My diploma thesis deals with socialist realism. I have demonstrated that the content of this term has been changing regarding the political situation and it was loosely replacing the term folk art in historical texts. I have proved that the opinions of experts on socialist realism differ and a clear definition of the term socialist realism does not probably exist. The lack of definition of socialist realism was used to manipulate the artistic community. The thesis helped me to defend the proposition that the Communist Party has supervised and influenced the operation of the film industry even before the February coup in 1948 by the Ministry of Information, where a communist Václav Kopecký was in the lead. Interventions into films and purges of film workers were made already in the immediate postwar period. The main cultural-political directive on cinematography from April 1950, which should have provided a faster enforcement and obligatory effect of socialist realism, aimed to increase the film production. My thesis has shown that this directive, together with the bureaucratic way of approving films, disputes within the Communist Party, changes in film authorities and slow work of creative teams, contributed to an unprecedented crisis in the film production and to a fatal failure to meet the plan in the following year. In my thesis, I have proved that the film The Emperor and the Golem fully complies with two out of three principles of socialist realism. I have labeled the principle that requires truthfulness and historical concreteness as partly met. From my analysis, it can be concluded that this historical comedy has all the features that are required from the works of socialist realism.

Painted in 1937 as part of the centenary celebration of the death of Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Ulyanov's A. S. Pushkin and his Wife, N. N. Pushkina at the Imperial Ball has been lauded as the quintessential example of Soviet history painting. Modern scholars have followed the lead of Soviet critics, who praised the painting for its insight into the psychology of the brilliant poet repressed by the tyrannical tsarist regime. According to this interpretation, Soviet viewers in the 1930s were to ponder on the tragedy of Pushkin's demise and rejoice that the victory of Socialism had freed them from such repression. However, this thesis suggests that Ulyanov embedded a secondary, subversive message in his masterpiece. Through careful manipulation of Pushkin's complex semiotic significance, Socialist Realist dialectics, and the Aesopian method, Ulyanov crafted an image that could be celebrated for its adherence to Soviet ideology, while simultaneously suggesting to those who detected his clues that artistic repression had not ended with the revolution. In this subversive reading, Ulyanov's masterwork becomes a psychological self-portrait of an artist living under Stalinist oppression during the Great Terror.

The student will compile a thesis about the period of dogmatic socialist realism in czech architecture in 1950s. The student will start with a definition of this style, will try to reconstruct a theoretical resources and fundamental parts of socialist realism and then determine the pre-stages in the architecture before the second world war. The attention will be focused on influnces and imports from The Soviet Union including the journeys of czechoslovakia architects there between 1920s-1930s and in 1950s. Own architecture production of dogmatic socialist realism in Czechoslovakia will be shown on chosen buildings in Prague (hotel Jalta, hotel International…). From this selection the student will determine its specifications and if it is possible to infer them based on the comparsion with the other buildings in Czechoslovakia. Keywords architecture, socialist realism, Prague, 1950s, ideology, The Soviet Union, historicism

In the Soviet Union, literary writers were required to produce their work within the bounds of the cultural doctrine of Socialist realism or risk being subject to sanctions of the authorities. During the Khrushchev Thaw after the death of Joseph Stalin, there appeared the musical genre of avtorskaya pesnya (or author’s song), which was often described as part of the dissident movement in the Soviet Union. The genre nourished on as well as voiced criticism of Soviet life, and its performers, also called bards, became highly popular. The Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) was a common theme in Soviet literature, and also one of the main themes in avtorskaya pesnya. This study analyses the war theme in the songs of the three main bards of this genre – Bulat Okudzhava, Yuri Vizbor and Vladimir Vysotsky – in order to examine the genre’s relation to the norms of Socialist realism. These definitions compose the theoretical framework that is applied to the songs in interpretative readings to determine their relation to Socialist realism. The study analysed 21 songs with a war theme of Okudzhava, Vizbor and Vysotsky. Contrary to what might be expected, it is concluded that the war theme found in avtorskayapesnya generally conforms to the norms of the officially approved Soviet literature of war, but that the bards in some instances venture outside of the bounds of Socialist realism.

