In the 1930s, American photographer James Abbe visited the USSR to get acquainted with and highlight Soviet theatrical life. In 1932, his book was published with photographs and personal descriptions of the time spent in the Soviet Union.
Sensational portrait of Stalin with a personal signature. During his reign, dangerous and cold as steel, mysterious and distant, Stalin, never before or after agreed to pose for a photographer and signed only two photographs during his reign.
Night in Moscow view from the hotel where James Abbe lived 
Ice drift on the Moscow River 
Twentieth anniversary of the government organ of the Pravda newspaper. The giant banner reminds that "the press must serve as an instrument of socialist education." 
Women workers are more efficient and reliable than men 
On May Day, more than a million Red Army soldiers and workers march through Red Square, most often by order. 
"We have nothing to lose but our chains" is written on banners. Passing through Red Square, this group of workers must pretend to "break their chains." 
Pioneers sell government bonds for the second five-year plan. 
Shooting various accidents on the streets of Mokva was strictly prohibited, the photographer risked his freedom when he took this picture. During the solemn parade on Red Square, a collision occurred, horse artillery, galloping at breakneck speed, crashed into another cavalry. The slogan in Chinese reads "Long live the Soviet Republic." 
The group at Lenin's mausoleum, from right to left: Kalinin, Ordzhonikidze, Voroshilov, Stalin, Molotov and Gorky. 
Litvinov, Minister of Foreign Affairs. The chief diplomat of the USSR and an active propagandist of Bolshevism at the Geneva conferences, who "never gives interviews." Huge world map in the background. 
On their day off, Muscovites gather at the sports grounds. Strength, dexterity, speed and endurance are welcome in the country of councils. 
Waiting for a commuter train. Such photos are also prohibited! 
There is a poster on the facade of the Metropol Hotel: the church guards the wealth stolen from the exploited masses. Children carry banners: the priest is the brother of the pig. 
Wife and children of photographer James Abbe. 
Church in the village of Klyazma, a typical Russian temple. In the cities, the few bells that were not melted down no longer ring, but in the provinces, 60% of the churches are still working. 
Suburban newsstand. You don't have a chance to find the New York Times, Fortune or Harper's Bazaar magazine here. But fresh strawberries are sold here. 
Church funerals on the streets are prohibited, except in the cemetery, where real Bolsheviks never go. Peasants mourn their dead, lying in cardboard coffins. 
The church is mostly attended by women only. 
The hand of a saint from a monument destroyed by the communists, as if asking heaven for help. 
Director of the anti-religious museum in the Moscow Donskoy Monastery. He sits in the rector's father's chair and at his table. But he has completely different tasks. 
Comrade Smidovich, Soviet Antichrist, general director of anti-religious activities. His shadow on the wall of the study extends to the Russian land in order to extinguish the light that people have lived for twenty centuries. 
Metal engravers carve immortal names on century-old works of art. They replace the inscription "Romanovs" with "New Hotel Moscow". Tourists who steal silver spoons for souvenirs are completely delighted with such souvenirs. 
Wooden carved statues of Christ from three liquidated churches. The dark spot on the hand of the central figure is the place where peasants kissed it for centuries. "Absurd and unsanitary," the authorities say. 
Women and men swim almost naked, but only in different places. 
Balloons are sold even at thirty degrees below zero, and little Bolsheviks are taken out for a breath of fresh air, wrapping them in thick blankets with their heads, which makes one think about the definition of "breathe". 
Veteran revolutionaries who dreamed, fought, plotted and bombed during the czarist era now live in luxurious veterans' homes. 
A beautiful gesture of the current government - a previously popular Moscow cabaret, was given over to a peasant's house. 
If you are lucky and the horse wins at the races, the Soviet people can fulfill their cherished dream - to eat to satiety in the hippodrome restaurant. 
The former palace of Catherine the Great, which then served as a harem for royal dignitaries, and now it houses the military aviation academy. It's also a banned photo. 
A company of red commanders, advanced Soviet troops, at a parade in front of the headquarters building. The corner room on the second floor served as Napoleon's bedroom when he visited Moscow in 1812. 
This is not a soldier from a musical comedy, this is Comrade Major Sumarokova, the only female pilot in the Red Army. 
In Donbass, one of the best highways in the USSR. And also forbidden photos with power plants. 
Taking pictures of queues at the store is also prohibited. Clothing store. 
Lubyanskaya Square. Part of the Kitay-gorod wall. The Bolsheviks would have destroyed it too, if not for foreign tourists who love to look at the old days. 
GPU soldiers lined up near the Kremlin wall. In the background is a monument to John Reid, an American communist who is buried next to Lenin. Forbidden photo. 
Kremlin exhibits. The largest bell and the largest cannon in the world. The bell fell during installation on the bell tower and broke before it was rung. The cannon was never fired due to design errors. 
The funeral of Stalin's wife. There are snipers with rifles on every roof. The order was to shoot at the windows if they were opened. The photographer risked his life fifteen times by taking 15 shots from the Grand Hotel. 
We will destroy the whole world of violence
To the bottom and then
We are ours, we will build a new world, -
Who was nothing will become everything.
Building socialism means destroying everything old, even if it is the courtyard of the famous Winter Palace in Leningrad or another church condemned to destruction. 
On the Moscow campus 
The Ukrainian government building in Kharkiv is a fine example of architecture. 
The Anthropological Museum of Moscow University boasts the largest collection of human skulls in the world. Museum workers are cataloging the soldiers of yet another war. 
Publication in the American magazine New York Times 
Communal
The history of communal apartments began at the moment when the Soviet government came up with the idea of placing the proletariat in large multi-room apartments of the middle class of pre-revolutionary Russia. In the first years of its existence, the Soviet government, which had promised to give factory workers, became convinced that it was not even in a position to provide them with separate housing. The problem became especially urgent in large cities, the population of which grew at a rapid rate.
The Bolsheviks, with their characteristic propensity for simple solutions, found a way out - they began to settle several families in one apartment, allocating each a separate room with a common kitchen and bathroom. So the process of creating communal apartments was launched. Completely different people, often entire families, settled in an apartment consisting of several rooms. Accordingly, they had a room and a shared kitchen and bathroom.
Neighbors in communal apartments - people of different social status, vital interests and habits - lived in one place, intertwined destinies, quarreled and reconciled. “The relationship between the residents of the communal apartment, as a rule, was tense: everyday difficulties embittered people,” writes the writer Lev Stern in his memoirs about Odessa. “If sometimes you had to wait a long time in line for the toilet or the tap, it is difficult to expect warm relations between neighbors.”
As a rule, communal apartments were organized in apartment buildings - multi-storey buildings of royal construction, erected by the beginning of the 20th century in large cities. The communists set out to densify the population of these "bourgeois" nests as soon as they established control over the cities. "It is necessary to compact the dwellings, and in view of the lack of dwellings, we will resort to the eviction of those elements whose stay is not necessary," wrote the Kiev Communist newspaper on February 19, 1919, two weeks after the second attempt by the Bolsheviks to gain a foothold in Kiev. On behalf of the new government, the newspapers informed readers that "loafers, speculators, criminals, White Guards, and other elements, of course, must be deprived of apartments." In addition, in Soviet apartments, as it turned out, there should not be living rooms, halls and dining rooms. The Bolsheviks promised to leave the offices only to those who needed them for work - doctors, professors and responsible workers. As a rule, one or two floors were vacated for the new bosses. Former tenants and owners were placed in the same buildings, offering to release the square meters allocated for the needs of the government within 24 hours. Only the bed and essentials were allowed to be taken with them.
