The purpose of this thesis is to examine the topic of political control of literature within the Soviet Union. The specific scope of this examination includes an investigation of Nikita S. Khrushchev and his utilization of socialist realism as one of the primary methods of literary control during the period, 1960-1963. A study of literature and its political control will demonstrate the important and dynamic roles which the political control of literature fulfills in the political system.

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In January 1989, a much-rumored work by Dmitri Shostakovich titled Anti-Formalist Rayok received its public premiere. Rayok is a single-act satirical opera/cantata for bass soloist and mixed chorus. Each character represents a prominent Soviet political figure: Joseph Stalin, Andrei Zhdanov, and Dmitri Shepilov. The text of the libretto is either taken directly from actual speeches given by these political figures or follows their idiosyncratic style of public speaking. Rayok often falls victim to criticism for its lack of musical depth, a point of view that could easily lead one to see it as one of Shostakovich's lesser works. The purpose of this document is to examine the political environment of the Soviet Union in the early twentieth century in order to provide context for Shostakovich's Anti-Formalist Rayok and to show how Shostakovich uses satire in this piece. This dissertation document looks at the broader concepts of Formalism and Socialist Realism, traces how Socialist Realism became the established Soviet cultural aesthetic, and examines specific historical events in the 1940s and 1950s that relate to Rayok. Musical examples are taken from the section of the piece centering around D.T. Troikin. These examples demonstrate how Shostakovich uses Socialist Realist clichés in order to satirize the overly bureaucratized state of Soviet musical aesthetics. This leads to the conclusion that Shostakovich created a paradoxical work of art only posing as kitsch, and that he was not only satirizing the political figures presented in disguise but also the entire Soviet Socialist Realist aesthetic.

Master thesis Soviet union, our model deals with comparison of Soviet and Czech construct novels and focuses on basic motifs in selected novels. For analysis we choose couples of novels to focuse on sphere of ideologically significant aspects in each novels. Its a factory in novels Cement and Cesta otevřená, formation of "new world" in wasteland in novels Dravá řeka and Modré údolí and motivic structure positive hero in novels Daleko od Moskvy a Luisiana se probouzí. Based on text analysis and interpretation this work specifies existing knowledges about influence of Soviet construct novels on formation and development of this genre in Czechoslovakia. Key words: interpretation, motifs, construct novel, socialist realism

The thesis deals with propaganda poster as a specific medium of communist propaganda between 1948 - 1956. The first part describes a historical context regarding the social, political and economical reconstruction. The thesis is focusing on poster as a specific tool of propaganda concerning a connection to Soviet Union and a socialist realism as an official art style. At the same time the thesis is describing the communist propaganda and its characteristic elements with the connection to a new media control and censorship. The propaganda poster is viewed as a distinctive medium used by communist propaganda for a persuasion and ideological influence to society. The thesis is focusing on posters oriented on building a new attitudes to work and work process as a typical part of first years of communist regime in the time of building of a socialism in Czechoslovakia. Based on archive files the work is describing how and in which institutions were the posters controled and created. The last part is trying to bring an analysis of specificgroups of posters from the representation, stereotypes, input contect, typical rhetoric and symbols point of view.

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The use and evolution of socialist realism, in both Stalinist times (Polevoi- A Story About a Real Man) and in post-soviet reflections (Pelevin- Omon Ra).

Habilitacijos procedūrai teikiamuose mokslo darbuose (monografijoje Laiko įkaitė ir partnerė: Lietuvių literatūros kritika 1945–2000 ir straipsniuose) tiriama sovietinės ir posovietinės lietuvių literatūros kritikos raida 1945–2000 metais. Pirmoje tyrimo dalyje, skirtoje sovietmečio literatūros kritikai, išryškinama svarbiausios kritikos raidos tendencijos bei jas lėmę veiksniai, aptariamas socialistinio realizmo reiškinys, apibūdinamos literatūros kritikos metodologinės orientacijos. Daugiausia dėmesio skiriama pirmajam pokario dešimtmečiui, kai literatūros kritika represinėmis priemonėmis buvo priversta tapti komunistų partijos ideologijos diegimo įrankiu. Vėliau, pradedant nuo šeštojo dešimtmečio vidurio, tyrimo centru tampa literatūros kritikos sąlygiškas laisvėjimas, modernėjimas, gabiausiems kritikams renkantis sociologinei meno traktuotei alternatyvias metodologijas: fenomenologiją, struktūralizmą, recepcijos teoriją. Antroje tyrimo dalyje apžvelgiamas literatūros kritikos procesas pirmuoju nepriklausomos Lietuvos dešimtmečiu: akcentuojamos metodologinio atsinaujinimo pastangos, aptariami nauji uždaviniai, sumuojami rezultatai. Konstatavus metodologines akademinės kritikos inovacijas (postkolonijinė kritika, kultūrinės studijos, feminizmas), inspiruotas išeivijos ir apskritai Vakarų humanitarų patirties, dėmesys kreipiamas į skirtingų metodų dialogo ženklus, svarstomos jų galimybės. Darbe aptariama ir šio laikotarpio neakademinės kritikos specifika, ryškiausiu jos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The research works submitted for the habilitation procedure (the monograph Hostage and Partner of Time: Soviet and Post-Soviet Lithuanian Literary Criticism (1945–2000) and articles) analyse the development of Soviet and post-Soviet Lithuanian literary criticism from 1945 to 2000. The first part of the research deals with Soviet-era literary criticism and highlights the most important tendencies in its development, reveals the factors that influenced that development, discusses the phenomenon of Socialist Realism, and examines the methodological orientation of literary criticism. The analysis focuses on the first post-war decade, when literary criticism was forced to become a tool for the propagation of the Communist Party ideology. Later, beginning with the mid-1950’s, the analysis concentrates on the relative liberation of literary criticism and its modernisation, which came about as a result of the most skilled critics choosing alternative methodologies rather than the sociological art interpretation: phenomenology, structuralism, and reception theory. The second part of the research surveys the process of literary criticism in the first decade of Lithuanian independence, accenting attempts at methodological renewal, discussing new tasks, and summarising the results. Having stated the methodological innovations in academic criticism (postcolonialism, cultural studies, feminism), inspired by the experience of the Lithuanian émigré researchers and the Western humanities in... [to full text]

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