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A Hall of Mirrors: Sovietizing Culture under Stalinism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Malte Rolf
Malte Rolf*
Affiliation:
University of Hannover
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Abstract

This article explores how culture in the USSR became “Soviet.” Malte Rolf describes how different fields of communication and cultural production generated criteria that could be used to attach the label “Soviet” to all features of culture. Sovietizing culture was a work in progress, and various institutions, agencies, and experts actively participated in defining an adequate “Soviet style.” Focusing on this interplay of agencies and taking mass festivals as an example, Rolf portrays the dynamics of a growing selfreferentiality within Soviet culture in the 1930s in such cultural spheres as architecture, city planning, and mass celebrations. Under Stalinism, canonized “Soviet” standards also set the agenda for everyday communications. By reproducing an officially privileged agenda, participants in these daily communications encouraged a cultural inner Sovietization during the prewar decade. This article explores how and why the cultural canon of a closed system of “Soviet” references made its way so smoothly into die microstructures of society.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 68 , Issue 3 , Fall 2009 , pp. 601 - 630
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 2009

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References

I am deeply grateful to Todd Weir for his helpful comments and suggestions. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers and Mark D. Steinberg for their comments, which have greatly enriched this article, and for their encouragement to sharpen my argument.

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80. On establishing the party line in literature and the creation of the socialist realist canon, see, e.g., Babichenko, D. L., ed., “Schast'e literatury“: Gosudarstvo ipisateli. 1925-1938 gg. Dokumenty (Moscow, 1997)Google Scholar; Beyrau, Dietrich, “Der organisierte Autor: Institutionen, Kontrolle, Fürsorge,” in Gorzka, Gabriele, ed., Kultur im Stalinismus: Sowjetische Kunst und Kultur der 1930er bis 50erjahre (Bremen, 1994), 60–77 Google Scholar; Clark, , Petersburg, Crucible of Cultural Revolution, 284–307 Google Scholar; Dobrenko, Evgeny, The Making of the State Reader: Social and Aesthetic Contexts of the Reception of Soviet Literature (Stanford, 1997)Google Scholar; Gunther, Hans, Die Verstaatlichung der Literatur: Entstehen und Funktionsweise des sozialistisch-realistischen Kanons in der sowjetischen Literatur der 30erfahre (Stuttgart, 1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81. Iudin, , Narodnyeprazdnestva, 48 Google Scholar; Gliazer, S., Narodnyeprazdnestva: Vpomoshch’ organizatoru i oformiteliu pervomaiskogo prazdnika (Moscow, 1938), 2 Google Scholar. Also, festival experts themselves fostered political interference. Calls for the guiding role of political institutions were legion. See, e.g., Kuznetsova, et al., Oformleniegoroda v dni revoliutsionnykh prazdnestv, 68 Google Scholar.

82. For an illuminating interpretation of this interaction in the field of literature, see Lahusen, Thomas, How Life Writes the Book: Real Socialism and Socialist Realism in Stalin's Russia (Ithaca, 1997)Google Scholar. For the field of music, see Matthias Stadelmann, IsaakDunaevskii— Sanger des Volkes: Eine Karriere unter Stalin (Cologne, 2003), 207-11. The same could be said for scientific fields of knowledge such as medicine, biology, or anthropology. See, e.g., Naiman, Eric, “Discourse Made Flesh: Healing and Terror in the Construction of Soviet Subjectivity,” in Halfin, Igal, ed., Language and Revolution: Making Modern Political Identities (London, 2002), 287–316 Google Scholar. Consider also a different case of paradigm setting. When Stalin himself stated that it was “well known” that the Soviet Union consisted of 60 nationalities, Soviet ethnographers rushed to reduce the much larger number of hitherto acknowledged nationalities (about 100) to this new figure. The concrete decision about which ethnic groups would lose their official status as a nationality was made by the ethnographers themselves. See the fascinating account by Hirsch, Francine, Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union (Ithaca, 2005), 273–308 Google Scholar.

