Revolutionary Russian Art Practice and Redefinition of the Russian Avant-Garde: Totalitarian Avant-Garde Project

Abstract

In this article, we will focus on the relation between art revolution and social revolution in Russia at the beginning of the XX century. The key issues in the article are the place and the role of avant-garde art in society and the social organisation of the upcoming totalitarian regime. Interpreting artistic strategies and methods of the Russian revolutionary practice, we hypothesise how an alliance of avant-garde artists and political revolutionaries has originated, how long it lasted and how it looked. Art and social utopias of the Russian avant-garde were different from the totalitarian Communist utopia. This paper emphasises what compromises were necessary for the survival of the alliance of avant-garde and totalitarian regimes.