The study analyzes the transformations undergone by the topic of sadness in individual decades, paying particular attention to the discussion on “the poet’s right to be sad” in poetry reacting to the dogmatically asserted ideology of Socialist Realism in the first half of the 1950s. This discussion was initiated in Slovakia by Milan Rúfus’s poetry collection Až dozrieme (When we Grow Mature). During the 1960s the discussion over the poet’s right to be sad when confronted by civilizational threats gradually transformed into a dystopian alternative. The characteristic feature of melancholic modality during this period came to be irony. Within the Czech cultural context it is represented by Kundera’s novel Žert (The Joke), which is a reaction not only to the pioneering optimism of Socialist Realism, but also to the traditional understanding of humanism. Confronting current ecological threats, the author finds some overlap with the present in the period discussion over “the right to be sad”. In this respect he notes the term “environmental grief ”, which is now being used by the Czech sociologist Hana Librová.
At the turn of 1946 and 1947, ten Soviet architects affiliated with the Academy of Architecture in Moscow visited Czechoslovakia. Over the course of two months, they visited eighteen towns and cities. They were interested in historical, modern and contemporary architecture, as well as in the methods of post-war reconstruction, and visited many institutions associated with architecture. They also organised several lectures. The Soviet architects engaged in debates with their Czechoslovak counterparts on the architecture of both countries and appear to have genuinely sought common ground between them. This study has two main goals. The first is to answer the question of whether, prior to the 1948 coup d’état, the Soviet delegation might already have been attempting to promote the ideas of socialist realism in Czechoslovakia. To this end I will examine the activities and opinions of the Soviet architects as revealed during their visits to Brno and Prague. From Brno we have mainly records of discussions between Soviet and Brno-based architects linked to interwar functionalism and the local school of architecture. These documents reveal a search for points in common during the creation of socialist architecture, as well as a revaluation of modernism and the relationship to folk architecture. In Prague, the Soviet visitors gave several lectures and discussions in which they provided information about Soviet architecture, while making clear their allegiance to socialist realism. My second goal is to examine the reaction of Czechoslovak architects to the visit, including to the presentation of socialist realism, which they had already encountered during the interwar years. As regards their reaction to Soviet architecture after the visit from their Soviet counterparts, the Czech architects can be roughly divided into two groups. The first, represented by older architects active during the First Republic, expressed a sympathy with the eclecticism of Soviet architecture, though disagreed with it and expressed its hope that Czechoslovak socialist architecture would give rise to different outcomes. The second group, comprising young architects unburdened by the struggle of the interwar avant-garde, was far more positive and adopted an uncritical approach to Soviet architecture.
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Na přelomu let 1946–1947 Československo navštívilo deset sovětských architektů profesně spřízněných s Akademií architektury v Moskvě. Během dvou měsíců tato výprava zavítala do osmnácti československých měst. Zajímala se jak o místní historickou, moderní i současnou architekturu, tak i o způsoby poválečné rekonstrukce, navštívila četné instituce spojené s architekturou, jako byly školy, městské a zemské plánovací ústavy, a uspořádala několik přednášek. Debatovala se svými československými protějšky o architektuře obou zemí a zdá se, že mezi nimi hledala společná témata. Tato studie má dva hlavní cíle. První zodpovídá otázku, zda se sovětská delegace již v době před státním převratem v roce 1948 mohla v Československu pokoušet propagovat myšlenky socialistického realismu. K tomu slouží především studium aktivit a názorových východisek sovětských architektů, které prezentovali při návštěvě Brna a Prahy. Z Brna existují hlavně záznamy o diskusích mezi sovětskými a brněnskými architekty, kteří byli svázáni s meziválečným funkcionalismem a místní školou architektury (s Jiřím Krohou či Antonínem Kurialem). Tyto doklady vypovídají hlavně o hledání společných předpokladů při budování socialistické architektury, přehodnocování modernismu či vztahu k lidové architektuře. V Praze Sověti přednesli několik přednášek a diskusí, v kterých sice věcně informovali, o sovětské architektuře, ale dávali jasně najevo, že sovětská architektura jde cestou socialistického realismu. Lze se domnívat, že své stanovisko zastávali během celého pobytu. Druhým cílem studie je prozkoumat reakce československých architektů na tuto návštěvu včetně odezvy na představení socialistického realismu, s nímž se setkali již v době mezi válkami. Ohlasy československých architektů na sovětskou architekturu po sovětské návštěvě lze zhruba rozdělit na dvě skupiny. První, reprezentovaná staršími architekty, kteří byli činní za první republiky, vyjádřila pochopení pro eklektické projevy sovětské architektury, i když s nimi nesouhlasila a dle všeho doufala, že československá socialistická architektura se projeví jinou formou. Druhá skupina, mladí architekti nezatížení boji meziválečné avantgardy, se dle všeho projevovala daleko pozitivnějším, a především nekritickým postojem k sovětské architektuře.
