Lenin's Cultural Policy and the Persecution of the Arts - Essay Example

Lenins cultural policy and the persecution of the arts. Cultural Revolution as a term emerged in the late writings of Lenin and often refers to the general development of culture under the socialist government or socialism in its larger context. The aim was to overthrow the remains of Tsarism in the country by removing backwardness and ensuring gradual transformation out of it. It is because of this reason that it is believed that the main thrust of Cultural Revolution in the country was on relative freedom and significant experimentation with different styles of arts in order to find a distinctive Russian style of the arts.

However, things were not the same as shown to the world. The growing experimentation in the arts and cultural aspects of Russia forced Lenin to embrace more conservative and traditional ways and it was because of this reason that since his early days, Lenin started to control cultural institutions of the country. This control of culture in the country further worsened as the Lenin’s Communist party started to target those musicians and artisans who were relatively against the Communist thought.

Lunacharsky- Lenin’s main person behind controlling the Cultural Revolution in the country put forward his own aesthetic theories which largely redefined the socialist art however; this was often criticized by the later scholars for the reasons of curtailing the artistic creativity.“In the late 1920s, the term was taken up and transformed by young communist cultural militants who sought the party leaders approval for an assault on "bourgeois hegemony" in culture; that is, on the cultural establishment, including Anatoly Lunacharsky and other leaders of the Peoples Commissariat of Enlightenment, and the values of the old Russian intelligentsia.

For the militants, the essence of Cultural Revolution was "class war" - an assault against the "bourgeois" intelligentsia in the name of the proletariat - and they meant the "revolution" part of the term literally. In the years 1928 through 1931, the militants succeeded in gaining the party leaders support, but lost it again in 1932 when the Central Committee dissolved the main militant organization, the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP), and promoted reconciliation with the intelligentsia.

” (Encylopedia). The above clearly indicate the difference in the approach as what was preached was not practiced as those voicing against the socialist values including writers, musicians as well as other artists were persecuted by the Lenin Regime between 1917 -1924. This change in the approach however, should be viewed in the political situation of that era also. This was a period just after revolution and culture being one of the strongest sources of change posed a direct threat to the Communist ideology.

Thus there was a deliberate effort to shift the cultural patterns in Russia in favor of Socialism and the present regime so that people not only accept the Revolution and Communist era stamp its authority more fully on the country. It was because of this reason that those who deviated from the set rules to govern the culture under Lenin’s era were persecuted. Works CitedEncylopedia, Russian History. "Cultural Revolution." 2008. http://www.answers.com. 05 June 2008 .