The stalin cult chapter 3

Late 1920s–early 1930s:

Late 1920s–early 1930s: Stalin begins to be portrayed as Lenin’s rightful successor and the embodiment of Soviet ideals

Socialist realism

1932 decree “On the Reconstruction of Literary and Art Organizations”: Socialist realism becomes the official style, requiring art to glorify labor, socialism, and Stalin

establishment

1933–1939: The cult is fully established, with Stalin celebrated as “Great Leader”, “Father of Nations”, “Universal Genius”

renaming

1933–39: The cult is cemented. Towns renamed (e.g., Tsaritsyn → Stalingrad in 1925), historians rewrite Stalin's revolutionary role, and Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev are airbrushed from photos and textbooks

Purges

• 1936–38 Show Trials: Zinoviev (Aug 1936), Kamenev, Bukharin (Mar 1938). Staged public confessions, broadcast/filmed 🡒 standardized propaganda of internal threats

• These trials reinforced the cult—presenting Stalin as caretaker eliminating “saboteurs”—while art and press amplified their necessity

Media

Glavlit (main censorship body) controlled all publications: banned Trotsky, removed enemies from photos, falsified data

Mass media: radio, loudspeakers, newspapers repeated slogans (“Father of Nations,” “Great Leader”). Stalin’s birthday (21 Dec) became de facto national holiday

education

Textbooks, school programs & Pioneer/Komsomol groups reshaped youth ideology: denunciations of “enemies,” Stalin as Lenin’s dedicated successor .

Maxim Gorky

• 1902 – Elected to Russian Academy (expelled for revolutionary views)

• 1921 – Leaves USSR; lives in Italy (self-imposed exile)

• 1931 – Returns to USSR at Stalin’s invitation

• 1932 – Appointed head of the Union of Soviet Writers (de facto)

• 1936 – Dies under suspicious circumstances (possible NKVD involvement)

Socialist realism

• Official artistic doctrine of the USSR:

• Required writers to portray Soviet life optimistically, with:

  • Heroic workers

  • Loyal Party members

  • Stalin as wise, guiding figure

🡒 Anything experimental, critical, or individualistic (like modernism or satire) was labeled "bourgeois" or "formalist" and banned.

Union of soviet writers

• The Union was not a union in the Western sense (i.e., protecting members' rights); it was an ideological enforcement body.

• Its mission was to control literature to ensure it aligned with Communist Party values and glorified socialism and Stalin.

• Membership was compulsory to publish fiction or poetry in the USSR; non-members were effectively banned from publishing.

Lenin and stalin

When discussing propaganda or Socialist Realism, use Gorky as a bridge between Leninist idealism and Stalinist authoritarianism in the arts. He’s both a cultural architect and a cautionary tale—once revered, later erased after death by the same regime.