The main topic of the article is II Sinfonia Olimpica by Zbigniew Turski, a composer who is barely known in Poland nowadays. The reason of this is the socio-political situation of the country after World War II. The composer was one of first victims of Stalinist cultural policy. At a conference in Łagów Lubuski in 1949, his II Sinfonia Olimpica was named formalistic, pessimistic and incompatible with the socialist realism standards. However, the composition had won a gold medal at the XIV Olympic Games in London in 1948 and this success had had a great resonance in Polish music press before the conference. The article has several objectives. The first of them is to present socio¬-political situation in musical environment. Moreover, it shows the reception of the symphony after its premiere at the conference in Łagów Lubuski. Finally, an attempt to analyze the II Sinfonia Olimpica is made. It is noticed that the symphony stands out against other com¬positions created in the mid-twentieth century particularly by dint of its deeply emotional and dramatic character. The achieved mood results from the traumatic war experience of the composer. Although the Neoclassical tradition is visible, Turski used the innovative musical language and his attempt to create his own music style is noticeable. According to the author’s opinion, if it had not been socialist realism in the mid-twentieth century, II Sinfonia Olimpica could be now perceived as one of the most important symphonies created within the last century in Poland.
The main topic of the article is II Sinfonia Olimpica by Zbigniew Turski, a composer who is barely known in Poland nowadays. The reason of this is the socio-political situation of the country after World War II. The composer was one of first victims of Stalinist cultural policy. At a conference in Łagów Lubuski in 1949, his II Sinfonia Olimpica was named formalistic, pessimistic and incompatible with the socialist realism standards. However, the composition had won a gold medal at the XIV Olympic Games in London in 1948 and this success had had a great resonance in Polish music press before the conference. The article has several objectives. The first of them is to present socio-political situation in musical environment. Moreover, it shows the reception of the symphony after its premiere at the conference in Łagów Lubuski. Finally, an attempt to analyze the II Sinfonia Olimpica is made. It is noticed that the symphony stands out against other compositions created in the mid-twentieth century particularly by dint of its deeply emotional and dramatic character. The achieved mood results from traumatic war experience of the composer. Although the neoclassical tradition is visible, Turski used the innovative musical language and his attempt to create his own music style is noticeable. According to the author’s opinion, if it had not been socialist realism in the mid-twentieth century, II Sinfonia Olimpica could be now perceived as one of the most important symphonies created within the last century in Poland.
The main topic of the article is II Sinfonia Olimpica by Zbigniew Turski, a composer who is barely known in Poland nowadays. The reason of this is the socio-political situation of the country after World War II. The composer was one of first victims of Stalinist cultural policy. At a conference in Łagów Lubuski in 1949, his II Sinfonia Olimpica was named formalistic, pessimistic and incompatible with the socialist realism standards. However, the composition had won a gold medal at the XIV Olympic Games in London in 1948 and this success had had a great resonance in Polish music press before the conference. The article has several objectives. The first of them is to present socio-political situation in musical environment. Moreover, it shows the reception of the symphony after its premiere at the conference in Łagów Lubuski. Finally, an attempt to analyze the II Sinfonia Olimpica is made. It is noticed that the symphony stands out against other compositions created in the mid-twentieth century particularly by dint of its deeply emotional and dramatic character. The achieved mood results from traumatic war experience of the composer. Although the neoclassical tradition is visible, Turski used the innovative musical language and his attempt to create his own music style is noticeable. According to the author’s opinion, if it had not been socialist realism in the mid-twentieth century, II Sinfonia Olimpica could be now perceived as one of the most important symphonies created within the last century in Poland.