Shot from the film "Heart of a Dog"
The picture of K. S. Petrov-Vodkin “Housewarming” (1918) is indicative:
It shows in some detail the clash of the old aristocratic life and the representatives of the working people who moved to an unconventional home for them, the new masters of life. A large hall with a parquet floor, on which the new tenants have laid out village paths, next to a huge mirror and oil paintings hung on the walls in gilded frames, stools are placed mixed with carved chairs. Household items of opposite social strata conduct their own silent dialogue, echoing the realities of social life.
Literally a couple of years after the former tenement houses received new tenants - small-town proletarians who massively poured into large cities after the revolution, the authorities faced an unexpected problem: strong-looking housing, built of stone and brick, began to quickly become unusable. The poor, who ended up in the "master's mansions", did not appreciate them too much, because many newly-made tenants not only received housing for free, but at first were exempted from paying rent. The "proletariat" quickly finished off the sewers, plumbing and stoves. Garbage began to accumulate in the yards, which no one took out. And devastation set in, just like according to Bulgakov.
The fact that the apartment was a communal one could be seen even from the threshold - near the front door there were several call buttons with the names of the heads of families and an indication of how many times to call whom. All common areas - corridor, kitchen, bathroom, toilet - also had a few light bulbs, according to the number of families (no one wanted to pay for electricity used by a neighbor). And in the toilet, each had its own toilet seat, hanging right there on the wall. Common areas were cleaned on schedule. However, the concept of purity was relative, because each of the users had their own idea of it. As a result, fungus and insects have become constant companions of communal apartments.
This Soviet housing know-how for many years determined not only the life of the citizens of the USSR, but also became part of the urban subculture. Housing, conceived as temporary, managed to survive the Union.
Room in a communal apartment, 1950s
The action of some Soviet films takes place in communal apartments. Of the most famous: "Girl without an address", "Pokrovsky Gates", "Five Evenings".
Stalin's apartments 1930-1950s
After the cessation of 15 years of experiments to create a new aesthetics and new forms of hostel life in the USSR from the beginning of the 1930s, an atmosphere of conservative traditionalism was established for more than two decades. At first it was "Stalinist classicism", which after the war grew into "Stalinist Empire", with heavy, monumental forms, the motives of which were often taken even from ancient Roman architecture.
The main type of Soviet housing was declared an individual comfortable apartment. Stone, eclectically decorated houses with rich apartments by Soviet standards (often with rooms for housekeepers) were built on the main streets of cities. These houses were built using high quality materials. Thick walls, good sound insulation along with high ceilings and a complete set of communications - live and enjoy!
Interior of an apartment in a Stalinist skyscraper, 1950
But in order to get such an apartment in such a house, one had to be in the “cage”, or, as it would be called later, to enter the nomenklatura, to be a prominent representative of the creative or scientific intelligentsia. True, it should be noted that a certain number of ordinary citizens still received apartments in elite houses.
What the apartments of the 50s were like, many people imagine well from the films of those years or from their own memories (grandparents often kept such interiors until the end of the century).
Frame from the film "Volunteers", 1958
Stills from the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears", the film was released in 1979, but it accurately, to the smallest detail, conveys the atmosphere of those years.
First of all, this is a chic oak furniture, designed to serve several generations.
"In a new apartment" (picture from the magazine "Soviet Union" 1954)
Although the picture is clearly not an ordinary apartment, many ordinary Soviet families had such buffets.
Stills from the film "Different Fates", 1956
Those who were richer were forced to collect collection porcelain from the Leningrad factory.
In the main room, a lampshade is more often cheerful, a luxurious chandelier in the picture gives out a rather high social status of the owners.
The apartment of the representative of the Soviet elite - Nobel Prize winner academician N.N. Semyonov, 1957
In such families, they have already tried to reproduce the atmosphere of a pre-revolutionary living room with a pianoforte.
On the floor - oak lacquered parquet.
Shot from the film "Different Fates"
The interiors of Stalinist apartments can also be seen on the canvases of artists of those years, painted with warmth and love:
Very characteristic lampshade and lace tablecloth on a round table.
New Year's feast in the family of a Leningrad worker, 1955
Sergei Mikhalkov with his son Nikita, 1952
A real luxury for the 50s was your own telephone in the apartment.
Its installation was an important event in the life of the Soviet family.
This photo from 1953 captures just such a joyful moment in one of the Moscow apartments:
In the mid-1950s, television gradually began to enter the life of the Soviet family, which immediately took pride of place in the apartments.
Photographer Peter Bock-Schroeder, Moscow, 1956
Shot from the film "Volunteers"
In a new house on Borovskoye Highway, 1955
In this new apartment, the interiors are still pre-Khrushchev, with high ceilings and solid furniture. Pay attention to the love for round (sliding) tables, which then for some reason will become a rarity with us.
A bookcase in a place of honor is also a very typical feature of the Soviet home interior.
In the late 1950s, a new era will begin. Millions of people will begin to move into their individual, albeit very tiny, Khrushchev apartments. There will be completely different furniture.
Khrushchev
1955 was a turning point, since it was in this year that a decree on industrial housing construction was adopted, which marked the beginning of the Khrushchev era. But in 1955, more "malenkovkas" were built with the last hints of the quality factor and the architectural aesthetics of the "stalinok". Stalinka could not be enough for everyone, by definition ...
The construction of houses - "Khrushchev" was started in 1959, and completed in the eighties. Usually in the apartments of such houses there are from one to four rooms, which would be more suitable for the name "cells".
But Khrushchev, no matter how you scold it, became the first dwelling for the people in the post-revolutionary years.
housewarming
In a new apartment. Personnel worker of the plant "Red October" Shubin A.I. Moscow, Tushino, 1956
Picture from the primer
The picture shows an idyll: evening, the whole family is together. In the center of the composition, the father reads a newspaper after work and dinner. The son was allowed to invite a friend and they play checkers. And all the women work: mother embroiders something, grandmother knits socks, and even her daughter patches her own clothes. Typical for the early 60s furniture, TV, sewing machine, chandelier.
Furniture from the 60s-70s can still be found in old apartments, but most of us do not remember what a real average apartment interior of the late 60s and early 70s looked like, even before the period of imported walls and our cabinet furniture. And, nevertheless, to look at the interiors of these apartments is very interesting. Let's go back 40 years and look at a typical Soviet-era apartment of a middle-class family. Let's look into the living room of the 60s - 70s. So, let's start with the sideboard, which came into vogue in the 60s and replaced the sideboard.
The design of the sideboards was the same, its surface was polished, according to the fashion of that time, the glasses were sliding. And they all differed in one feature - it was very difficult to open the sideboard glass. This miracle served for storing dishes and souvenirs.
