More thoughts for me to write about
sorry for tormenting you with these, dear readers. I have been having thought upon thought about religious aspects of Soviet visual culture. Great PhD idea, I know. Anyways, here are some of my thoughts...
1. There was a concious religious revival as part of the nationalist trend under Stalin, particularly during/after WW2 - yet prior to this Soviet culture remained essentially Christian, both in terms of ritual (Gorbachev, for example was christened), but also the most strikingly Soviet visual culture, i.e. posters, parades, packaging, advertising, propaganda, films, paintings retained aspects of classically Christian art, in terms of form, content and usage
2. Russia was essentially an illiterate culture before the Revolution.
3. It then joined both the literate and the visual+literate age, whilst retaining many aspects of the pre-literate age - images were fundamental to most Soviet propaganda.
4. Ritual was also carried over - parades echo saint's days in Catholic/Orthodox countries, Lenin's corpse became an anti-religious artefact, icons of Stakhanovite workers replaced those of saints in houses, biography gave way to vague hagiography, especially in self-penned biographies (the short course, for example)
5. Socialist realist painters used Western Christian styles (as did the architects), yet imbued the paintings with an Orthodox iconic power. Especially the pictures of Stalin.
6. Lenin/Stalin - John/Jesus?
1. There was a concious religious revival as part of the nationalist trend under Stalin, particularly during/after WW2 - yet prior to this Soviet culture remained essentially Christian, both in terms of ritual (Gorbachev, for example was christened), but also the most strikingly Soviet visual culture, i.e. posters, parades, packaging, advertising, propaganda, films, paintings retained aspects of classically Christian art, in terms of form, content and usage
2. Russia was essentially an illiterate culture before the Revolution.
3. It then joined both the literate and the visual+literate age, whilst retaining many aspects of the pre-literate age - images were fundamental to most Soviet propaganda.
4. Ritual was also carried over - parades echo saint's days in Catholic/Orthodox countries, Lenin's corpse became an anti-religious artefact, icons of Stakhanovite workers replaced those of saints in houses, biography gave way to vague hagiography, especially in self-penned biographies (the short course, for example)
5. Socialist realist painters used Western Christian styles (as did the architects), yet imbued the paintings with an Orthodox iconic power. Especially the pictures of Stalin.
6. Lenin/Stalin - John/Jesus?
posted by lukeski at 12:17 am
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