Transformation of artistic activity in the USSR in 1933 (based on materials from Leningrad and Irkutsk)

Abstract

The article examines the transformation of artistic activity and the institutionalization of Soviet art at the local level. The aim of the study is to identify the mechanisms through which ideological directives were concretized within the artistic milieu in 1933. The relevance of the research lies in the need to clarify the processes by which the Soviet artistic system took shape within local practices, rather than solely through nationwide decisions. The novelty of the study consists in a comparative analysis of materials from Leningrad and Irkutsk from 1933, which makes it possible to treat this year as a distinct stage in the formation of the Soviet artistic model. The paper demonstrates how artistic practice was shaped within the ‘centre – periphery’ system at both institutional and discursive levels, accompanied by changes in the conditions and modes of artistic activity. Within this process, ideological directives acquired concrete content, leading to the emergence of a universal and hierarchically organized artistic model. The analysis focuses on two cultural events of 1933 in Leningrad and Irkutsk, differing in format and scale but embedded in a single process, allowing one to trace the implementation of state cultural policy in different territorial contexts.

The source base consists of archival materials from the Central State Archive of Literature and Art in St. Petersburg and the Center for Documentation of Contemporary History of the Irkutsk Region. The theoretical and methodological framework draws on the approaches of Pierre Bourdieu (the concept of the field of cultural production) and Michel Foucault (analysis of regimes of truth), as well as the works of Mark Meerovich, which consider the artistic sphere in terms of resource distribution and institutional regulation. Existing scholarship on the history of Soviet art is taken into account to outline the general principles of its institutionalization; however, their realization in regional contexts remains insufficiently studied.

It is established that in 1933 the transformation of artistic activity was not only organizational but also normative: a system of professional requirements, evaluative criteria, and mechanisms of recognition was formed, linked to the organizational structure of artistic life. The principles of evaluation shifted from aesthetic grounds to procedures of official recognition, where artistic mastery was correlated with subject matter and the treatment of imagery as determined by ideological and organizational demands. The formation of the Soviet artistic model was accompanied by a transition from the relative autonomy of the artistic field to a regime of external regulation, while in practice, universalization coexisted with differences between the centre and the periphery. It is argued that 1933 should be regarded as a distinct stage in the development of the Soviet artistic system, associated with the implementation and consolidation of new normative principles.