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The 1970s in the Soviet Union are often known as the time of stagnation. The economy was doing rather poorly, and the new leader, Leonid Brezhnev, backpedaled many of the reforms that had been made under Khrushchev. However, one positive that many Soviet people found was life in communal apartments. While there were definitely some issues to communal living, for the most part it seems that most people who lived in large communal apartments (kommunalka) enjoyed it.

This 2013 video gives a tour of a kommunalka similar to one that Soviet citizens would have lived in during the Brezhnev era.

Ekaterina Sergeevna was a newly divorced mother of two when she did a room exchange in 1972 in order to gain a new living space for her tiny family. She raised her boys in a large apartment where anywhere from about thirty to fifty others lived, depending on the time.   Ekaterina said that life in the kommunalka was a mostly positive experience. The tenants were like one big family, sharing nearly everything with each other, be it good or bad. The tenants always knew that they could turn to one another.

However, there were challenges unique to life in the kommunalka as well. In 1972, a legal question was answered in the “Current Digest of the Russian Press”. The tenants of many communal apartments were unsure how to divide utilities and electric bills, leading to arguments amongst each other. According to the Current Digest, it was up to the tenants to calculate exactly who owed what. Another issue that arose for those who lived in the kommunalka were people who lied about how many family members lived with them, in order to gain more living space, as detailed in a follow-up letter in another issue of “Current Digest”.

While life in a kommunalka was not always carefree and pleasant, for the most part it seems that the people who lived in communal apartments enjoyed their lifestyle. As Ekaterina summed it up, “Of course, you own apartment is a good thing, but if I had to choose the lesser of two evils, [the kommunalka] is better”.

Sources:

Utekhin, Ilya, Alice Nakhimovksy, Slava Paperno, and Nancy Ries. “Communal Living in Russia: Stories and Thoughts.” The Russia Reader: History, Culture, Politics. By Adele Marie Barker and Bruce Grant. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2010. 616-18. Print.

Utkin, N. “Follow-up on a Letter: How Apartments Were Allocated.” The Current Digest of the Russian Press 24.10 (1972): 22. East View. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. <http://dlib.eastview.com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/browse/doc/13645513>.

“Essay Viewer for Communal Living in Russia.” Essay Viewer for Communal Living in Russia. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2015. <http://kommunalka.colgate.edu/cfm/view_text.cfm?ClipID=376&Field=NarrationTranscript&Language=English&CustomTourID=0&SearchTargetList=>.

“Legal Service: WHEN THE APARTMENT IS SHARED.” The Current Digest of the Russian Press 24.7 (1972): 21. East View. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. <http://dlib.eastview.com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/browse/doc/13645741>.

After the death of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union saw a period of cultural liberalization that would come to be known as “the Thaw”. During this time, the rights of women expanded, from education becoming more accessible to the ban on abortions being lifted to women taking on more responsibilities in the work force. However, with these new freedoms came the old burdens: women were expected to be exemplary professionals during the day and then go home at night to be the ideal housewife/mother figure, leading to great stress for the average Soviet woman.

In the 1954 magazine article “It is Her Right” by E. Maksimova, the author addresses the intense workload borne by the average Soviet working mother and how Russian officials do little to help them by examining the cases of three professional women. The author first describes a day in the life of artificial leather factory supervisor Nataliia Mikhailovna Obukhovskaia, who spends all day supervising workers, then attending to party business and furthering her education with night courses before going home to tend to her daughter and ill brother, leaving her almost no personal time at all. Her coworker Maria Mikhailovna Danshina also works fulltime in addition to being the mother of two young children, and is unable to get her little daughter into daycare, forcing her to leave the child with her six-year-old brother as babysitter. Across town, bank inspector Nina Bubnova is unable to further her education and thus her career because she cannot find childcare for her daughter.