83. See Ringer, , Fields of Knowledge, 4–8 Google Scholar. Michel Foucault has pointed to the formative power of matrixes or configurations of knowledge shaped by various institutions that thus control the concepts that are available to contemporaries. See Foucault, Michel, Archäologie des Wissens (Frankfurt am Main, 1997), 33–36 Google Scholar; Foucault, Michel, Die Ordnung des Diskurses (Frankfurt am Main, 1997), 10–14, and 41-45Google Scholar.

84. For officially sponsored publications and institutions, see Danilevskii, , Ulitsa iploshchad' v Oktiabr'skie dni, 1 Google Scholar; Tsekhnovitser, Orest, Prazdnestva revoliutsii (Leningrad, 1931), 1 Google Scholar; Moskovskii gubernskii sovet professional'nykh soiuzov, ed., Materialy po provedeniiu 10-oi godovshchiny Oktiabria v rabochem klube, krasnom ugolke i biblioteke: Izo-oformlenie Oktiabr'skikh prazdnestv (Moscow, 1927); Gosudarstvennyi institut istorii iskusstv, ed., Massovye prazdnestva: Sbornik komiteta sotsiologicheskogo izucheniia iskusstv (Leningrad, 1926).

85. GARF, f. 3316, op. 19, d. 869,1. 19.

86. Danilevskii, Ulitsa i ploshchad’ v Oktiabr'skie dni.

87. Tsekhnovitser, , Demonstratsiia i karnaval, 24–26 Google Scholar.

88. TsDNIVO, f. 37, op. 1, d. 363,1. 4; Gvozdev, , “Problema narodnosti v istorii teatra“; “Prazdnik pervoi borozdy,” Kul'turnyi front, nos. 3-4 (1931): 19–21 Google Scholar; “Plan provedeniia 1 maia,” Kommuna, no. 92 (23 April 1929): 4.

89. See Iudin, Narodnye prazdneslva; Gliazer, Narodnye prazdnestva. See also Miller, Frank, Folklore for Stalin: Russian Folklore and Pseudofolklore of the Stalin Era (Armonk, N.Y., 1990)Google Scholar; Weiss, Daniel, “Miϐbrauchte Folklore? Zur propagandistischen Einordnung des 'sovetskii fol'klor,'” in Rathmayr, Renate and Weitlaner, Wolfgang, eds., SlavistischeLinguistik 1998: Referate des XXTV. Konstanzer Slavistischen Arbeitstreffens (Munich, 1999), 283–324 Google Scholar.

90. See, e.g., Gvozdev, “Massovye prazdnestva na zapade.“

91. See, e.g., Smith, Susannah Lockwood, “From Peasants to Professionals: The Socialist-Realist Transformation of a Russian Folk Choir,” Kritika 3, no. 3 (Summer 2002): 427-58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

92. Podvoiskii, and Orlinskii, , Massovoe deistvo, 3 Google Scholar; Riumin, , Massovye prazdnestva, 20–22, and 71-72Google Scholar.

93. RGASPI, f. 357, op. 1, d. 19, 11. 9-11; G. Labunskaia and A. Eisner, 5 chem i kak vykhodit’ na ulitsu: Oformlenie demonstratsii (Moscow, 1928), 48.

94. Riumin, Massovye prazdnestva; Lisovskii, M., Oktiabr’ v klubakh: Sbornik materialov k prazdnovaniiu godovshchiny Oktiabr'skoi revoliutsii (Moscow, 1927)Google Scholar; Moskovskii gubernskii sovet professional'nykh soiuzov, ed., Materialy po provedeniiu 10-oi godovshchiny Oktiabria.

95. GARF, f. 3316, op. 13, d. 28, 11. 42ob.-43; RGASPI, f. 17, op. 144, d. 761, 11. 64-66.

96. See, e.g., Eaton, Katherine Bliss, Enemies of the People: The Destruction of Soviet Literature, Theater, and Film Arts in the 1930s (Evanston, 2002)Google Scholar; Volkov, Solomon M., Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary Relationship between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator (London, 2004)Google Scholar.

