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PARTISAN REVIEW
field, artists were allowed almost complete autonomy. "Art has its
own laws," wrote Trotsky.
1
M
"Every artist, and every one who re–
gards himself as such, claims as his proper right the liberty to work
freely according to his ideal, whether it is any good or not," said
Lenin.
106
They realized that art cannot be produced to order, that the
artist cannot function properly if he is stripped of his freedom, his
independence, his dignity.
Such trifles mean nothing to Stalin, 'the practical realist.' The
dangerous formulation of the RAPP-"Art is a class weapon"-has
been officially repudiated, but in practice it is still observed. The re–
sult has been the terrible sterility which I have already described in
all fields of Soviet culture. More and more the Kremlin admonishes
its artists to sing sweetly (or else!), and more and more, with the best
will in the world, they remain silent. The old Bolsheviks had more
conservative tastes in art than one might wish, but Stalin is a Phil–
istine, so unconscious of his own limitations that he does not hesitate
to interfere in the most intimate way in all fields of culture. Every–
thing from opera to astronomy has felt the Kremlin's heavy hand. He
receives a delegation of writers and urges them to create according to
the precepts of socialist realism, whieh he thoughtfully defines for
them. He helps make a movie-and
Lenin in October
is the result.
He receives Dzerzhinsky, composer of 'tuneful' operas, to congratu–
late him and to warn him against the errors of Shostakovitch-and
the Association of Soviet Composers passes a resolution: "The atten–
tion given to Soviet music by Comrade Stalin augurs very well indeed
for its future expansion, etc., etc.''
107
Such 'cultural directives' as
Comrade Stalin has not time to give himself, other residents of the
Kremlin hand down to the bewildered-and apprehensive-artists.
Viewed from the outside, the endless scholastic discussions be–
tween Soviet critics as to the real nature of 'Leninist criticism' as
against 'vulgar sociologism' have their humorous aspect. Once inside
those well-patrolled borders, however, and it is no joking matter.
Esthetic criticism is implemented by the full power of the totalitarian
state. The Moscow Art Theatre has been officially recognized as the
flag-bearer of socialist realism in the theatre, and if any one should
make bold to point out that it is actually, as the terms are generally
used, naturalistic rather than realistic in its tendencies-he would
find the well-known dramatic critic, Comrade Stalin, in flat disagree–
ment, and the discussion would be likely to terminate in a Siberian
lumber camp. It would
a~o
not be advisable to remark too publicly
on the paradox that socialist realism in the cinema has meant the
return of all the old artificial conventions of the theatre. When the
distinction between 'socialist realism,' 'formalism,' 'naturalism,' and