During the period of the Thaw, especially in the year 1954, Soviet women seemed to be caught between two lifestyles. On the one hand, they were expected to be ideal wives and mothers, but they were also expected to help the Soviet Union and the Party by being strong members of the work force. This balance left Soviet women with almost no time to better themselves, as they were always taking care of someone or balancing some task. I think that this draws an interesting parallel to professional American mothers today, who often struggle to “have it all”. It is interesting to see how Soviet gender roles in the 1950s are really not all that far off from modern American gender roles.

Sources: http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1954-2/whats-a-woman-to-think/

http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1954-2/whats-a-woman-to-think/whats-a-woman-to-think-texts/it-is-her-right/

During World War II, the Soviet Union paid a huge price in human lives. All of the Soviet citizens stepped up in order to ensure Soviet victory. As a result, the late 1940s and early 1950s saw a slight relaxation in what communism meant to the Soviet Union, in order to effectively reconstruct the war-torn nations and satisfy the growing middle class. Known as the “Big Deal”, this period led to a slightly renewed sense of nationalism in Soviet territories, especially so in Estonia, which used music as a way to rebuild its culture.

In 1947, Estonia held a Festival of Song and Dance. First celebrated in 1869, the festival occurred every five years, though it was interrupted during World War II. 1947 saw a return of the festival. The festival was a way for Estonians to celebrate pride in their nation through patriotic songs sung by massive choruses. While Estonia was under the control of the Soviet Union, the songs focused on promoting Soviet values more so than on Estonian national pride, even leading to a replacement of the Estonian National Anthem (listen below). The festival became a careful balance between Estonian pride and Soviet obedience. However, the government still allowed the festival to take place, in order to allow the Estonian citizens to feel that they had some freedom to celebrate their own heritage.

The Song and Dance Festival of Estonia was an important part of the Big Deal for the Estonian people. It allowed them to express love and pride for their heritage, and showed the Estonian people that the Soviet government was generous enough to let them have patriotic festivals.

Sources:  http://estonia.eu/about-estonia/culture-a-science/song-and-dance-festivals.html

Estonia Sings

When the Soviet Union entered World War II, the struggle became a battle for the Russians to prove to the rest of the world how strong their nation had become. Intense patriotism fueled the home front during the difficult winters of the war while the Nazis tried unsuccessfully to capture Russia. The Russians made sure to emphasize the role that all of the population played during the war, especially those on the home front, which is epitomized in the popular wartime poem “Wait for Me”.

The poem “Wait for Me” was designed to strengthen and comfort the women that the soldiers left behind when leaving for battle. The poem became very popular and was set to many different melodies to become songs. It became a huge testament to the strength of women, and the intensity of the love they held for their soldiers.  It acknowledges that the soldiers may very well not return from war, but that one day the couples will be reunited and the women will be rewarded for their loyalty. This poem can also be seen as symbolic for Mother Russia, and how it will always be there for its citizens, no matter what or how long it takes.

The poem “Wait for Me” is a beautiful example of how all aspects of art during World War II helped to promote the Russian cause and encourage patriotism.

Source: Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, p. 335-336.

While one part of the 1930s seemed to focus on how much life in Russia had improved under the Soviet Union and specifically the policies of Joseph Stalin, on the other hand, there was a great amount of fear, due to domestic policies like the Purges and international pressures, like the eve of World War II. As a result of the pressures faced by the artists, a new form of art known as Soviet realism became quite popular. The poem “Narkom Yezhov” by folk poet Dzhambul Dzhabaev is an excellent example of Soviet realism, as it incorporates accessibility to the newly literate Russian (dostupnost), Russian ideals and spirit (narodnost), and the spirit of the Soviet Party (partiinost).

“Narkhom Yezhov” is based on the Soviet leader Nikolai Yezhov. Yezhov was the head of the NKVD during the deadliest stage of the Purges. He helped to create the Purge Commission, and used that position along with his role at the helm of the NVKD to extend the Purge from Stalin’s enemies within party leadership to the general Russian population as a whole. Millions died in the ensuing liquidation processes. However, by 1940, Yezhov himself had displeased Stalin, and found himself executed by the very process he had helped to create.