This article presents the history of Masuria created by the propaganda of socialist realism. Itsaim is to show how writers presented the nationality-based verification campaign and opinion pollsin the area of former East Prussia. The author attempts to prove that social realist writers describedthe above-mentioned action as “discovering” Polish identity by the inhabitants of Masuria. In orderto do that, four stories included in the anthology Ziemia serdecznie znajoma, published in 1954, areanalysed to show that strong pressure was exerted on the Masurians to confirm their Polish nationality.
This article is devoted to the strategies of creations of masculinity used in the novel Bravery (pol. Męstwo) written by Bruno Jasieński. The article analyzes the ways in which patriarchate is presented in post-revolutionary social and gender relations as well as the strategies used for the creation of gender identity along with the social consequences of the revolutionary project of emancipation, which was abandoned in the USSR in the early 1930s. An important assumption of the study is also an attempt to establish the relation of this short prose to dominant fiction preserved by the poetics of socialist realism.
But... These worlds are tendentious The article focuses on the term tendentious novel and its special use in the Polish literary theory: the context of socialist realist novels. Taking into consideration Louis Althusser’s concept of ideology and Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of pure and impure taste, the article calls into question the idea of tendentiousness in discourse, and categorizing novels as “strongly saturated with ideology” and therefore labelling them as “tendentious”. The inspiration to write this paper was the perception of socialist realism in Poland, with particular reference to Stalinist novels, whose forgotten senses and unknown but universal metaphoric systems are presented by the author. Ale światy są tendencyjneAutorka opisuje znaczenie pojęcia „powieści tendencyjnej”, jak również jego szczególne użycie w polskiej teorii literatury w kontekście powieści socrealistycznej. W odniesieniu do koncepcji ideologii Louisa Althussera oraz teorii gustu czystego/nieczystego Pierre’a Bourdieu autorka kwestionuje ideę „tendencyjności” w dyskursie, a co za tym idzie, stawia pod znakiem zapytania również zasadność określania powieści „mocno nasyconych ideologią” mianem „tendencyjnych”. Inspiracją do napisania artykułu był odbiór w Polsce realizmu socjalistycznego, a w szczególności powieści czasu stalinizmu, których zapomniany sens oraz uniwersalną metaforykę autorka przedstawia w niniejszej pracy.
The main aim of this paper is to examine the discourse on Frédéric Chopin that took place in Poland in 1949, when the 100th anniversary of his birth coincided with the culmination of the socialist realist propaganda in the field of Polish culture. The discourse, initiated and moderated under effective surveillance of the Polish People’s Republic’s government, was filled with communist ideology. The authorities aimed at creating a sense of communion in the Polish nation, therefore they undertook numerous actions in the area of cultivating memory of Chopin and reception of his works. The composer was used as a banner under which culture of socialist realism was to be consolidated. Chopin was presented by the narrators in the socialist realist context in various dimensions. “Deep humanism”, “truth”, “optimism”, “sincerity” and “democratic features” of Chopin’s music were the crucial notions used by them. Chopin was depicted, among others, as a revolutionist and a prophet of triumph of communism. The oeuvre of Chopin was said to bring together “fraternal countries and nations”, Polish People’s Republic and Soviet Union, while being simultaneously a crucial element of class conflict. The authorities had a tendency to overemphasize folk roots of his compositions, thus among musical genres composed by Chopin the importance of Mazurka was exaggerated. Other genres without such strong folk connotations, as sonatas, ballades and scherzos, were marginalized in the discourse.
