Socialist realism was a creative method used in art and literature. This method was considered an aesthetic expression of a certain concept. This concept was associated with the period of struggle for building a socialist society.
This creative method was considered the main artistic direction in the USSR. Realism in Russia proclaimed the truthful reflection of reality against the background of its revolutionary development.
The founder of the method in the literature is M. Gorky. It was he who in 1934 at the First Congress of Writers of the USSR defined socialist realism as a form that affirms being as an act and creativity, the purpose of which is to continuously develop the individual’s most valuable abilities to ensure his victory over natural forces for the sake of human longevity and health.
Realism, the philosophy of which is reflected in Soviet literature, was built in accordance with certain ideological principles. According to the concept, the cultural figure was to follow a peremptory program. Socialist realism was based on the glorification of the Soviet system, labor enthusiasm, as well as the revolutionary opposition of the people and leaders.
This creative method was prescribed to all cultural figures of each sphere of art. This put creativity in a fairly tight framework.
However, some artists of the USSR created original and vivid works that had universal significance. Only recently was the dignity of a number of socialist realist artists (Plastov, for example, writing scenes from village life) recognized.
Literature at that time was an instrument of party ideology. The writer himself was regarded as an "engineer of human souls." With the help of his talent, he had to influence the reader, to be a propagandist of ideas. The main task of the writer was to educate the reader in the spirit of the Party and to support, together with him, the struggle for building communism. Socialist realism brought subjective aspirations and actions of the personalities of the heroes of all works into line with objective historical events.
In the center of any work, only a positive hero should have stood. He was an ideal communist, an example for the entire socialist society. In addition, the hero was a progressive man, human doubts were alien to him.
Speaking about the fact that people should own art, that art should be based on the feelings, demands and thoughts of the masses, Lenin specified that literature should be partisan. Lenin believed that this direction of art was an element of general proletarian work, a detail of one great mechanism.
Gorky argued that the main task of socialist realism is to foster a revolutionary view of what is happening, a corresponding perception of the world.
To ensure strict adherence to the method of creating paintings, the composition of prose and poetry and so on was necessary to subordinate to the exposure of capitalist crimes. Moreover, each work was supposed to praise socialism, inspiring viewers and readers to the revolutionary struggle.
The method of socialist realism encompassed absolutely all spheres of art: architecture and music, sculpture and painting, cinema and literature, drama. This method affirmed a number of principles.
The first principle - nationality - was manifested in the fact that the heroes in the works should certainly have come from the people. First of all, these are workers and peasants.
The works should contain a description of heroic deeds, revolutionary struggle, building a bright future.
Another principle was concreteness. It was expressed in the fact that reality was a process of historical development that corresponded to the doctrine of materialism.