Art and society in the age of Stalin

In 1932, Josef Stalin abolished all independent artistic organizations in the USSR. The subsequent establishment of “partiinost”, the Stalinist requirement of absolute allegiance to the Party, gave rise to a unique period in the history of Russian art. The book details the political and social framework of the time, and provides a complete expose of Stalinist aesthetics: socialist realism, academicism in art and neo-classicism in architecture, the cult of personality, evangelism and isolationism. The violent imposition of Stalinist culture left Soviet society severely scarred.