Mandatory attribute of the Soviet sideboard:
Or another such a cute set, I know that many people still keep it as a family heirloom:
Shot from the film "Moscow does not believe in tears"
And again elephants, once they were sold with might and main in department stores in the departments of gifts or utensils.
From the sideboard, we glance at the armchairs and the coffee table. Armchairs, well, what can I say about them. Only the fact that they were comfortable, with upholstery often quite poisonous colors - and pleasing to the eye and comfort created.
Considering that in our apartments of those years, the living room was most often combined with the bedroom of the parents, many of them had a dressing table. An indispensable piece of furniture that every Soviet woman dreamed of. And today, many still remember the old Soviet furniture and even still use sideboards, cabinets and shelves made in the USSR. Against the background of the current abundance, these polished monsters seem even uglier and antediluvian.
But the products of older eras, on the contrary, are attracted by the elaboration of details and the high quality of the material...
Such carpets were often hung on the walls of living rooms, bedrooms:
And this is what the kitchen looked like and no furniture for you:
New Year from the 60s
barrack
And now let's see how and in what conditions 80% of the population of the USSR lived before the start of Khrushchev's industrialization of construction. And do not hope, these were not pretentious stalins of different periods, and not at home - communes, and the old fund was not enough for everyone, even when taking into account resettlement in communal apartments. The basis of the housing stock of that time was a peat barrack.
Each of the factory settlements consisted of several capital stone buildings and many wooden barracks, in which the overwhelming majority of its inhabitants lived. Their mass construction began simultaneously with the construction of new and reconstruction of old plants during the first five-year plan. A barrack is a quickly built and cheap dwelling, built with disregard for service life and amenities, in most cases with a common corridor and stove heating.
A room in one of the barracks in Magnigorsk
There was no water supply and sewerage in the barracks; all these "amenities", as they say, were located in the yard of the barracks. Barrack construction was seen as a temporary measure - the workers of the new giants of the industry and the expanding production of old factories had to be urgently provided with at least some kind of housing. Barracks, like hostels, were divided into men's, women's and family-type barracks.
In this museum exposition, the atmosphere of the barrack room of those years is recreated.
For a modern city dweller spoiled with comfort, this housing will seem completely unsatisfactory, especially considering that the barracks were already overcrowded in the 1930s, and in the harsh military 1940s, the situation worsened even more due to evacuation. Barak did not expect the opportunity to retire, to sit quietly at the table with his family or with his closest friends. The physical space of the barracks formed a special social space and special people who inhabited this space. But even such housing, people sought to equip in the best way possible, and create at least some semblance of comfort.
Shot from the film "Girls"
In Moscow, such houses existed until the mid-70s, and in more remote cities in such houses, thoroughly dilapidated, people still live.
New apartments 70-80s
Houses - "Brezhnevka" appeared in the Soviet Union in the seventies. Usually they were built not in width, but in height. The usual height of the "brezhnevka" was from nine to 16 floors. It happened that even taller houses were erected.
Houses - "Brezhnevka" without fail equipped with an elevator and a garbage chute. The apartments were located in the so-called "pockets", in each such "pocket" there were usually two apartments. The original name of "brezhnevka" was "apartments with improved planning". Of course, compared to the Khrushchevs, such apartments actually had an improved layout, but if we compare them with the Stalins, it would be more accurate to call them a “worse version”. The size of the kitchen in such an apartment is from seven to nine square meters, the ceilings are much lower than the "Stalinist" ones, the number of rooms can be from one to five.
So, entering a typical apartment of the 70s, we could see an interior consisting of a sofa and a “wall” standing opposite, two armchairs and a coffee table, a polished table - and everything is arranged in the same way for everyone, because The layout left no room for imagination. It means life is good..
Imported walls were especially valued, from the CMEA countries, of course. They saved up for a long time on the wall, signed up for a queue, waited a long time and finally found the coveted “GDR”, Czech or Romanian headsets. I must say that the prices for them were quite impressive and reached 1000 rubles with an average salary of an engineer of 180-200 rubles. In many families, the purchase of imported furniture was considered a very good and practical investment of money, they were bought as a legacy for children, that is, for centuries.
These walls sometimes occupied almost half the room, but it was impossible not to have it, because it somehow imperceptibly passed from the category of cabinet furniture into the category of an object of prestige. She replaced several types of furniture and gave impetus to the emerging fashion for collecting crystal, books, etc. The shelves with beautiful glass doors had to be filled with something!
All self-respecting housewives acquired crystal dishes. Not a single dinner party was complete without a crystal glass, crystal vase or bowl shining in the light. In addition, crystal was considered an ideal option for investing material resources.
Another obligatory item in the interior of those years is a sliding polished table.
Of course, carpets were part of the interior of a Soviet apartment. They made an inseparable pair with crystal. In addition to aesthetic value, the carpet on the wall also had a practical one. It performed the function of soundproofing the walls, and in some cases also covered the defects of the wall.
An invariable attribute of the living room: a three-tiered chandelier with plastic pendants:
Transforming furniture with multiple functions was very popular. Beds were most often transformed, which could turn into armchairs, beds, sofa beds, as well as tables (cabinet-table, sideboard-table, dressing tables, etc.)
For many families, this has been a lifesaver. Sometimes, the living room in the evening turned into a bedroom: a sofa bed, armchair beds. And in the morning the room again turned into a living room.
Scenes from the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears". Such an interior in the 80s in the USSR was considered simply aerobatics.
And such an interior as in Samokhvalov's apartment in the film "Office Romance" was also the envy of ordinary Soviet citizens.
To date, opinions about Soviet furniture are ambiguous, although many continue to use sideboards, cabinets and shelves made in the USSR. Some talk about high quality and ergonomics, others about rough execution and an absolute lack of aesthetic qualities. But the Soviet Union is our past, which will remain unchanged no matter how we treat it today. And fifty years from now, our current homes will also be the object of curiosity for future generations, with the inevitable pros and cons. But this stage is necessary for our future, just as the past aesthetics of the Soviet apartment was necessary for the perception of our present.
New socialist life in the USSR
Completed:
Checked:
Volgograd 2009
Introduction
1. Life and way of life of the population of Soviet Russia in 1920-30.
2. Culture and art as a model of a socialist society
3. Reforms in the field of education and science
4. Visual arts, architecture, theater and film art in 1920-30s.
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
A radical revolution in the spiritual development of society, carried out in the USSR in the 20-30s. XX century., an integral part of socialist transformations. The theory of the cultural revolution was developed by V.I. Lenin. The cultural revolution and the construction of a new socialist way of life is aimed at changing the social composition of the post-revolutionary intelligentsia and at breaking with the traditions of the pre-revolutionary cultural heritage through the ideologization of culture. The task of creating a so-called "proletarian culture" based on Marxist-class ideology, "communist education", and mass character of culture was put forward to the fore.
The construction of a new socialist way of life provided for the elimination of illiteracy, the creation of a socialist system of public education and enlightenment, the formation of a new, socialist intelligentsia, the restructuring of life, the development of science, literature, and art under party control. As a result of the implementation of the cultural revolution of the USSR, significant successes were achieved: according to the 1939 census, the literacy of the population began to be 70%; a first-class general education school was created in the USSR, the number of Soviet intelligentsia reached 14 million people; there was a flourishing of science and art. In the cultural development of the USSR came to the forefront in the world.