The main aim of this paper is to examine the discourse on Frédéric Chopin that took place in Poland in 1949, when the 100th anniversary of his birth coincided with the culmination of the socialist realist propaganda in the field of Polish culture. The discourse, initiated and moderated under effective surveillance of the Polish People’s Republic’s government, was filled with communist ideology. The authorities aimed at creating a sense of communion in the Polish nation, therefore they undertook numerous actions in the area of cultivating memory of Chopin and reception of his works. The composer was used as a banner under which the culture of socialist realism was to be consolidated. Chopin was presented by the narrators in the socialist realist context in various dimensions. “Deep humanism”, “truth”, “optimism”, “sincerity” and “democratic features” of Chopin’s music were the crucial notions used by them. Chopin was depicted, among others, as a revolutionist and a prophet of triumph of communism. The oeuvre of Chopin was said to bring together “fraternal countries and nations”, Polish People’s Republic and Soviet Union, while being simultaneously a crucial element of class conflict. The authorities had a tendency to overemphasize folk roots of his compositions, thus among musical genres composed by Chopin the importance of Mazurka was exaggerated. Other genres without such strong folk connotations, as sonatas, ballades and scherzos, were marginalized in the discourse.
This article presents the socialist realistic works of Wanda Karczewska. The author proves thatin her verse the poet addressed the most important topics recommended by propaganda. She thusmakes an overview of socialist realistic motifs which are most frequently used in Karczewska’s poems.She also shows how the poet viewed the current issues from a female perspective. For this purpose,the author analyzes Karczewska’s works included in two volumes of poetry: Ziarno kiełkujące[Sprouting Grain] from 1952 and Wiersze i poematy [Verses and Poems] from 1954.
The aim of this article is to outline the issues related to the specificity of the image of the writer and his role in society created in Tadeusz Konwicki’s early works. This stage in the writer’s life opens with the first short story that Konwicki published, namely “Kapral Koziołek i ja” from 1947, after which the initial model of his writing is subject to gradual erosion and ends between 1954 and 1955 with the novel titled Z oblężonego miasta. Investigating the motif of the creative work house on the basis of Z oblężonego miasta is a pretext for reflection on the category of the writer’s work. The article traces the motifs of the professional category of the writer, through analysing the constructions on which Konwicki’s narratives are based. At the same time, due to the analysis of social discourse in which the author participated, the article outlines the social functions he performed at a given time.
This article entitled unassumingly aims at reminding – just in a cursory way, but with a substantial degree of certainty, too, in their literary and historical justification – of a specific list of names of Bulgarian poets, whose „discontent” and/or „disappointment” with the totalitarian regime in Bulgaria create the history of the dissent, which found its expression in the alternative lyrical thinking and writing in the period of socialist realism during the decades of the sixties and the seventies of the twentieth century.
A – department store commonly referred to as “Okrąglak” (“The Rotunda”) in Poznań and the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, both completed in 1955, represent features of two opposing styles. This leads to further reflections on modernism and socialist realism as demonstrated by the – two buildings. The modern features of the tower of the Palace of Culture and Science have been outshined with the national form and communist contents clearly reflecting Poland’s subordination to the Soviet Union. References to the pattern, the Palace of the Soviets, defined the top-down accepted model of progress. The department store (“Okrąglak”), designed in 1948, was also meant to demonstrate modernity of commerce in a communist country. However, its form designed by Marek Leykam represents a more universal concept of progress free from any designations.
The article covers the main attributes of cultural policy in Soviet Ukraine after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956. It analyses the official literary concept of the socialist realism, focusing on the internationalist principle in wider political context. The study presents the gradual formation of an alternative discourse in the Soviet culture, represented in Soviet Ukraine by works of the younger generation of so-called “Generation of the sixties”. The two discourses interlinked under the specific conditions of the Khrushchev Thaw gave birth to a curious phenomenon of a hybrid culture of National Communism. The article defines the main phases of the development of the alternative discourse of Soviet culture in Ukraine during the Thaw and the gradual development of the „Generation of the sixties“ from Soviet class identity towards a national one that later took form of anti-Soviet and anti-Imperial opposition.
