Über die sogenannte sowjetestnische Literatur

Abstract

Of the So-Called Soviet Estonian literature. The aim of Socialist Realism was not to define aesthetically the new Socialist art, but rather to provide a tool for ideological control. It contained a deliberate contradiction. This contradiction was called dialectical, and it seemingly had to guarantee the flexibility of the method. The artist had to connect the depiction of the harsh reality of life with the bright hopes of tomorrow, class struggle with the peacefulness of a classless society. Actually, this “dialectic” gave a chance only to those who participated in various purges directed against those who did not conform. These purges, or campaigns of purification, were always “dialectical”: against “formalism and naturalism”, or against “cosmopolitanism and nationalism”. One could attack almost every literary phenomenon under these flags, and during the campaigns, every author had every reason to be scared of being accused – which actually was the great idea of them.