popular' art.
71. but compare 'The Thaw and after', Soviet Culture, no. 6, July 1956, p. 8.
72. Boris Ioganson acknowledged the limitations of the mass viewer's artistic judgement: 'Of course, realist art is accessible to everyone's understanding, but does this mean that each viewer is able to judge all the qualities of painterly mastery?' B. V. Ioganson, 'Vysshe masterstvo zhivopisi', Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 3, 15 February 1958.
73. Reformist aesthetician Nina Dmitrieva acknowledged that artists were not always able to find a common language with the people. She, too, blamed this on the corruption of popular taste and denial that artistic comprehension required work on the part of the viewer: Nina Dmitrieva, 'Novatorstvo v iskusstve sotsialisticheskogo realizma', RGALI fond 2465, op. 1, ed. khr. 403, ll. 39-40.
74. A. Kamenskii, 'Tema i obraz', Iskusstvo, no. 2, 1955, pp. 17-18.
75. V. Kostin, 'Khudozhnik i sovremennost', Iskusstvo, no. 3, 1957, p. 43.
76. Ioganson, 'Vysshe masterstvo zhivopisi' (my emphasis); 'Obsuzhdenie vsesoiuznoi iubileinoi khudozhestvennoi vystavki', Iskusstvo, 1958, no. 3, p. 4;
77. and I. A. Serebriannyi, 'K bol'shei vzyskatel'nosti!' Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 3, 15 February 1958.
78. Kostin, 'Khudozhnik i sovremennost', p. 43.
79. Anatolii Kantor, 'Kak (ne) sozdavalsia Soiuz sovetskikh khudozhnikov', DI SSSR, no. 9, 1988, p. 19.
80. Laktionov identified himself with Stalinist demagoguery in 1963 in the aftermath of the so-called Manege Affair (generally regarded as the end of the cultural Thaw), in a sycophantic statement entitled 'Respect and love of the people is the highest reward', Pravda, 4 January 1963
81. (English translation in Current Digest of the Soviet Press, XV, no. 1, January 1963, p. 41).
82. Ivan Shevtsov, 'Sila khudozhnika', Ogonek, no. 15, 6 April 1958, p. 16;
83. and compare Dmitrii Osipov's later, equally demagogic account of the work and its contemporary reception: D. M. Osipov, Aleksandr Laktionov, Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1968.
84. L. Tanklevskii, 'V chem sila khudozhnika? O stat'e Ivana Shevtsova v zhurnale "Ogonek"', Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 10, 31 May 1958, p. 2;
85. 'Piatyi plenum pravlenii SKh SSSR', Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 11, 20 June 1958;
86. and 'V odnostoronnem osveshchenii', Sovetskaia kul'tura, 12 June 1958.
87. Pavel Nikonov at Discussion of Group Exhibition (the 'Group of Nine'), MOSKh, 9 June 1961, RGALI fond 2943, op. 2, ed. khr. 14, ll. 30-3.
88. The Party indicated its support for the liberal wing of the creative intelligentsia by choosing the newly reinstated liberal chief editor of Novyi mir Aleksandr Tvardovskii to present the report on literature. Neglecting so much as to mention Socialist Realism or partiinost', Tvardovskii insisted on the primacy of 'artistic quality'. See Paul Sjeklochka and Igor Mead, Unofficial Art in the Soviet Union, University of California Press, 1967, p. 81.
89. Aleksei Romanov, Vice-Director of the Central Committee Section of Propaganda and Agitation, also noted, 'the artistic factor is becoming an ever more weighty and visible means of the all-embracing growth of the people's spiritual strength'. A.V. Romanov, 'K moshchnomu pod'emu sovetskoi kul'tury', Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 1, 1962.
90. Grey Hodnett (ed.), Resolutions and Decisions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Vol. 4: The Khrushchev Years, 1953-1964, University of Toronto Press, 1974, pp. 167-263;
91. T.L. Thompson, Ideology and Politics, Westview Press, 1989, p. 5;
92. Ronald Hill, 'State and ideology', in Martin McCauley (ed.), Khrushchev and Khrushchevism, Macmillan, 1987, pp. 55-6;
93. and S. Gerasimov, 'S dumami o budushchem', Iskusstvo, no. 2, 1962, p. 2.
94. In regard to art and design, the Programme codified shifts of ideological emphasis that were already tabled at the Twenty-First Party Congress in 1959, which had required artists to become the Party's helpers in expunging the 'petit-bourgeois tastelessness' of the recent past and shaping the new Soviet person. See A. Goncharov, 'Stil' sovremennosti', Authorial ms. 1959, RGALI fond 2943, op. 1, ed. khr. 3750, l. 1.
