The Artists and BAM: “Come and Draw, Again and Again”

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Soviet fine art contains a large number of works with industrial themes, including those devoted to the great construction sites of socialism. The construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) influenced the country’s development not only in economic and social aspects, but also had a direct impact on the cultural background, giving a new impetus to the activity of creative unions and the emergence of works of various types of art. The BAM theme is talentedly reflected in the creative field of Soviet fine arts. The appearance of numerous pictorial, graphic, sculptural, decorative and applied works was facilitated by the travelling format of artists’ work — creative business trips. Artists travelled to BAM construction sites, witnessing and participating in everyday life and holidays. Thanks to their inclusion and immersion in the environment, the masters of fine arts created works of various genres that accurately and vividly reflected the moments of the construction of the railway. Subsequently, the works were presented at various exhibitions. Nowadays, preserved in museum and private collections, they are an invaluable aesthetic and historical contribution to understanding the spirit and character of that era. The study of the activities of the Union of Artists of the USSR (as a whole as a regulator) and its branch represented by the Irkutsk Organisation of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR (as one of the local executors) is essential for understanding the effective mechanism of fulfilling the social order related to the representation of the global events of the 1970s for the Soviet state. The Irkutsk organisation of the RSFSR Union of Artists was territorially connected with the western section of BAM, and the archival documents provide an opportunity to comprehend the peculiarities of the microstructure’s activity in the conditions of the targeted work of the entire Union of Soviet artists on the BAM theme.