The artistic intelligentsia as a subject of the social contract during the cultural revolution in the USSR (1930s)

Abstract

The article considers features of the social contract between the artistic intelligentsia and the Soviet political elite during the cultural revolution in the USSR. In that period the social contract was still paternalistic in nature, but being based not only on violence, but also on consent, on the general idea of implementing the social and cultural revolution and on benefits of various kinds that the creators could get from the new government. Since the late 20s, the management by the sphere of culture and art began to be centralized and the state became the main subject of cultural policy. Strict ideological control over the cultural process was carried out as well as the persecution of aesthetic dissent.

At the same time, loyal cultural figures are rewarded through government orders and by being given high social status, high salaries, granting rights to publications, personal exhibitions and business trips abroad, awards and prizes, solutions for household and family concerns, etc. The principle of “socialist realism” was declared as the dominant creative principle. The Soviet party and state leadership enjoyed exceptional opportunities to influence the formation and change of the public consciousness of the Soviet people through cultural production.