95. The Programme also confirmed the First Secretary's oral pronouncements on art and literature since 1959, which were compiled and published as: N. S. Khrushchev, 'K novym uspekham literatury i iskusstva', Kommunist, no. 7, May 1961, pp. 3-16;
96. and further discussed in an editorial, 'Kommunizm i iskusstvo', Kommunist, no. 8, May 1961, pp. 3-10.
97. N. S. Khrushchev, 'Sovetskoe iskusstvo obogashchaet dukhovnuiu sokrovishchnitsu vsego chelovechestva', in N. S. Khrushchev, Vysokoe prizvanie literatury i iskusstva, Pravda, 1963, pp. 155 and 160-1.
98. N. Parsadanov, 'Programma KPSS i zadachi sovetskogo iskusstva', Tvorchestvo, no. 11, 1961, pp. 1-4.
99. V. Vanslov, 'Iskusstvo i vsestoronnee razvitie lichnosti', Iskusstvo, no. 3, 1962, pp. 2-6;
100. Vladislav Zimenko, 'Chelovek, kharakter, obraz', Iskusstvo, no. 1, 1962, pp. 5-6;
101. and V. Razumnyi, 'Tovarishchi na vkus i tsvet', Sovetskaia kul'tura, 11 March 1961.
102. Aesthetic education was closely related to moral education: V. V. Ustinov, Ob esteticheskom vospitanii, Lenizdat, 1961, p. 5;
103. Hodnett (ed.), Resolutions and Decisions, pp. 248-9;
104. Editorial, 'Istoricheskii s'ezd stroitelei kommunizma', Iskusstvo, no. 11, 1961, pp. 2-8;
105. Editorial, 'Kommunizm i iskusstvo', p. 5;
106. and I. Matsa, 'O zhivykh traditsiakh v sovetskoi zhivopisi', Tvorchestvo, no. 8, 1962, pp. 7-8.
107. A very important exegesis of the aesthetics of Khrushchevism was the Editorial, 'Aktual'nye voprosy estetiki v svete novoi Programmy KPSS', Voprosy filosofii, no. 9, 1962, pp. 3-14.
108. S. Kh. Rappoport, Tvorit' mir po zakonam krasoty, Sovetskii kompozitor, 1962, pp. 8 and 64-6.
109. Khrushchev, 'Sovetskoe iskusstvo obogashchaet', p. 155;
110. and Editorial, 'Aktual'nye voprosy', p. 11.
111. D. Bezrukova, 'Uroki odnoi vystavki', Iskusstvo, 1959, no. 8, p. 31.
112. The role of Moscow Youth Exhibitions in the destalinization of art and formation of a 'contemporary style' is examined in my doctoral dissertation: Susan E. Reid, 'Destalinization and the remodernization of Soviet art: the search for a contemporary Realism', 1953-1963, University of Pennsylvania, 1996.
113. P. Pokarzhevskii, 'Traditsii i novye puti v iskusstve', Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 10-11, May 1960;
114. and P. Malyshev, 'Kritika dolzhna byt' ob'ektivna', Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 10-11, May 1960.
115. D. Sarab'ianov, 'K voprosu o tvorcheskom mnogoobrazii sovetskogo iskusstva', Voprosy estetiki, no. 3, 1960, p. 44;
116. and Rappoport, Tvorit' mir po zakonam krasoty, pp. 53-5.
117. Dmitrieva, 'Novatorstvo v iskusstve', l. 41.
118. According to the Programme: 'All-round development of the individual has been made possible by historic social gains - freedom from exploitation, unemployment, and poverty, from discrimination on account of sex, origin, nationality, or race ... As less and less time is spent on material production, the individual is afforded ever greater opportunities to develop his abilities, gifts, and talents in the fields of production, science, engineering, literature, and the arts.' Hodnett (ed.), Resolutions and Decisions, pp. 248-9.
119. Platon Pavlov, 'Mnogoobrazie reshenii tematicheskoi kartiny', Iskusstvo, no. 6, 1960, pp. 14-15.
120. N. S. Khrushchev, 'Kul'tura sotsializma i kommunizma - vysshaia stupen' v kul'turnom razvitii chelovechestva', in Khrushchev, Vysokoe prizvanie literatury, pp. 160-1;
121. and 'Bol'she vnimaniia samodeiatel'nomu iskusstvu', Iskusstvo, no. 7, 1961, p. 27.