A distinctive feature of the Soviet period in the history of culture is the enormous role played by the party and the state in its development. The party and the state have established complete control over the spiritual life of society.
In the 1920s and 1930s, there was undoubtedly a powerful cultural shift in the USSR. If the social revolution destroyed the semi-medieval estates in the country, which divided society into “the people” and “the top”, then cultural transformations in two decades moved it along the path of overcoming the civilizational gap in the daily lives of many tens of millions of people. In an unimaginably short period of time, the material possibilities of people ceased to be a significant barrier between them and at least elementary culture, and initiation into it became much less dependent on the socio-professional status of people. Both in terms of scale and pace, these changes can indeed be considered a nationwide "cultural revolution".
1. Life and way of life of the population of Soviet Russia in 1920-30.
Significant changes took place in the 1920s. in the life of the population of Russia. Life, as a way of everyday life, cannot be considered for the entire population as a whole, because it is different for different segments of the population. The living conditions of the upper strata of Russian society, which before the revolution occupied the best apartments, consumed high-quality food, and enjoyed the achievements of education and health care, deteriorated. A strict class principle was introduced for the distribution of material and spiritual values, and representatives of the upper strata were deprived of their privileges. True, the Soviet government supported the representatives of the old intelligentsia it needed through a system of rations, a commission to improve the life of scientists, and so on.
During the years of NEP, new strata were born that lived prosperously. These are the so-called Nepmen or the new bourgeoisie, whose way of life was determined by the thickness of their wallet. They were given the right to spend money in restaurants and other entertainment establishments. These layers include both party and state nomenklatura, whose incomes depended on how they performed their duties. The way of life of the working class has seriously changed. It was he who was to take a leading place in society and enjoy all the benefits. From the Soviet government, he received the right to free education and medical care, the state constantly raised his wages, provided social insurance and pensions, supported his desire for higher education through the workers' colleges. In the 20s. the state regularly conducted a survey of the budgets of working families and monitored their occupancy. However, words often disagreed with deeds, material difficulties hit primarily workers, whose incomes depended only on wages, mass unemployment during the NEP years, and a low cultural level did not allow workers to seriously improve their living conditions. In addition, the life of the workers was affected by numerous experiments in planting "socialist values", labor communes, "common boilers", hostels.
Peasant life during the NEP years has changed slightly. Patriarchal relations in the family, common work in the field from dawn to dusk, the desire to increase one's wealth characterized the way of life of the bulk of the Russian peasantry. It became more prosperous, he developed a sense of the owner. The weak peasantry united in communes and collective farms and organized collective labor. The peasantry most of all worried about the position of the church in the Soviet state, because it connected its future with it. The policy of the Soviet state towards the church in the 20s. was not constant. In the early 20s. repressions fell upon the church, church valuables were confiscated under the pretext of the need to fight hunger. Then a split occurred in the Orthodox Church itself over the question of the attitude towards Soviet power, and a group of priests formed a "living church", abolished the patriarchate and advocated the renewal of the church. Under Metropolitan Sergius, the church stood at the service of Soviet power. The state encouraged these new phenomena in the life of the church, continued to carry out repressions against supporters of the preservation of the old order in the church. At the same time, it carried out active anti-religious propaganda, created an extensive network of anti-religious societies and periodicals, introduced socialist holidays into the life of Soviet people as opposed to religious ones, and even changed the terms of the working week so that days off did not coincide with Sundays and religious holidays.
2. Culture and art as a model of a socialist society
At the beginning of the twentieth century, V.I. Lenin formulated the most important principles of the attitude of the Communist Party to creative activity, which formed the basis of the cultural policy of the Soviet state. In the work “Party Organization and Party Literature” (1905) V.I. Lenin argues that the desire of some creative people to be "outside" and "above" the class struggle is untenable, since "...it is impossible to live in society and be free from society." The class approach to culture is the defining principle of the communists to the cultural heritage and ongoing cultural processes. The main goal of culture, according to V.I. Lenin, is not serving “... a jaded heroine, not bored and obese “top ten thousand”, but millions and tens of millions of workers who make up the color of the country, its strength, its “future”. Thus, culture and, in particular, such a sphere of it as art, must become “part of the general proletarian cause”, express the interests of this class.
The Marxist concept contained the idea of the relationship between the world-historical mission of the proletariat and the prospects for the development of culture: to what extent the proletariat as a revolutionary class will express the interests of society as a whole, assimilate, rework, develop “... everything that was valuable in more than two thousand years of development of human thought and culture”, to such an extent depends on its development. Hence the conclusion follows that humanistic, in the full sense of the word, becomes that culture that is generated by a class fighting for its liberation. “A class making a revolution,” wrote V.I. Lenin, “by the mere fact that he opposes another class, from the very beginning he acts as a class and as a representative of the whole society.”
At the same time, Lenin drew attention to the following extremely important circumstance: “From the point of view of the basic ideas of Marxism, the interests of social development are higher than the interests of the proletariat, the interests of the entire working-class movement as a whole are higher than the interests of an individual layer of workers or individual elements of the movement.”
A serious task of the cultural revolution was proclaimed to familiarize the people with cultural values, change their consciousness, re-educate the person himself. “Earlier,” said V.I. Lenin, - the whole human mind, all its genius created only in order to give some all the benefits of technology and culture, while depriving others of the most necessary - enlightenment and development. Now all the wonders of technology, all the achievements of culture will become the property of the whole people, and from now on the human mind and genius will never be turned into means of violence, into means of exploitation…”.
The state took over the financing of all branches of culture: education, logistics, all kinds of art, establishing the strictest censorship of literature, theater, cinema, educational institutions, etc. A coherent system of indoctrination of the population was created. The mass media, being under the most severe control of the party and the state, along with reliable information, used the method of manipulating the consciousness of the population. The idea was instilled in the people that the country was a besieged fortress, and only those who defended it had the right to be in this fortress. The constant search for enemies is becoming a distinctive feature of the activities of the party and the state.
3. Reforms in the field of education and science
During the period under review, the cultural life of the country developed very ambiguously. At the same time, significant progress has been made in many areas of cultural development. The first of these is the field of education.
The historical legacy of the tsarist regime was a significant proportion of the illiterate population. Meanwhile, the need for rapid industrialization of the country required a huge number of literate productive workers.
The systematic efforts of the Soviet state, which began in the early 1920s, led to the fact that the proportion of the literate population in Russia was steadily growing. By 1939, the number of literate people in the RSFSR was already 89 percent. Compulsory primary education was introduced from the 1930/31 academic year. In addition, by the thirties, the Soviet school gradually moved away from many revolutionary innovations that did not justify themselves: the class-lesson system was restored, subjects previously excluded from the program as “bourgeois” were returned to the schedule (primarily history, general and domestic). From the beginning of the 30s. the number of educational institutions engaged in the training of engineering, agricultural and pedagogical personnel grew rapidly. In 1936, the All-Union Committee for Higher Education was created.