In March 1945, the combined Polish-Soviet forces captured the German city of Stettin. On 26 April, the 65th Army of the 2nd Belorussian Front entered the city, in which the rule of the Soviet military command was soon established. Due to its unresolved status and territorial disputes, Polish politicians, self-government officials, and first settlers were forced to leave Szczecin twice. In the period of the Polish-German “race for Szczecin”, which ended with the Potsdam Conference, the only stable element having control over the lower Oder was the USSR, whose emissaries treated the conquered territories as if they already belonged to their communist state. As early as in 1945, the Polish civil authorities came up with an idea to erect a memorial dedicated to the “democratic armies”. The competition for the Red Army Gratitude Memorial was officially launched in Spring 1949, once the USSR-born doctrine of socialist realism was introduced to Poland. Out of twenty-two submission, the first award was given to Józef Starzyński from Zakopane, a former citizen of Lvov. The commemorative complex located at the Polish Soldier’s Square was completed in April 1950. The aim of the present paper is to analyse the very memorial which remained in Szczecin until 2017. Of special importance to my investigation are: the geographical context of Western Pomerania considered one of the Reclaimed Territories and in a feudal relationship with the historical regions of the Republic of Poland, as well as with the Russian “Seigneur”/”Lord”; the topographical context, namely the act of re-building the former German city destroyed in warfare; as well as the biographical context, i.e. the life of the monument’s designer. The paper takes special interest in the formal and ideological links between the Szczecin memorial and one of Starzyński’s earlier projects, namely the Sacred Heart of Jesus Gratitude Memorial in Poznań (1927; a competition submission; never erected). A careful reconstruction of the memorials’ history will offer a valuable case study which showcases the 20th-century sculptor in a politically-charged environment.
The first study of its kind, Marek Hendrykowski’s paper examines frame by frame the symbolic role of the construction of the Palace of Culture in the ideological context of the Stalinist period and its emergence into the realm of public discourse in the early 1950s.
In Doctor Zhivago, Pasternak brings scientific and political discourses into dialogue with magical ones. In an emblematic episode, two soldiers from opposing sides each wear a protective amulet containing the „miraculous” text of the 90th Psalm. One dies; one survivesWhile this discrepancy is easily traced to scientific and socioeconomic causes, the episode isdesigned to foreground the least rational explanation: that done right, magic actually worksEmbodying Pasternak’s interest in the interrelationships among science, politics, poetry, andmagic, the textual amulet is especially significant because it represents a magical power that is reserved for words. This article finds that Pasternak’s novel contains numerous examples of such efficacious „magical” texts – from the Gospels to peasant songs, from political slogans to Zhivago’s poems – and argues that reading Doctor Zhivago by the light of these„magic words” yields insights into the aesthetics and design of the novel.
From all of the German literature distributed in Poland during the first half of the nineteen fifties, that of the GDR was the most strongly represented, because like the People's Republic, it was part of the Eastern Bloc. A substantial part of this literature touched upon the themes of the Second World War. As some prominent Eastern German authors had taken part in the Spanish Civil War in 1936-1939, this subject also couldn't be ignored. The introduction in 1949 of socialist realism as the most important criterion of art, and particulary strong political pressure, led to a great deal of confusion and insecurity, not only for Polish publishing houses, but also among the censors, whose task was to take decisions about what literature could be printed. Censors’ opinions in this period often differed, not only in terms of detailed matter, but also in the final decisions about the eventual fate of the title submitted for evaluation.
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From all of the German literature distributed in Poland during the first half of the nineteen fifties, that of the GDR was the most strongly represented, because like the People's Republic, it was part of the Eastern Bloc. A substantial part of this literature touched upon the themes of the Second World War. As some prominent Eastern German authors had taken part in the Spanish Civil War in 1936-1939, this subject also couldn't be ignored.The introduction in 1949 of socialist realism as the most important criterion of art, and particulary strong political pressure, led to a great deal of confusion and insecurity, not only for Polish publishing houses, but also among the censors, whose task was to take decisions about what literature could be printed. Censors’ opinions in this period often differed, not only in terms of detailed matter, but also in the final decisions about the eventual fate of the title submitted for evaluation.
This paper addresses the little studied area of Slovak music and its influence from ‘above‘: the aesthetic theory (dogmatic aesthetics) created out of the political demands placed on art in the 1950s and 60s. In this relatively short ‘Socialist building‘ period, music as both an adornment of the regime and an ideological tool was promoted in accordance with Lenin’s reflection theory and Zhdanov’s normative aesthetics using rules, prohibitions and dogma. Fortunately, however, the mission to build and entrench socialism was never fulfilled.
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