Yezhov reached the height of both his power and cruelty in 1937, the year that Dzhabaev came out with his poem that exalted him. In the poem, Yezhov is depicted as being a god-like man who “Lenin and Stalin sent to us” in order to aid the Kazakh peasants in their fight against the rich landowners who abused them.   Dzhabaev addresses Yezhov in the poem, saying, “You are a sword, bared calmly and fiercely… You’re the eye of the nation, brighter than diamonds.” This praise hardly seems fitting for a man known throughout most of the Soviet Union as “Stalin’s Poison Dwarf” (a reference both to his cruelty and his short stature).

The poem “Narkom Yezhov” is a great example of Soviet realism, as it is in the form of traditional Kazakh folklore, which makes it accessible to the common peasants, and it also incorporates the spirit of both Russia and the Party by praising Yezhov’s valor and by making a Party leader seem like a god. The glory of the poem can also be seen as an attempt to mask the horrors of the time period in which it was written, another key facet of Soviet realism.

Sources: http://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikolay-Ivanovich-Yezhov

http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1934-2/socialist-realism/

Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, “Narkom Yezhov”, pages 298-300.

http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/49304/Stalin-s-poison-dwarf

In the 1930s, the Soviet government became firmly established and Stalin was seen as the clear leader of the Russian people. With an economy that was now booming and food now available for most people after the horrors of the early stages of collectivization, culture was free to bloom once more. Cinema prospered in the Soviet Union during the 1930s, as was evidenced by the overwhelming success of Grigorii Aleksandrov’s 1934 smash movie musical Happy-Go-Lucky Fellows.

In Aleksandrov’s hit film, the story is centered on a shepherd whose talent for singing is discovered. He is taken to Moscow and becomes the leader of a jazz ensemble that achieves great fame. The movie makes a departure from the Soviet cinema of the 1920s; instead of focusing on avant-gardism and pioneering new cinematographic techniques, Aleksandrov chose to take advantage of the new sound technology and make a rich soundtrack for his film. Additionally, the political message is far subtler. The movie is instead more focused on the adventures of its hero, rather than promoting Soviet values. It is also worthy to note that the movie incorporates a great deal of jazz, which was typically seen as a very Western music style. The reason for this is likely to convince the audience of just how good life could be under Stalin’s Soviet regime, and to attempt to ease the bitter memories of the hunger and violence of the previous decade.

The above video is a scene from Happy-Go-Lucky Fellows that shows off the features of the new sound films with its rich jazz.  Additionally, the scene offers lots of comic relief, and it feels very free, which is generally not how we think of the Soviet Union.

Happy-Go-Lucky Fellows is an excellent example of how cinema changed during the 1930s. It changed with the mentality of the citizens of the Soviet Union, and reflects how the Soviet Union of the 1930s was freer and more prosperous than in the years before and after.

Source: http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1934-2/popular-film-industry/

In 1924, the great Soviet revolutionary and leader Vladimir Lenin passed away, and Joseph Stalin took his place as the head of the Soviet Union. Stalin was determined to expedite the process of making the Soviet Union a true communist society. He and advisors went over several different plans to make this happen, eventually deciding to adopt what would become known as the First Five Year Plan. The aim of the First Five Year Plan was to collective nearly all agriculture and to improve upon the infrastructure of Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union. While these goals were mostly accomplished, they were met at great cost to the peasant class, especially in Ukraine, where nearly all members of the kulak class were deported or executed, leading up to one final crushing blow in the winter of 1932-33: a man-made famine (known in Ukraine as Holodomor, “extermination by hunger”) that was designed to crush all spirit of rebellion and make the peasants know that collectivization was the only way of survival. The effects of this brutality had long-lasting ramifications on Ukrainian-Russian relations, which continue even today.