97. Dobrenko, , The Making of the State Reader, 193-95Google Scholar; Rittersporn, Gábor T. et al., “Open Spaces and Public Realm: Thoughts on the Public Sphere in Soviet-Type Systems,“ in Rittersporn, Gabor T. et al., eds., Between the Great Show of the Party-State and Religious Counter-Cultures: Public Spheres in Soviet-Type Societies (Frankfurt am Main, 2003), 435-38Google Scholar. For a discussion of a “Soviet vox populi” after 1953, see Reid, Susan E., “In the Name of the People: The Manège Affair Revisited,” Kritika 6, no. 4 (Fall 2005): 673-716CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

98. References to the “demands of the masses” were legion. See Tsekhnovitser, , Demonstratsiia i karnaval, 14, and 31-33Google Scholar; Riumin, , Massovyeprazdnestva, 71–74 Google Scholar.

99. For different forms of “speaking out,” see Cassiday, Julie A., The Enemy on Trial: Early Soviet Courts on Stage and Screen (DeKalb, 2000)Google Scholar; Hellbeck, Jochen, “Speaking Out: Languages of Affirmation and Dissent in Stalinist Russia,” Kritika 1, no. 1 (Winter 2000): 71–96 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fitzpatrick, Sheila, “Supplicants and Citizens: Public Letter-Writing in Soviet Russia in the 1930s,” Slavic Review 55, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 78–105 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

100. For petitions, see GANO, f. 4, op. 3, d. 300,1. 8; for tickets, see GAKO, f. R. 64, op. 2, d. 338,1. 21; for official gifts and rewards, see GAKO, f. R. 18, op. 1, d. 350,1. 15; GAKO, f. R. 18, op. l, d. 350,11. 16-20.

101. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 114, d. 761, 11. 25-33; GANO, f. 22, op. 3, d. 157, 11. 1-4; GANO, f. 190, op. 2, d. 59, 11. 119-24. For making use of practices of denunciation, see also Fitzpatrick, Sheila, “Signals from Below: Soviet Letters of Denunciation of the 1930s,“ Journal of Modern History 68, no. 4 (December 1996): 853-54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

102. Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Voronezhskoi Oblasti (GAVO), f. 10, op. 1, d. 1844, 11. 26-30; TsDNIVO, f. 3, op. 1, d. 2249,1. 301; GANO, f. R. 1020, op. 1, d. 53, 11. 1-23. For a further elaboration of this Soviet target-date mentality, see Rolf, “Constructing a Soviet Time,” 455-59.

103. GANO, f. 896, op. 1, d. 353, 11. 108-10; GAKO, f. R. 18, op. 1, d. 350, 1. 1; NFGAKO, f. R. 1, op. 1, d. 267,11. 52-62ob. and 87-114.

104. GANO, f. 4, op. 3, d. 300, 1. 45; GANO, f. 4, op. 3, d. 296, 11. 28-31; GANO, f. 1020, op. 1, d. 106, 11. 1-3. For similar cases in Leninsk-Kuznetskii and Voronezh, see GANO, f. 4, op. 33, d. 228,1. 77; TsDNIVO, f. 3, op. 1, d. 2952.

105. GANO, f. 1020, op. 1, d. 53, 11. 10-12; GANO, f. 47, op. 1, d. 421, 1. 3; GANO, f. 2, op. 1, d. 3327,11. 5-9; TsDNIVO, f. 3, op. 1, d. 37,1. 280.

106. “Zubnaia shchetka i gazety budut v nashei sem'e,” Kommuna, no. 252 (1 November 1933): 3. For an expansion of political language to other realms, see also Kenez, , Birth of the Propaganda State, 255-56Google Scholar.