122. Much was published on aesthetic education and the development of popular taste in 1959-60, including: A. Saltykov, O khudozhestvennom vkuse v bytu, Iskusstvo, 1959 (discussed below);
123. A. Varnovitskaia, 'O probleme formirovaniia esteticheskogo vkusa', Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 4, April 1959;
124. and Editorial, 'Griadushchemu navstrechu', Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 10-11, June 1959 (issue dedicated to questions of taste and the design of everyday life).
125. The May 1962 issue of the central art journal Iskusstvo (Art) was devoted to aesthetic education, including articles on the training of young professional artists and the education of amateurs. Tvorchestvo also carried articles on the artistic education of the masses: M. Klimova, 'Ne pridetsia li pereuchivat'sia', Tvorchestvo, no. 2, 1961;
126. and A. Snit'ko, 'Eshche raz ob esteticheskom vospitanii', Tvorchestvo, no. 3, 1962.
127. There was growing interest in children's art education during the Thaw, for example, M. Chizhova, 'Esteticheskoe vospitanie v shkole', Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 2, January 1960;
128. and S. Levin, 'O spetsifike izobrazitel'nogo tvorchestva rebenka', Iskusstvo, no. 12, 1962, pp. 46-50.
129. Picture galleries and art circles were set up in workers' clubs, an 'All-Union Exhibition of Work by Amateur Artists' was held in 1961, and the relation between amateur art and the Artists' Union came under discussion. See, for example, A. Amshinskaia, 'Samodeiatel'nye khudozhniki', Iskusstvo, no. 5, 1962, pp. 11-19.
130. A. Aleksandrov, 'Iskusstvo shchedroe i trudnoe', Sovetskoe foto, no. 12, 1961, p. 4;
131. and E. Cheporov, 'Shkol'niki ovladevaiut fotografiei', Sovetskoe foto, no. 9, 1961, p. 20.
132. The All-Union Society for the Dissemination of Political and Scientific Knowledge was founded in 1947 and known as Znanie (Knowledge) from 1963. On the organization of cultural enlightenment see Anne White, De-Stalinization and the House of Culture, Routledge, 1990.
133. On television see O. Roitenberg, 'Razmyshlenie u televizora', Tvorchestvo, no. 5, 1962, pp. 21-2.
134. Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 14, August 1959.
135. A. Kamenskii, Zriteliu o zhivopisi, Iskusstvo, 1959.
136. Nina Dmitrieva also emphasized that 'the perception of art ... is also creative labour', demanding initiative, independence of judgement and creative thought. Dmitrieva, 'Novatorstvo v iskusstve', l. 41.
137. E. Neizvestnyi, 'Otkryvat' novoe!' Iskusstvo, no. 10, 1962, pp. 9-10.
138. and Matsa, 'O zhivykh traditsiakh', p. 5.
139. M. Gordeev, 'Khudozhnik i promyshlennoe proizvodstvo', Sovetskaia kul'tura, 3 January 1959.
140. L. Gutman, 'Chuvstvo prekrasnogo i vospitanie vkusa', Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 10-11, June 1959;
141. K. Iogansen, 'Rol' veshchi v esteticheskom vospitanii', DI SSSR, no. 5, 1961, pp. 2-3;
142. and N. Voronov at conference on 'Tradition and Innovation in the Art of Socialist Realism', 26 November 1962, RGALI fond 2465, op. 1, ed. khr. 404, l. 30.
143. Georgii Mariagin, 'Avtomaty i krasota', Ogonek, no. 24, 7 June 1959, pp. 20-1;
144. V. Ariamov, 'Avtomobil' kak proizvedenie iskusstva', DI SSSR, no. 10, 1960, pp. 23-5;
145. I. Artobolevskii, 'Krasota v tekhnike', DI SSSR, no. 5, 1960, pp. 3-4;
146. and K. Kantor, 'Tekhnicheskaia estetika i proizvodstvennoe iskusstvo', DI SSSR, no. 9, 1960, pp. 18-19.
147. Applied artist Andrei Goncharov argued: 'In creating useful things - useful not only in their direct practical purpose but in that these things will give people aesthetic pleasure - the artist takes active part in the education and formation of good taste.' A. Goncharov, 'Stil' sovremennosti', 1959, RGALI fond 2943, op. 1, ed. khr. 3750, l. 1.