The 1930s turned out to be difficult for domestic science. On the one hand, large-scale research programs are being launched in the USSR, new research institutes are being created: in 1934, S.I. Vavilov founded the Physical Institute of the Academy of Sciences named after P.N. Lebedev (FIAN), at the same time the Institute of Organic Chemistry was created, in Moscow P.L. Kapitsa created the Institute of Physical Problems, in 1937 the Institute of Geophysics was established. The physiologist I.P. Pavlov, breeder I.V. Michurin. The work of Soviet scientists resulted in numerous discoveries in both fundamental and applied fields. In particular, this period saw significant discoveries in the study of the Arctic (O.Yu. Schmidt, I.D. Papanin), the development of space flights and jet propulsion (K.E. Tsiolkovsky, F.A. Zandler). Historical science is being revived. As was said, the teaching of history in secondary and higher schools is being resumed. A research institute of history under the Academy of Sciences of the USSR is being created. Outstanding Soviet historians worked in the 1930s: Academician B.D. Grekov - the author of works on the history of medieval Russia ("Kievan Rus", "Peasants in Russia from ancient times to the 18th century" and others); academician E.V. Tarle is a connoisseur of the new history of European countries and, above all, of Napoleonic France (“The working class in France in the era of the revolution”, “Napoleon”, etc.).
At the same time, Stalin's totalitarianism created serious obstacles to the normal development of scientific knowledge. The autonomy of the Academy of Sciences was liquidated. In 1934, she was transferred from Leningrad to Moscow and subordinated to the Council of People's Commissars. As a result of the establishment of administrative methods of managing science, many promising areas of research (for example, genetics, cybernetics) were frozen for many years at the arbitrariness of incompetent party functionaries. In an atmosphere of general denunciation and growing repression, academic discussions often ended in reprisals, when one of the opponents, being accused (albeit unreasonably) of political unreliability, was not only deprived of the opportunity to work, but was subjected to physical destruction. A similar fate was prepared for very many representatives of the intelligentsia. The victims of repressions were such prominent scientists as the biologist, the founder of Soviet genetics, academician and president of VASKhNIL N.I. Vavilov, scientist and designer of rocket technology, future academician and twice Hero of Socialist Labor S.P. Korolev and many others.
The repressions inflicted heavy damage on the intellectual potential of the country. The old pre-revolutionary intelligentsia suffered especially hard, most of whose representatives conscientiously served the Soviet state. As a result of the falsified revelations of a number of “wrecking counter-revolutionary organizations” (“Shakhtinskoe delo”, the process of the “Industrial Party”), distrust and suspicion towards representatives of the intelligentsia were kindled among the masses, which, as a result, facilitated the reprisal against objectionable people and extinguished any manifestation of free thought. In the social sciences, the “Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks”, published in 1938 under the editorship of I.V. Stalin. As a justification for mass repressions, the idea was put forward of the inevitable intensification of the class struggle as we move towards the construction of socialism. The history of the party and the revolutionary movement was distorted: on the pages of scientific works and periodicals, the non-existent merits of the Leader were extolled. Stalin's personality cult was established in the country.
4. Visual arts, architecture, theater and film art in 1920-30s.
During this period, there are significant changes in the visual arts. Despite the fact that in the 1920s the Association of Traveling Exhibitions and the Union of Russian Artists continued to exist, new associations appeared in the spirit of the time - the Association of Artists of Proletarian Russia, the Association of Proletarian Artists.
The classics of socialist realism in the visual arts were the works of B.V. Ioganson. In 1933, the painting "Interrogation of the Communists" was painted. In contrast to the “pictures” that appeared at that time in abundance, depicting and glorifying the Leader or deliberately optimistic canvases like the “Collective Farm Holiday” by S.V. Gerasimov, Ioganson's work is distinguished by great artistic power - the unbending will of people doomed to death, which the artist skillfully managed to convey, touches the viewer, regardless of political beliefs. Ioganson's brushes also belong to large paintings "At the old Ural factory" and "V.I. Lenin at the 3rd Congress of the Komsomol. In the 1930s, K.S. continued to work. Petrov-Vodkin, P.P. Konchalovsky, A.A. Deineka, a series of beautiful portraits of contemporaries is created by M.V. Nesterov, the landscapes of Armenia found a poetic embodiment in the painting of M.S. Saryan. The work of the student M.V. Nesterova P.D. Korina. In 1925, Korin conceived a large picture, which was supposed to depict the procession during the funeral. The artist made a huge number of preparatory sketches: landscapes, many portraits of representatives of Orthodox Russia, from beggars to church hierarchs. The name of the picture was suggested by M. Gorky - “Russia is leaving”. However, after the death of the great writer, who provided patronage to the artist, the work had to be stopped. The most famous work of P.D. Korina became a triptych "Alexander Nevsky" (1942).
The pinnacle of the development of sculpture of socialist realism was the composition "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" by Vera Ignatievna Mukhina (1889-1953). The sculptural group was made by V.I. Mukhina for the Soviet pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937.
architecture in the early 1930s. constructivism, which was widely used for the construction of public and residential buildings, continues to be the leading one. The aesthetics of simple geometric forms, characteristic of constructivism, influenced the architecture of the Lenin Mausoleum, built in 1930 according to the project of A.V. Shchusev. The mausoleum is amazing in its own way. The architect managed to avoid excessive pomposity. The tomb of the leader of the world proletariat is a modest, small in size, very laconic building that fits perfectly into the Red Square ensemble. By the end of the 30s. the functional simplicity of constructivism is beginning to be replaced by neoclassicism. Lush stucco, huge columns with pseudo-classical capitals come into fashion, gigantomania and a tendency to deliberate richness of decoration, often bordering on bad taste, are manifested. This style is sometimes called the “Stalinist Empire style”, although with the real Empire style, which is characterized primarily by the deepest inner harmony and restraint of forms, in reality it is related only by a genetic connection with the ancient heritage. The sometimes vulgar splendor of Stalinist neoclassicism was intended to express the strength and power of the totalitarian state.
A distinctive feature in the field of theater was the formation of the innovative activities of the Meyerhold Theater, the Moscow Art Theater, and others. Meyerhold worked in 1920-38 under the direction of director V.E. Meyerhold. There was a special school attached to the theatre, which changed several names (since 1923 the State Experimental Theater Workshops - GEKTEMAS). Almost all performances were staged by Meyerhold himself (in rare cases, in collaboration with directors close to him). Characteristic of his art in the early 1920s. the desire to combine innovative experiments (“constructivist” productions of “The Magnanimous Cuckold” by F. Krommelinck and “The Death of Tarelkin” by A.V. Sukhovo-Kobylin, both - 1922) with the democratic traditions of the common people's square theater showed through in an extremely free, frankly modernized director's composition "Forests" A.N. Ostrovsky (1924); the game was played in a clownish, farcical manner. In the second half of the 1920s. the desire for asceticism was replaced by an attraction to a spectacular spectacle, which manifested itself in the performances of “Teacher Bubus” by A.M. Fayko (1925) and especially in N.V. Gogol (1926). Among other performances: "Mandate" N.R. Erdman (1925), “Woe to the Wit” (“Woe from Wit”) by A.S. Griboedov (1928), "Bug" (1929) and "Bath" (1930) V.V. Mayakovsky, "The Wedding of Krechinsky" by Sukhovo-Kobylin (1933). The play The Lady of the Camellias by A. Dumas son (1934) brought great success to the theater. In 1937-38 the theater was sharply criticized as "hostile to Soviet reality" and closed in 1938 by the decision of the Committee on Arts.