The Ukrainian members of the kulak class proved to be stubborn at the start of the First Five Year Plan, as they did not wish to collectivize their farms. This resistance did not sit well with Stalin, who was in a hurry to collectivize agriculture because he saw it as the fast pass for the Soviet Union to modernize and grow their economy. He initiated a “class war” on the resisting kulaks, declaring them to be enemies of the state and beginning to deport and even kill them. By the winter of 1932, Stalin was determined to finally crush all Ukrainian resistance to collectivization. The Soviets put food production on the quotas that were impossible to meet, and confiscated all their grain. The Ukrainians began to starve to death, and thousands died while the Soviet government refused to send or accept relief and continued to withhold food. By 1934, around four million deaths had been caused as a result of the high grain quotas and mass food exportation (Holodomorct.org).

Many Ukrainians who survived the Holodomor were reluctant to speak about it in any way, especially during the years that Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. However, some artists did make works inspired by the famine. Volodymyr Kutkin was an artist who spent time in the gulags, and then when he was returned home he made many sketches inspired by the pain of the Holodomor. The bleakness of the medium illustrates the horror and despair felt by the Ukrainian people during this time of starvation (Wumag.kiev.ua).

In addition to inspiring some artists, the Holodomor left a lasting negative impression on Ukrainian-Russian relations. Most Ukrainians insist that the Holodomor was genocide, while the Russian government has always said that it was an unfortunate but unavoidable famine, which afflicted many other regions of the Soviet Union as well. This obviously creates a tension in the Russia-Ukraine relationship (BBC).

The Holodomor is an example of how collectivization shaped the peasant culture by basically eradicating an entire class. While Stalin’s plan to modernize Russia and bring it into communism worked, it came at such great cost to human life that it can hardly be viewed as a success. It had cultural ramifications that are still being felt today.

Sources: http://www.holodomorct.org/history.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-25058256

http://www.wumag.kiev.ua

In 1919, playwright and revolutionary Pavel Arsky published his one-act play “For the Cause of the Red Soviets”. The play details one fateful evening in the lives of a family in which the father is a Soviet commander who is currently away from home, fighting in the civil war. It served as a serious piece of propaganda for the Red Army, as it painted the White Army as a group of brutal murderers whose main targets were women, children, and the elderly.

The play focuses mostly on Darya, the wife of the Communist Nikifor Rusanov, and his sister Tanya, who is engaged to another Communist. Nikifor and Tanya’s fiancé are both away fighting with the Red Army, while the women remain home with Darya’s children and Tanya’s grandfather, Agafon. Tanya grows increasingly worried that the White Army will arrive and capture or kill them, while Darya tries to reassure her. However, Tanya’s suspicions were correct, and both Darya and Agafon are killed, while Tanya is flogged and the children are terrorized. Nikifor and members of the Red Army arrive on the scene to late to intervene, and instead swear vengeance on the Whites, while also fighting for the liberation of the lower classes, even if the cost is the price of their own lives.

This play inspires very strong feelings in its audience. The White Army is painted as brutal monsters who like to torture innocents before slaughtering them. The audience empathizes with the Red Army, who seeks only to liberate the oppressed and end up losing everything in the process. The physical violence against Nikifor’s family is symbolic for the crushing oppression that the poor and working class in Russia felt at the hands of the ruling class.   This play would have served as a most important piece of propaganda for the Communist cause, making it a priceless piece of revolutionary culture.

“For the Cause of the Red Soviets” is important to revolutionary culture because it showcases the sentiments that the Communists wanted the common people to feel. It uses art to persuade an audience that the White Army is evil personified, and only through support of the Red Army will they ever feel freedom.

Source: Arsky, Pavel. “For the Cause of the Red Soviets”. In Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, edited by James von Geldern and Richard Stites, 22-29. Bloomington:   Indiana University Press, 1995.