148. Mikhail Ladur, a choreographer of mass festivals and founding editor of DI SSSR, proposed that mass entertainment be consciously directed towards forming aesthetic sensibilities: M. Ladur, 'Iskusstvo radosti', Sovetskaia kul'tura, 1 May 1966
149. reprinted in M. F. Ladur, Iskusstvo dlia millionov. Zametki khudozhnika, Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1983, p. 103.
150. In response to the Stalin Constitution of 1936, the 'Wives of Artists' were summoned to 'struggle against vulgarity in everyday life by popularizing fine art among the working masses'. 'Obrashchenie k zhenam sovetskikh khudozhnikov i skul'ptorov' (1936), RGALI fond 2943, op. 1, ed. khr. 75, l. 10. On the view of women as a 'civilizing force' in Soviet society, see also Fitzpatrick, 'Becoming cultured', in The Cultural Front, p. 231;
151. 'Zhenshchiny, eto dlia vas!' Ogonek, no. 24, June 1960;
152. N. Khrabrova, 'V poiskakh krasivogo, udobnogo', Ogonek, no. 10, 6 March 1960;
153. and N. Makarova, 'Iskusstvo riadom s modoi: Ne ia dlia mody, a moda dlia menia', DI SSSR, no. 1, 1961, pp. 39-42.
154. A sense of measure was counterposed to the excessive cult of (westernized) style for which the youth counterculture, the Stiliagi, were repeatedly castigated. For a recent, English-language attempt to analyse the Soviet fashion discourse in this period, see Ol'ga Vainshtein, 'Female fashion, Soviet style: bodies of ideology', in Helena Goscilo & Beth Holmgren (eds.), Russia-Women-Culture, Indiana University Press, 1996, pp. 64-93.
155. Saltykov, O khudozhestvennom vkuse v bytu;
156. 'Krasivoe v byt', Ogonek, no. 13, 1959, p. 16;
157. A. Goncharov, 'Vkhodi v nash dom, narodnoe iskusstvo', Ogonek, no. 42, 16 October 1960, p. 24;
158. N. Voronov at conference on 'Tradition and Innovation' (26 November 1962), RGALI fond 2465, op. 1, ed. khr. 403, l. 50;
159. and S. Gerasimov, 'Iz doklada na plenume', Tvorchestvo, no. 12, 1959, p. 9.
160. L. Kamenskii, 'Mebel' vashei kvartire', DI SSSR, no. 1, 1961, p. 43;
161. and N. Svetlova, 'Tvoi dom', Ogonek, no. 3, 11 January 1959, p. 15.
162. I. Gil'ter, 'Ugolok rebenka'
163. and I. Sidorov, 'Tsvety v komnate', Ogonek, no. 24, June 1960.
164. Compare Svetlana Boym on the vulgarity of the rubber plant in Laktionov's high Stalinist interior, Common Places: Mythologies of Everyday Life in Russia, Harvard University Press, 1994, pp. 7-8.
165. A summary of the almanach Iskusstvo i domashnii byt was given by its editor, Mil'vi Kartna-Alas, 'Iskusstvo i byt', Ogonek, no. 25, 19 June 1960, pp. 20-2.
166. and Eric Newton, The Meaning of Beauty, Penguin Books, 1962, p. 152 (first published Longman, Green, 1959).
167. N. Zhukov, 'Ochen' vovremia', Tvorchestvo, no. 11, 1959, p. 24.
168. M. Tydman, 'Pamiatniki arkhitektury - vazhneishee sredstvo esteticheskogo vospitanii naroda', Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 2, January 1960;
169. G. L'vov, 'Osteregaites' poshlosti - borites' za khoroshii vkus!' Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 10-11, June 1959;
170. L. Mul'iar, 'Kartine - dorogu v kvartiry trudiashchikhsia!' Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 10-11, June 1959;