Directors S.M. began their career in the theater. Eisenstein, S.I. Yutkevich, I.A. Pyriev, B.I. Ravenskikh, N.P. Okhlopkov, V.N. Pluchek and others. The acting talents of M.I. Babanova, N.I. Bogolyubov, E.P. Garina, M.I. Zharova, I.V. Ilyinsky, S.A. Martinson, Z.N. Reich, E.V. Samoilova, L.N. Sverdlin, M.I. Tsareva, M.M. Strauch, V.N. Yakhontova and others.
Cinema is developing rapidly. The number of pictures taken is increasing. New opportunities opened up with the advent of sound cinema. In 1938, a film by S.M. Eisenstein "Alexander Nevsky" with N.K. Cherkasov in the title role. The principles of socialist realism are affirmed in the cinema. Films are being made on revolutionary themes: “Lenin in October” (dir. M.I. Romm), “A Man with a Gun” (dir. S.I. Yutkevich); films about the fate of a working man: a trilogy about Maxim "Maxim's Youth", "Maxim's Return", "Vyborg Side" (dir. G.M. Kozintsev); musical comedies by Grigory Alexandrov with the cheerful, incendiary music of Isaac Dunayevsky (“Merry Fellows”, 1934, “Circus” 1936, “Volga-Volga” 1938), idealized scenes from the life of Ivan Pyriev (“Tractor Drivers”, 1939, “Pig and Shepherd” 1941 ) create an atmosphere of expectation of a “happy life”. The film of the brothers (in fact, only namesakes, “brothers” is a kind of pseudonym) was very popular. and S.D. Vasiliev - "Chapaev" (1934).
Conclusion
The transformations carried out in the country could not but affect the restructuring of the life of society. This process was called the cultural revolution, which began to be carried out from the first years of Soviet power, but which developed widely only during the period of reconstruction of the national economy.
Transformations in the spiritual and cultural sphere and the construction of a new socialist way of life unfolded in the following areas: - the elimination of illiteracy and the introduction of universal education; - training of specialists for the national economy through higher and secondary specialized education; - development of science, both fundamental and applied; - creation of creative unions and development of artistic culture; - the formation of a multinational culture; - ideological work to promote the socialist way of life and mobilize the masses for socialist construction.
The implementation of transformations in the cultural and spiritual sphere was carried out in the special conditions of the transition period, when the following were to a large extent affected: firstly, the total illiteracy of the population; secondly, the preservation of the culture of the tsarist period with a great influence of religion, great-power spiritual and national politics; thirdly, the influence of bourgeois culture and its bearers in the person of the old intelligentsia; fourthly, the emigration of a significant part of the scientific and creative intelligentsia, and, fifthly, the need for accelerated training of technical personnel for industry.
Bibliography
Bokhanov A.N., Gorinov M.M. etc. History of Russia XX century. - M.: Publishing house AST, 1996.
Golubkov M.M. Lost Alternatives. Formation of the monistic concept of Soviet literature in the 1920s and 1930s. Moscow: Pravda, 1992.
Polevoy V.M. Small history of arts. Art of the twentieth century. 1901 - 1945. Moscow: Art, 1991.
Repressed Science / Ed. M.G. Yaroshevsky. L., 1991.
Reader on the history of the USSR. 1917 - 1945 Textbook for pedagogical institutes - M .: Education, 1991.
Similar abstracts:
The purpose of the article is a brief analysis of the features of the system of liberal education in the Republic of Bashkortostan in the second half of the 1930s.
Rabselkor movement - participation in the press of workers and the broad masses of working people, characteristic only of the communist press. The fundamental substantiation of R. D. is given in Comrade Lenin's pamphlet "Where to Begin."
Contrary to the horror stories that are now being written about that time, it was in the pre-war years that there was a symphony of power and people that is not often found in life. The people, inspired by the great idea of building the first just society in the history of mankind without oppressors and the oppressed, showed miracles of heroism and selflessness. And the state in those years, now portrayed by our liberal historians and publicists as a monstrous repressive machine, responded to the people by taking care of them.
Free medicine and education, sanatoriums and rest houses, pioneer camps, kindergartens, libraries, circles became a mass phenomenon and were available to everyone. It is no coincidence that during the war, according to the recollections of eyewitnesses, people dreamed of only one thing: that everything should become as it was before the war.
Here is what, for example, the US Ambassador wrote about that time in 1937-1938. Joseph E. Davis:
“I visited five cities with a group of American journalists, where I inspected the largest enterprises: a tractor plant (12 thousand workers), an electric motor plant (38 thousand workers), Dneproges, an aluminum plant (3 thousand workers), which is considered the largest in the world, Zaporizhstal (35 thousand workers), a hospital (18 doctors and 120 nurses), nurseries and kindergartens, the Rostselmash plant (16 thousand workers), the Palace of Pioneers (a building with 280 rooms for 320 teachers and 27 thousand children). The last of these institutions is one of the most interesting developments in the Soviet Union. Such palaces are being erected in all major cities and are intended to put into practice the Stalinist slogan about children as the most valuable asset of the country. Here, children reveal and develop their talents ... "
And everyone was sure that his talent would not wither and would not go to waste, that he had every opportunity to fulfill any dream in all spheres of life. The doors of secondary and higher schools were opened to the children of workers and peasants. Social elevators worked at full capacity, elevating yesterday's workers and peasants to the heights of power, opening before them the horizons of science, the wisdom of technology, the stages of the stage. "In the everyday life of great construction projects" a new country, unprecedented in the world, was rising - "the country of heroes, the country of dreamers, the country of scientists."
And in order to destroy any possibility of exploiting a person - whether it be a private trader or the state - the first decrees in the USSR introduced an eight-hour working day. In addition, a six-hour working day was established for adolescents, the work of children under 14 years of age was prohibited, labor protection was established, and production training for young people was introduced at the expense of the state. While the United States and Western countries were suffocating in the grip of the Great Depression, in the Soviet Union in 1936, 5 million workers had a six-hour or more reduced working day, almost 9% of industrial workers took a day off after four days of work, 10% of workers, employed in continuous production, after three eight-hour working days received two days off.
The wages of workers and employees, as well as the personal incomes of collective farmers, more than doubled. Adults, probably, no longer remember, and young people do not even know that during the Great Patriotic War, some collective farmers gave the front planes and tanks, built on personal savings, which they managed to accumulate in a not so long time that had passed after the "criminal" collectivization. How did they do it?
The fact is that the number of mandatory workdays for "free slaves" in the thirties was 60-100 (depending on the region). After that, the collective farmer could work for himself - on his plot or in a production cooperative, of which there were a huge number throughout the USSR. As the creator of the Russian Project website, publicist Pavel Krasnov, writes, “... In the Stalinist USSR, those who wished to take personal initiative had every opportunity to do so in the cooperative movement. It was impossible only to use hired labor, contractual cooperative - as much as you like.