3 ABSTRACT Humankind in its whole being is reflecting an environment by culture and visual art. Different cultural periods value nature and environment differently, what have a strong impact on nature management - some culture periods have a strong feeling for protecting nature for its own value while others see nature just as a source of materials or energy. This relationship is possible to find in art artifacts made during particular culture period. The communistic idea was ruling for almost half of the twentieth century in former Czechoslovakia. And its point of view has strong negative impact on state of nature and environment. As an official style of art socialist realism was approved at the same time. Its main goal was portraying a new communistic world, new communistic society and new communistic man. Aim of this work is to find out how the socialistic realism displays nature and landscape topic in art pieces. In core of this work stays the assumption, that socialistic realism has no value for nature itself, on the contrary it appreciates only it's rebuilding for easier exploitation. Findings are based on study of theoretical art texts and art-pieces from the period 1945 - 1958. Keywords: nature, landscape, aesthetic, art, socialist realism, landscape painting

The thesis aims to describe the media image of the czech fine art during 1948-1953 in the cultural periodicals "Kulturní politika", "Tvorba", "Var" and "Lidové noviny". It focuses on two topics that occurred most frequently in these periodicals;That is the definition of art and socialist realism and shaping artists and society. Social realism is characterized not only by description, but also by inspiration sources like Czech fine art of 19th century and the tendency to oppose competitive or similar artistic styles and trends like formalism, naturalism, academicism and kitsch. Shaping the artists and society is understood in terms of upringing, education and enlightenment. In connection with these two areas this thesis focuses on history, cultural policy of the Communist Party, the organizational structure of artistic production, distribution of art, shaping artists, penetration of art into public and private space, socialist realism and an attitude of visual artists to new conditions of artistic production. Different features were also included to capture the uniqueness of each periodical. The starting point of the thesis is a historical and qualitative analysis.

This MA thesis is focused on the analysis of stylistic originality of Mykola Bazhan texts of the 1920-30s. The texts are considered in cultural and ideological context of this period, which is a result of a mixture of two artistic and philosophical platforms: avant-garde and socialist realism. Trying to reach this aim I trace the correlation of avant-garde and socialist realism poetic and cultural paradigms in Mykola Bazhan poems, the correlation which defines the stylistic originality of his texts from this period. The introductory chapter presents a detailed analysis of the development of Ukrainian literature in the late 19th - early 20th century. I focus on modernist and then on avant-garde movements and literature groups. One part of the MA thesis is dedicated to literary theory - I attempt to apply basic terms like "modernism", "avant-garde", "socialist realism", etc. to the area of my research. Another problem discussed is the change of Bazhan's approach to the communist ideology during several periods of his career. After that the dissertation shifts to philological and cultural analysis of several chosen poems of Mykola Bazhan in historical, philological and ideological contexts which were discussed in the previous chapters of my work. Keywords Mykola Bazhan, modernism, avant-garde,...

The thesis focuses on the construction and symbolic encoding of Prague from 1945 to the late 1950s, with emphasis on the Stalinist era. Based on an analysis of historical texts and architectural projects, the thesis studies the motivations and tactics, which the post-war political and professional elites sought to manifest their own values and ideological principles in the area of the capital city. Through the analysis of historical concepts of "old" and "new" Prague examines the thesis the changing relationship between tradition and modernity in the image of the city. The sociocultural phenomenon of Stalinism is thematized as a specific part of the long process of modernization, which passes through Prague during the first half of the 20th century. The thesis deals also with the attributes that should characterize the "new" socialist Prague and with the ways of using the Soviet patterns and local historical traditions. Keywords: Prague, city, image of the city, architecture, urbanism, memory, heritage, socialist realism, stalinism, 1950s