171. M. Taraev, 'Pervyi vserossiiskii s'ezd khudozhnikov', DI SSSR, no. 9, 1960, p. 3;
172. M. Gordeev, 'Protiv bezvkusitsy. Poshlost' iz anodirovannogo alluminiia', DI SSSR, no. 1, 1962, p. 44;
173. I. Suvorova, 'Na urovne plokhogo rynka', DI SSSR, no. 6, 1962, p. 46;
174. O. Aizenshtat, 'Neuvazhenie k plastmasse', DI SSSR no. 1, 1962, pp. 46-7.
175. On 'philistine mimicry', see Iu. Gerchuk, 'Dostovernost' i pravda', Tvorchestvo, no. 10, 1965, p. 3.
176. The self-defined 'true' intelligentsia distinguished itself from the neophite 'pseudo-intelligentsia' by associating the latter with imitativeness, pretension, and ersatz culture. Stalinist culture was characterized in the Thaw as counterfeit or 'varnishing of reality'. Imitativeness features alongside vulgarity, small-mindedness, and material acquisitiveness in the catalogue of negative qualities identified with the value-laden term meshchanstvo or 'petit bourgeoisie' by Vera Dunham, in her seminal analysis of 'middle-class values' in Stalinist culture: Vera S. Dunham, In Stalin's Time: Middle-Class Values in Soviet Fiction, Cambridge University Press, 1976, p. 18.
177. See also Svetlana Boym's exegesis of the range of meanings subsumed under the Russian word poshlost', which in some senses comes close to 'kitsch', including the senses vulgarity, tackiness, obscene banality, sham, and outmodedness. Boym, Common Places, pp. 41-8.
178. See, for example, I. Zhvirblis, 'Doma s privideniem', DI SSSR, no. 6, 1962, p. 43.
179. A speaker at a discussion in MOSKh in 1959 undoubtedly had the ornate, historicist extravagance of high Stalinism in mind when he declared: 'We have no right to mercantile (kupetskoi) luxury.' 'Problemy formirovaniia sovremennogo stilia v sovetskom izobrazitel'nom iskusstve', Discussion in MOSKh, 27 May 1959, RGALI fond 2943, op. 1, ed. khr. 2979, l. 54. Compare Victor Buchli's discussion in this issue.
180. See also Vera S. Dunham, 'The changing image of women in Soviet literature', in Donald R. Brown (ed.), The Role and Status of Women in the Soviet Union, Teachers College Press, 1968, p. 63.
181. Varnovitskaia, 'O probleme formirovaniia esteticheskogo vkusa'.
182. Iogansen, 'Rol' veshchi'. At best, they conceded, 'decorative-applied artists' produced unique works of decorative art for exhibition. But what use were exhibition pieces if they were not to be put into mass production and sold in the shops? See I. Rozenfel'd, 'Spor o vkuse', Sovetskaia kul'tura, 9 September 1961.
183. Zhvirblis, 'Doma s privideniem', pp. 43-5.
184. In an open letter to the press prominent artists, including S. Konenkov, Iu. Pimenov, N. Tomskii, D. Shmarinov, and the 'Kukryniksy', complained that factories continued to produce ornate glassware because it sold at twice the price, making it easier to fulfil the plan: Mariagin, 'Avtomaty i krasota', p. 21; and Taraev, 'Pervyi vserossiiskii s'ezd khudozhnikov', p. 3.
185. 'Problemy formirovaniia sovremennogo stilia', ll. 50-6.
186. L. Polivnik, 'O pochtovykh otkrytkakh i konvertakh', Moskovskii khudozhnik, no. 10-11, June 1959.
187. Iogansen, 'Rol' veshchi', p. 3.
188. Rozenfel'd, 'Spor o vkuse'.
189. Goncharov, 'Stil' sovremennosti', 1959, l. 2;
190. and L'vov, 'Ostergaites'.
191. 'Zelenuiu ulitsu'.
192. Suvorova, 'Na urovne', pp. 46-7.
193. The founding congress of the Russian Federation Artists' Union in 1960 demanded greater authority for professionally trained artists and artistic councils in light industry: Editorial, 'Pervyi vserossiiskii s'ezd khudozhnikov', DI SSSR, no. 9, 1960, p. 1.
194. Varnovitskaia 'O probleme formirovaniia esteticheskogo vkusa'; and Iogansen, 'Rol' veshhchi', p. 3.
195. The Design Centre of Great Britain was discussed by A. Ikonnikov, 'O 'Dizain-tsentre', DI SSSR, no. 6, 1962, pp. 38-9. In 1962 the Institute of Technical Aesthetics, VNIITE, was established to set design standards.
196. L'vov, 'Ostergaites'.
197. Taraev, 'Pervyi vserossiiskii s'ezd khudozhnikov', p. 3.
198. Dmitrieva, 'Novatorstvo v iskusstve', ll. 37, 41.
199. Gordeev, 'Protiv bezvkusitsy', p. 44 (emphasis in original).
200. See, for example, Dmitrieva, 'Novatorstvo v iskusstve', ll. 39-40.