107. The phrase “speaking Soviet” is, of course, inspired by Stephen Kotkin's “speaking Bolshevik.” I would argue, though, that the regime expected people to speak and act in a “Soviet” rather than in a “Bolshevik” way. “Bolshevik” carried a strong political connotation, while “Soviet” was much more widely used for everyday items and practices. For “speaking Bolshevik,” see Stephen Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization (Berkeley, 1995), 198-201. This is not to say that people necessarily “believed” in what they were saying or doing. In this focus on the dynamics of communication, the believedisbelieve debate is not of primary interest. It did not matter so much whether participants were convinced that they were serving the cause of revolution or acting in strategic ways to smooth their careers. Most of die time this was a difficult distinction to make anyway, but in the course of establishing and tightening a Soviet set of communicative regulations, personal motifs were not crucial. Only the general commitment to follow the guidelines of these regulations was of importance. For the debate on the role of belief in the game of “speaking Soviet/Bolshevik,” see, e.g., Kotkin, , Magnetic Mountain, 609-12Google Scholar; Hellbeck, Jochen, “Fashioning the Stalinist Soul: The Diary of Stepan Podlubnyi (1931-1939),“ in Fitzpatrick, Sheila, ed., Stalinism: New Directions (London, 2000), 99–102 Google Scholar; Rolf, , Das sowjetische Massenfest, 248-52Google Scholar; Tucker, , Stalin in Power, 526-29Google Scholar.

108. Popov, N., “Novyi ‘sovetskii’ kalendar',” Kul'turnyi front, no. 10 (1929): 9–13 Google Scholar.

109. TsDNIVO, f. 1, op. 1, d. 1975,11. 34-35.

110. “Tam, gde zhivut po sovetski,” Voronezhskaia kommuna, no. 159 (15 July 1927): 2.

111. See Hoffmann, David Lloyd, Stalinist Values: The Cultural Norms of Soviet Modernity (Ithaca, 2003), 45–48 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

112. NFGAKO, f. R. 1, op. 1, d. 267, 11. 71-120. For barrack number 8, see Kotkin, , Magnetic Mountain, 198–200, and 215-17Google Scholar.

113. E.g. Arzhilovsky, Andrei, “Diary,” in Garros, Véronique et al., eds., Intimacy and Terror: Soviet Diaries of the 1930s (New York, 1995), 119 Google Scholar; Zinaida Denis'evskaia, Otdel rukopisei Rossiiskoi gosudarstvennoi biblioteki, f. 752, op. 2, d. 4 (entries from 7 November 1930, 1 May 1931, and 1 May 1932); Leder, Mary, My Life in Stalinist Russia: An American Woman Looks Back (Bloomington, 2001), 31–32 Google Scholar; Lugovskaya, Nina, The Diary of a Soviet Schoolgirl, 1932-1937 (Chicago, 2003), 23–24, 45-46, 66-67, 92-94, 97-98, 171-73, and 190-91Google Scholar; Podlubnyj, Stepan, Tagebuch (Munich, 1996), 80, 100-102, 255-57, and 271Google Scholar; Galina Shtange, “Diary,” in Garros et al., eds., Soviet Diaries, 167-217, 169, 170, 190, 202, and 210; Ustrialov, Nikolai, ‘“Sluzhit'rodine prikhoditsia kostiami…’ Dnevnik N. V. Ustrialova 1935-1937 gg.,” Istochnik, nos. 5-6 (1998): 10 and 80Google Scholar.

114. Frolov, Ignat, “Diary,” in Garros, et al., eds., Soviet Diaries, 48–49 Google Scholar.

115. Kosterina, Nina, Tagebuch (Munich, 1973), 9 Google Scholar.

116. Ibid., 9-10.

117. GANO, f. 3, op. 3, d. 837,11. 8-16; GANO, f. 22, op. 3, d. 848,11. 5-7, 28, and 98; GAKO, f. P. 51, op. 1, d. 238,11. 8-21; NFGAKO, f. R. 1, op. 1, d. 267,11. 110-110ob.; Arzhilovsky, “Diary,” 118-20, and 156-58. On such tensions, see also Petrone, , “Life Has Become More Joyous Comrades,” 94–100 and 205-6Google Scholar.