Propõe-se, nesta dissertação, identificar e analisar elementos da cinematografia do cineasta russo (soviético) Serguei M. Eisenstein que seriam fundamentais para a construção do filme como um texto artístico. Selecionou-se, como objeto de análise, o longa-metragem lançado em 1938, Aleksandr Niévski. Examina-se, ao longo da análise, elementos como a construção de personagem, o desenvolvimento do tema, o enquadramento, o som e a mise-en-scène. Parte-se da hipótese de que o filme, sendo um texto artístico, ainda que a sua produção esteja enraizada nas diretrizes do Realismo Socialista, não se limita a transmitir uma realidade restrita, antes o artista amplia as possibilidades significativas do material criativo de que dispõe resultando em um texto que transpõe seu limite espacial e temporal. Dentro dessa perspectiva, objetiva-se identificar os elementos da linguagem cinematográfica, (enquadramentos, mise-èn-scene, montagem etc) que foram explorados ao longo do filme, e analisar como esses aspectos são articulados na construção do tema da obra: o patriotismo. Para embasar o estudo proposto, dividiu-se, de modo geral, o campo teórico em duas vertentes: primeiramente, para a concepção do filme como um texto artístico, valemo-nos do conceito de obra de arte como um texto artístico, desenvolvido pelo teórico russo Iuri Lotman, e da concepção de linguagem poética discutida por Roman Jakobson; já para a análise dos elementos da linguagem artística cinematográfica, privilegiaram-se os textos teóricos de Serguei Eisenstein, assim como os estudos desenvolvidos por David Bordwell e Jean Mitry. Por fim, como metodologia de análise, buscou-se observar e analisar o período histórico vivido pelo cineasta no momento da produção do filme, o Realismo Socialista, e as referências históricas da personagem central que norteiam as escolhas artísticas. Posteriormente, verifica-se, por meio da análise dos elementos da linguagem cinematográfica, como o filme, enquanto um texto artístico, é portador de uma riqueza de sentido advinda da articulação dos elementos cinematográficos, favorecendo a construção de uma unidade temática: o patriotismo / The purpose of this dissertation is to identify and analyze elements of cinematography in the work of Russian (Soviet) filmmaker Sergei M. Eisenstein, which would be essential to the construction of the film as an artistic text. Aleksander Niévski, the motion picture released in 1938, was selected as the scope of the analysis. Throughout the analysis, elements such as character construction, theme development, framing, sound and mise-en-scène were examined. I begin with the hypothesis that the film, as an artistic text, in spite of having been produced with roots in the directives of Socialist Realism, is not limited to conveying a restricted reality; rather, the artist broadens the meaningful possibilities of the creative material at hand, resulting in a text that surpasses its limits of time and space. In this perspective, the objective is to identify the elements of cinematic language (framing, mise-èn-scene, editing etc) explored throughout the film and analyze how these aspects are articulated to construction the theme: patriotism. In order to lay the basis for the proposed study, the theoretical field was, overall, divided into two views: firstly, for the conception of the film as an artistic text, we made use of the concept of the art work as an artistic text - developed by Russian theorist Iuri Lotman and of the conception of poetic language, discussed by Roman Jakobson; and to analyze the elements of cinematic artistic language, the theoretical texts by Sergei Eisenstein as well as the studies developed by David Bordwell and Jean Mitry were favored. Finally, as a method of analysis, I sought to observe and analyze the historical period in which the artist lived at the moment of the production of the film the Socialist Realism and the historical references of the main character which conduct the artistic choices. Subsequently, by analyzing the elements of cinematic language, it is verified how the film, as an artistic text, bears a richness of meaning ensuing from the articulation of the cinematic elements, favoring the construction of a theme unit: patriotism

