Abstract
Socialist Realism, described by Soviet critics as an ‘artistic method’, is supported by a corpus of highly complicated theory which, though it receives little attention in Western commentaries, is the subject of voluminous writing inside the USSR. It embraces a number of important questions: the evolution of art — the organic relationship between the art of the past and the art of the present and future; the class nature of art — its objective reflection of social relations; and the function of art in society — the obligations of the artist to the society in which he works, and hence the relationship between the artist and the politician. Moreover it considers the didactic potential of art and its relationship in this sense with the mass communication media in a modern, industrialised society. It therefore concerns every aspect of intellectual life, and it seems not unreasonable to suggest that it is the essential key to an understanding of the artistic life of the Soviet Union today. In particular it is the natural basis for a discussion of literature and politics.
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