118. For studies on implementing a “language of revolution,” see, e.g., Corney, Frederick C., Telling October: Memory and the Making of the Bolshevik Revolution (Ithaca, 2004)Google Scholar; Hellbeck, Jochen, Revolution on My Mind: Writing a Diary under Stalin (Cambridge, Mass., 2006), 55–67 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Steinberg, Mark D., Proletarian Imagination: Self, Modernity, and the Sacred in Russia, 1910-1925 (Ithaca, 2002)Google Scholar.

119. The Soviet way of reading had much in common with a premodern style of intensive and often collective reciting. See Schon, Erich, Der Verlust der Sinnlichkeit oderDie Verwandlung des Lesers: Mentalitatswandel um 1800 (Stuttgart, 1987), 177-79Google Scholar.

120. This is not to say that no life existed outside the Stalinist value system and that no resistance against it was possible. Large segments of society—like those in the outer peripheries of the empire or in the inner peripheries of the countryside—continued a way of life that was only marginally or indirectly touched by the Sovietizing forces of the regime. Numerous studies have demonstrated how the Stalinist propaganda and police apparatus failed in bringing “Soviet civilization” to these isolated cultural milieus. It did succeed in turning older unquestioned habits into self-reflective traditions, however. Such conscious-grown forms of non-Soviet culture now served as manifestations of reluctance to or even resistance against the official cultural canon. In this sense, even they had to relate to the Soviet norm.

Expressions of critical attitudes or deviant behavior during the 1930s often quite directly reproduced the official set of symbols, practices, or values. Thus, nonconformist popular chastiushki composed in the prewar decade, for example, were pervaded by references to the Soviet cultural canon they ridiculed. These little corners of renitent neglect or stubbornness, bitter irony or conscious subversion were meaningful for the regime's agents as much as for “ordinary” people. The subversive use of the system's symbols and rituals opened up spheres for cultural agency for many contemporaries. At the same time they also demonstrate how much it was a Sovietized cultural agenda that framed loyal as well as disloyal behavior.

This intense and sometime paradoxical mutuality of the regime's hierarchy of norms and the many forms of reluctance or resistance is, in my view, still understudied. Such a focus on the interdependency of norms and their alternation or subversion will not obscure the bitterness and brutality of this war over meaning and culture but may unearth some possible contemporary maneuvering even within the tight corset of the Sovietized cultural cosmos. And this surely deserves more of our attention. On traditional culture becoming self-reflective in the course of Bolshevik stigmatization and oppression, see, e.g., Baberowski, Jörg, “Die Entdeckung des Unbekannten: RuBland und das Ende Osteuropas,” in Baberowski, Jorg et al., eds., Geschichte ist immer Gegenwart: Vier Thesen zur Zeitgeschichte (Stuttgart, 2001), 9–42, esp. 42Google Scholar; Northrop, Douglas T., “Subaltern Dialogues: Subversion and Resist ance in Soviet Uzbek Family Law,” S/awcifewew 60, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 115-39Google Scholar. On popular resistance in the 1930s, see, e.g., Viola, Lynne, “Popular Resistance in the Stalinist 1930s: Soliloquy of a Devil's Advocate,” in Viola, Lynne, eds., Contending with Stalinism: Soviet Power and Popular Resistance in the 1930s (Ithaca, 2002), 17–43 Google Scholar; on the chastiushki, see Rittersporn, Gábor T., “Le régime face au carnaval: Folklore non conformiste en U.R.S.S. dans les années 1930,” Annates, no. 2 (2003): 471-96Google Scholar.

121. Hellbeck, , Revolution on My Mind, 55–67 Google Scholar.