This thesis examines the interaction of Georgian painting and national politics in the first two decades of Soviet power in Georgia, 1921-1939, focussing in particular on the period following the consolidation of Stalin's power at the helm of the Communist Party in 1926-7. In the Stalin era, Georgians enjoyed special status among Soviet nations thanks to Georgia's prestige as the place of Stalin's birth. However, Georgians' advanced sense of their national sovereignty and initial hostility towards Bolshevik control following Georgia's Sovietisation in 1921 also resulted in Georgia's uniquely fraught relationship with Soviet power in Moscow in the decades that followed. In light of these circumstances, this thesis explores how and why the experience and activities of Georgian painters between 1926 and 1939 differed from those of other Soviet artists. One of its central arguments is that the experiences of Georgian artists and critics in this period not only differed significantly from those of artists and critics of other republics, but that the uniqueness of their experience was precipitated by a complex network of factors resulting from the interaction of various political imperatives and practical circumstances, including those relating to Soviet national politics. Chapter one of this thesis introduces the key institutions and individuals involved in producing, evaluating and setting the direction of Georgian painting in the 1920s and early 1930s. Chapters two and three show that artists and critics in Georgia as well as commentators in Moscow in the 1920s and 30s were actively engaged in efforts to interpret the Party's demand for 'national form' in Soviet culture and to suggest what that form might entail as regards Georgian painting. However, contradictions inherent in Soviet nationalities policy, which both demanded the active cultivation of cultural difference between Soviet nationalities and eagerly anticipated a time when national distinctions in all spheres would naturally disappear, made it impossible for an appropriate interpretation of 'national form' to be identified. Chapter three, moreover, demonstrates how frequent shifts in Soviet cultural and nationalities policies presented Moscow institutions with a range of practical challenges which ultimately prevented them from reflecting in their exhibitions and publications the contemporary artistic activity taking place in the republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia. A key finding of chapters four and five concerns the uniquely significant role that Lavrenty Beria, Stalin's ruthless deputy and the head of the Georgian and Transcaucasian Party organisations, played in differentiating Georgian painters' experiences from those of Soviet artists of other nationalities. Beginning in 1934, Beria employed Georgian painters to produce an exhibition of monumental paintings, opening at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in 1937, depicting episodes from his own falsified history of Stalin's role in the revolutionary movement in Transcaucasia. As this thesis shows, the production of the exhibition introduced an unprecedented degree of direct Party supervision over Georgian painting as Beria personally critiqued works by Georgian painters produced on prescribed narrative subjects in a centralised collective studio. As well as representing a major contribution to Stalin's personality cult, the exhibition, which conferred on Georgian painters special responsibility for representing Stalin and his activities, was also a public statement of the special status that the Georgians were now to enjoy, second only to that of the Russians. However, this special status involved both special privileges and special responsibilities. Georgians would enjoy special access to opportunities in Moscow and a special degree of autonomy in local governance, but in return they were required to lead the way in declaring allegiance to the Stalin regime. Chapter six returns to the debate about 'national form' in Georgian painting by examining how the pre-Revolutionary self-taught Georgian painter, Niko Pirosmani, was discussed by cultural commentators in Georgia and Moscow in the 1920s and 30s as a source informing a Soviet or Soviet Georgian canon of painting. It shows that, in addition to presenting views on the suitability of Pirosmani's painting either in terms of its formal or class content, commentators perpetuated and developed a cult of Pirosmani steeped in stereotypes of a Georgian 'national character.' Further, the establishment of this cult during the late 1920s and early 1930s seems to have been a primary reason for the painter's subsequent canonisation in the second half of the 1930s as a 'Great Tradition' of Soviet Georgian culture. It helped to articulate a version of Georgian national identity that was at once familiar and gratifying for Georgians and useful for the Soviet regime. The combined impression of cultural sovereignty embodied in this and other 'Great Traditions' of Soviet Georgian culture and the special status articulated through the 1937 exhibition allowed Georgian nationalism to be aligned, for a time, with support for Stalin and the Soviet regime.