culture under lenin

women

the bolshevik’s family code of 1918 made divorce easier. however russia had the highest rate, 25x more than britain. 70% of divorces were by men and small amounts of child support was paid.

abortion was permitted and creches encouraged equal rights and pay was provided but they were slow in impact.

in the feminist wing of the party, inessa armad and alexandra kollontai aimed to get women out of the house to help with the revolution.

these reforms were mainly to get women involved in the revolution and many of the reforms were revoked after the civil war.

orthodox church

seen as an alternative ideology to follow other than marxism - especially as the tsar headed it. the ‘decree on freedom of conscience’ in 1918 separated church and state, causing it to lose its privileged status. a large number of churches were destroyed or converted and many monastries shut down. attacks on churches increased to pay for food by selling the valuable items.

the ‘union of the militant godless’ was set up and communist holidays were rescheduled to religious days ie octobred and red weddings. in 1922 over 1000 clashes caused 8000 clergy deaths including 3500 nuns. mid 1920s survey revealed 55% peasants still christians and some locals resisted church attacks.

education

there were a lack of materials and teachers were badly paid. schools were placed under a comissariat of enlightenment. from 19-20 schools were told to focus on the development of children’s personalities and homework didn’t happen and teachers more lenient. teachers weren’t communist and didn’t realise how much was expected from them and schooling was overall a disaster. however, bolsheviks did improve literacy rates from 20-26 as 5 million children did literacy programmes.

prolekut

set up in 1917 to develop proletarian culture by alexander bogdanov. by 1919 its factory clubs and studios had 80k members. it held bands, choirs and art classes for example. however, it was really the intelligensia developing culture for them. they wanted folk, dancing and vodka. closed after CW as lenin worried about autonomy.

art

modernism’s influence coupled with futurism as artists attempted to convey visions of a new futurisitic world. v mayakovsky set to work producing slogans and posters for the govt and despite propaganda, his work was innovative.

constructivists

like vladimir tanin produced art focusing on machines of the future + ordinary objects representing nobility of labour. this was to raise the status of working class and peasants as part of socialist values.

architecture and theatre

civil war meant it was too economically difficult to built on large scale levels but plans were made for garden cities and high rise apartments - buildings should be functional.

most bolshevik influence was here eg - v mayerhold produced mystery bouffe 1918 depicting workers defeating their exploiters.