During the period of time around the Russian Revolution, avant-garde art flourished. Lyubov Popova became known as one of the most important artists of the period.

Popova was born to a cultured family in 1889. She studied at several prestigious Russian schools of art while in her late teens and early twenties. Around 1910, she began to travel a great deal around Russia and nearby provinces. She was very interested in iconoclasts, as well as other features of traditional Russian art, especially including traditional Russian architecture. After a trip to Paris, she became very interested in Cubism. She used her art to express herself and her views supporting the Revolution.

Popova pioneered a style of art known as architectonics with her series Painterly Architectonics. These paintings, like the example above, are very reminiscent of actual buildings. This can be traced back to Popova’s interest in Russian architecture while she was at art school. Most of these paintings also contain bright colors, which goes against the traditional ideas of what Russia is like and also showcases Popova’s hope for the Revolution.

Sources: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-artists/lyubov-popova.htm

http://www.wikiart.org/en/lyubov-popova/painterly-architectonic

In Nikolai Leskov’s famous short story “Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk Uezd”, the main character, Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, is a young woman, formerly of the peasant class, trapped in an unhappy marriage to a much older merchant.   She falls in love with a handsome and clever young servant, Sergei, and stops at nothing to try to marry him, even murdering members of her own family. When she and Sergei are sentenced to Siberia for their crimes, he falls in love with another prisoner. In her jealousy, Katerina leaps off a cliff into the sea, taking Sergei’s new lover with her and killing them both.

The character of Katerina Lvovna is certainly an interesting one. She is in a way a representation of a typical Russian woman of her class, yet has several marked differences. One way in which she is different is how she was born into a lowly peasant class, but was able to migrate upward by marriage into the slightly higher merchant class. As a result of her change in social position, she often felt out of place with her husband’s friends, as “they were all strict people: they watched how she sat, and how she walked, and how she stood” (Leskov, The Hudson Review). This is an example of how the different social estates in Russia had different customs, and how it was not easy to move between them without sticking out a bit.

Katerina’s intense love affair with Sergei is an example of how women in Russia did not have much autonomy during the late nineteenth century. Forced to marry a man she did not love because of financial reasons, it is unsurprising that she fell in love with a servant who was far closer to her in age and came from a similar social background as she did. Her marriage is described as something she could not refuse, as “she was a poor girl and could not choose her suitors” (Leskov). Katerina is under almost complete control of her husband and father-in-law. The only time she is seemingly free is when they both have to leave town to attend to business; even then, the other townspeople keep an eye on her and question her relationship with Sergei. Additionally, the Izamailova’s childlessness is blamed on Katerina Lvovna, despite the fact that her husband’s first marriage was also childless. This assumption that the infertility is due to the fault of the woman is typical of societies where women are seen as inferior.

The reader almost feels sympathetic to Katerina and Sergei when they kill her father-in-law, and even perhaps her husband. However, it is likely that the reader loses the sympathetic feelings when she murders her young cousin-in-law in cold blood, and then abandons her child without any second thoughts before leaving for Siberia to serve her sentence. The reader does likely feel pity for Katerina when Sergei leaves her, however; it is a twist that the reader likely suspected since the introduction of Sergei’s character, but is a sad twist nonetheless. The ending of the short story was a surprise, and shows how a woman like Katerina would feel like she was completely alone in the world without a man, as that would have been the way of the world she was brought up in.

The story is definitely a sad one, both due to the events that take place during it, as well as the fact that it reminds the reader of how few rights Russian women of the nineteenth century had, and how few choices they were allowed in controlling their own fate. The character of Katerina is a hard with which to sympathize, but at the same time it is almost completely impossible to condemn her for trying to control and better her own life.

Source:  Nickolai Leskov, “The Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk”, The Hudson Review, http://hudsonreview.com/2013/02/the-lady-macbeth-of-mtsensk/#.VeNl9s7VvzJ