There was a powerful cooperative movement in the country, almost 2 million people constantly worked in cooperatives, who produced 6% of the gross industrial output of the USSR: 40% of all furniture, 70% of all metal utensils, 35% of knitwear, almost 100% of toys.
In addition, there were 100 cooperative design bureaus, 22 experimental laboratories, and two research institutes in the country. This does not include part-time cooperative rural artels. Up to 30 million people worked in them in the 1930s.
It was possible to engage in individual work - for example, to have your own darkroom, paying taxes on it, doctors could have a private practice, and so on. The cooperatives usually involved high-class professionals in their field, organized in efficient structures, which explains their high contribution to the production of the USSR.
All this was liquidated by Khrushchev at an accelerated pace from the age of 56 - the property of cooperatives and private entrepreneurs was confiscated, even personal subsidiary plots and private livestock.
We add that at the same time, in 1956, the number of mandatory workdays was increased to three hundred. The results were not long in coming - the first problems with the products immediately appeared.
In the thirties, piecework wages were also widely used. Additional bonuses were practiced for the safety of mechanisms, savings in electricity, fuel, raw materials, and materials. Bonuses were introduced for overfulfillment of the plan, cost reduction, and production of higher quality products. A well-thought-out system of training qualified workers in industry and agriculture was carried out. During the years of the second five-year plan alone, about 6 million people were trained instead of the 5 million envisaged by the plan.
Finally, in the USSR, for the first time in the world, unemployment was eliminated - the most difficult and insoluble social problem under the conditions of market capitalism. The right to work enshrined in the Constitution of the USSR has become real for everyone. Already in 1930, during the first five-year plan, labor exchanges ceased to exist.
Along with the industrialization of the country, with the construction of new plants and factories, housing construction was also carried out. State and cooperative enterprises and organizations, collective farms and the population put into operation 67.3 million square meters of usable dwelling space in the second five-year plan. With the help of the state and collective farms, rural workers built 800,000 houses.
Investment investments by state and cooperative organizations in housing construction, together with individual investments, increased by 1.8 times compared with the first five-year plan. Apartments, as we remember, were provided free of charge at the lowest rent in the world. And, probably, few people know that during the second five-year plan, almost as much money was invested in housing, communal and cultural construction, in health care in the rapidly developing Soviet Union as in heavy industry.
In 1935, the best subway in the world in terms of technical equipment and decoration was put into operation. In the summer of 1937, the Moscow-Volga canal was put into operation, which solved the problem of the capital's water supply and improved its transport links.
In the 1930s, not only did dozens of new cities grow in the country, but water supply was built in 42 cities, sewerage was built in 38 cities, a transport network developed, new tram lines were launched, the bus fleet expanded, and a trolleybus began to be introduced.
During the years of the pre-war five-year plans in the country, for the first time in world practice, social forms of popular consumption, which, in addition to wages, each Soviet family used. Funds from them went to the construction and maintenance of housing, cultural and community facilities, free education and medical care, various pensions and benefits. Three times, in comparison with the first five-year plan, spending on social security and social insurance has increased.
The network of sanatoriums and rest houses expanded rapidly, vouchers to which, purchased with social insurance funds, were distributed by trade unions among workers and employees free of charge or on preferential terms. During the second five-year plan alone, 8.4 million people rested and received medical treatment in rest homes and sanatoriums, and the cost of maintaining children in nurseries and kindergartens increased 10.7 times compared to the first five-year plan. The average life expectancy has risen.
Such a state could not but be perceived by the people as their own, national, native, for which it is not a pity to give their lives, for which one wants to perform feats ... As the embodiment of that revolutionary dream of a promised country, where the great idea of people's happiness was visibly, before our eyes embodied in life. Stalin’s words “Life has become better, life has become more fun” in perestroika and post-perestroika years, it is customary to scoff, but they reflected real changes in the social and economic life of Soviet society.
These changes could not go unnoticed in the West either. We have already become accustomed to the fact that one cannot trust Soviet propaganda, that the truth about how things are in our country is only spoken in the West. Well, let's see how the capitalists assessed the successes of the Soviet state.
Thus, Gibbson Jarvey, chairman of United Dominion Bank, stated in October 1932:
“I want to make it clear that I am not a communist or a Bolshevik, I am a definite capitalist and individualist… Russia is moving forward while too many of our factories are idle and approximately 3 million of our people are looking in desperation for work. The five-year plan was ridiculed and predicted to fail. But you can consider it beyond doubt that, under the terms of the five-year plan, more has been done than planned.
… In all the industrial cities I have visited, new districts are springing up, built according to a certain plan, with wide streets, decorated with trees and squares, with houses of the most modern type, schools, hospitals, workers' clubs and the inevitable nurseries and kindergartens where care is taken. about the children of working mothers…
Do not try to underestimate the Russian plans and do not make the mistake of hoping that the Soviet government may fail... Today's Russia is a country with a soul and an ideal. Russia is a country of amazing activity. I believe that Russia's aspirations are healthy... Perhaps the most important thing is that all the youth and workers in Russia have one thing that is unfortunately lacking today in the capitalist countries, namely, hope.
And here is what the Forward magazine (England) wrote in the same 1932:
“The huge work that is going on in the USSR is striking. New factories, new schools, new cinemas, new clubs, new huge houses - new buildings everywhere. Many of them have already been completed, others are still surrounded by forests. It is difficult to tell the English reader what has been done in the last two years and what is being done next. You have to see it all in order to believe it.
Our own achievements, which we achieved during the war, are nothing compared to what is being done in the USSR. Americans admit that even during the period of the most rapid creative fever in the Western states, there was nothing like the current feverish creative activity in the USSR. Over the past two years, so many changes have taken place in the USSR that you refuse to even imagine what will happen in this country in another 10 years.
Get out of your head the fantastic horror stories told by the English newspapers, which lie so stubbornly and absurdly about the USSR. Also, throw out of your mind all those half-truths and impressions based on misunderstanding, which are set in motion by amateurish intellectuals who patronizingly look at the USSR through the eyes of the middle class, but who have not the slightest idea of what is happening there: the USSR is building a new society on healthy people. basics.
In order to achieve this goal, one must take risks, one must work with enthusiasm, with such energy as the world has never known before, one must struggle with the enormous difficulties that are inevitable when trying to build socialism in a vast country isolated from the rest of the world. Visiting this country for the second time in two years, I got the impression that it is on the path of lasting progress, plans and builds, and all this on a scale that is a clear challenge to the hostile capitalist world.
The forward was echoed by the American "Nation":
“The four years of the five-year plan have brought with them truly remarkable achievements. The Soviet Union worked with wartime intensity on the creative task of building basic life. The face of the country is literally changing beyond recognition: this is true of Moscow with its hundreds of newly paved streets and squares, new buildings, new suburbs and a cordon of new factories on its outskirts. This is also true of smaller cities.
New cities arose in the steppes and deserts, at least 50 cities with a population of 50 to 250 thousand people. All of them have emerged in the last four years, each of them is the center of a new enterprise or a number of enterprises built to develop domestic resources. Hundreds of new power plants and a number of giants, like Dneprostroy, are constantly implementing Lenin's formula: "Socialism is Soviet power plus electrification."
