Why socialist realism? Space and propaganda – the birth of myth

Abstract

There is no single definition of social realism, nor is there a single name - either in Europe or in the world, for the entire propaganda and artistic movement. Technically speaking, the name of socialist realism is not widely used in Russia itself, but its role is difficult to overestimate in the birth of the new myth, a new transcultural code that grew nearly 10 years after the October Revolution as a result of the rejection of the constructivist conquest by the political establishment. The article goes back to the search not only of the definition but of the origin of socialist realism, setting out new paths of his cognition. The role of propaganda in the recent history of Russia, is generally underestimated.

Keywords

• socialist realism
• October Revolution
• Soviet Russia
• USSR
• Joseph Stalin
• Lenin