Jump to navigation Jump to russian euro dating site Not to be confused with social realism or real socialism. Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism was the predominant form of approved art in the Soviet Union from its development in the early 1920s to its eventual fall from official status beginning in the late 1960s until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Socialist realism was developed by many thousands of artists, across a diverse society, over several decades. Early examples of realism in Russian art include the work of the Peredvizhnikis and Ilya Yefimovich Repin. Shortly after the Bolsheviks took control, Anatoly Lunacharsky was appointed as head of Narkompros, the People’s Commissariat for Enlightenment. There were two main groups debating the fate of Soviet art: futurists and traditionalists.

Russian Futurists, many of whom had been creating abstract or leftist art before the Bolsheviks, believed communism required a complete rupture from the past and, therefore, so did Soviet art. The first time the term “socialist realism” was officially used was in 1932. The term was settled upon in meetings that included politicians of the highest level, including Stalin himself. Proletarian: art relevant to the workers and understandable to them. Typical: scenes of everyday life of the people.