The Soviet Union organized the mass production of an infinite number of items that Russia had never produced before: tractors, combine harvesters, high-quality steels, synthetic rubber, ball bearings, powerful diesel engines, 50 thousand kilowatt turbines, telephone equipment, electric mining machines, airplanes , cars, bicycles and several hundred new types of machines.
For the first time in history, Russia mines aluminum, magnesite, apatite, iodine, potash and many other valuable products. The guiding points of the Soviet plains are no longer crosses and church domes, but grain elevators and silos. Collective farms are building houses, stables, pigsties. Electricity penetrates the village, radio and newspapers have conquered it. Workers learn to work on the latest machines. The peasant boys build and maintain agricultural machines that are bigger and more complex than anything America has ever seen. Russia begins to "think in machines". Russia is rapidly moving from the age of wood to the age of iron, steel, concrete and motors.”
This is how the proud British and Americans spoke about the USSR in the 30s, envying the Soviet people - our parents.
From the book by Nelli Goreslavskaya “Joseph Stalin. The Father of Nations and His Children”, Moscow, Knizhny Mir, 2011, pages 52-58.
The first half of the 1920s was the heyday of the NEP. And the Moscow of this time is contradictory, many-sided, with terrible grimaces and attempts to preserve cultural traditions.
What was going on in the city, which tried on the appearance of the world's first capital of a socialist state?
After the revolution, proletarians from all regions and regions flooded into the capital city: simple people, who only yesterday stood behind the plow and had no idea about etiquette. It was then that this eternal Sharikovskaya began: "Take and share everything!". Down with the carpets, I don’t wash the stairs, because we can’t decide who is the first, the main entrances are to be boarded up, because there is no light anyway. And the widespread rejection of the old regime system began.
The word "Freedom" fluttered in ignorant minds, and this played a cruel joke on the townsfolk. Everything of the old regime was desecrated, up to such eternal values as family and home. Free love flourished in Moscow. The relaxation of the authorities in matters of registration of marriages has led to an increase in the number of divorces, abortions, and abandoned children. Free citizens strove to taste such freedom to the fullest extent. Sexual relations were treated very freely, marriage and family had no value. It has become fashionable to revel, burn life and change partners. Moscow in the 1920s was flooded with prostitutes. There were weak attempts to reason with these young ladies - this was done by the wife of S. Kirov himself. She arranged concerts and lectures for the ladies of a certain kind, tried to treat them by force and discourage them from drinking. As you know, nothing happened.
An amazing fact, but Moscow was not touched by the "wine riots" that choked neighboring St. Petersburg. However, they drank a lot. The average Moscow family ate meat 2 times a month, milk was considered a luxury, but a bottle of Zubovka was daily. Those who could not spend 1 ruble on state-owned vodka were driven moonshine, into which kerosene was added for a fortress.
General socialization was planted from above. Why does a Soviet person need a personal life? Enough nook where you can sleep, and everything else - just build, together. Hence the next grimaces of that time: communal houses. 6 square meters were allocated for personal space. m. Toilets and dining rooms, classrooms and children's rooms, dressing rooms and balconies - everything is in common. On the one hand, this was justified, since Moscow in the 1920s was suffocating from the abundance of visitors. For the first time, the housing issue was raised, and the concept of "square meter" appeared. For these meters there was a real battle, up to stabbing, squabbles, fights and even murders. And Moscow communal apartments are beautifully described in the immortal creation of Ilf and Petrov. Remember "Voronya Slobidka"?
And Moscow… Moscow was ringing with tram chimes, bristling with the cries of merchants and organ grinders. And over it all floated the good news. Bell ringing in the capital will be completely banned only by 1930. In the meantime, it was still pouring from churches and belfries, and Muscovites, oddly enough, after the revolution poured into the church. The temples were full. Surprisingly, in a state that positioned itself as an atheist, it was considered right to go to church. The intellectuals were looking for some kind of stronghold, and the peasants who came in large numbers were just looking for silence.
And the capital was suffocating: from the stench of the stables and sewer amber, from the incredible odor of corned beef and the unbearable smell of unwashed bodies, from the suffocating aroma of the Red Moscow perfume (they had just appeared) and the persistent stench of naphthalene (it was bought in kilograms). The issue of sanitation was considered at the government level. People were urgently taught to wash their hands before eating, to go to the bathhouse at least once a week.
But there were also positive aspects. Against the backdrop of general devastation and famine, shop windows were bursting with an abundance of food. The NEP allowed the resurgence of cooperatives and private enterprise. For example, A. Raikin recalled how, in childhood, with wild delight, he and the boys ran to stare at the mountains of chocolate and cakes to the nearest confectionery.
Nepman is an odious figure, a kind of caricature of the successful and rich. Remember Ella the Ogre? Here she is - a NEP woman of that time: not a penny for her soul, the wind is in her head, but endless attempts to live richly, following the example of millionaires. No, there were in Moscow and truly rich people. These famously drove up to restaurants in a taxi, staged endless orgies, ate hazel grouse and pineapples. And they called them "bourgeois". It is this word that Bulgakov's Sharikov was the first to pronounce. In general, Bulgakov's immortal creation is an excellent sketch of the Moscow life of that time. Devastation, endless songs at meaningless meetings, turned off heating and electricity and no galoshes. The genius was right, he was right when he said that the devastation was not in the closets, but in the heads.
So what to do? Bruised by the tragedy of war and revolution, the generation urgently needed "cultural therapy". The Bolsheviks had nothing to offer, everything old was desecrated. That is why culture grimaced, betraying inconceivable quirks in the proletarian consciousness. For the first time in Moscow, beauty contests are held, where the winners are awarded with loose diamonds. And on the next street, flocks of homeless children are warming themselves near the fire, always hungry, frozen, embittered. Moscow is full of posters about the opening of theater shops and the sale of "miraculous cure for hemorrhoids." But in the theaters - pathetic "Red Poppy" or completely unusual for the Slavic soul - erotica, cabaret and cancan.
Moscow in the years of the NEP is also a cultural revelry. Favorite leisure time is going to the cinema. Along with the creations of S. Eisenstein (which is worth only one "Battleship Potemkin") in honor were American comedies and films with Mary Pickford. More than 300 publishing houses were opened in the capital. Everyone and everyone printed! And the writings of Lenin, and the infamous "Correspondence between Engels and Kautsky", and endless kilometers of verses of newly-minted talents. Mayakovsky was a cult figure, but even he "spit on the bohemia" of that time, arguing that he could not master such a number of geniuses born in 24 hours.
Moscow in the 1920s was also trading. It seemed that all the inhabitants were trading in everything that was left. It was said that at the Sukharevsky market one could even buy a "bald trait". The NEP ruled the roost until the late 1920s. The city dressed in the latest fashion, toiled in queues at the labor exchange, reveled in restaurants and counted a penny of labor, jostled in trams and went to party meetings in formation.
Only in the late 1920s, when Stalin came to power, did changes begin. The NEP was "strangled" and eradicated, and Muscovites with great passion rushed to build a new, communist one. But that's a completely different story.