Zhdanovshchina and the Ogolevets Affair

Abstract

This chapter details the Composers' Union's reaction to the cultural bureaucracy during Andrei Zhdanov's ideological campaigns (the Zhdanovshchina, 1946–48). This period witnessed the disintegration of the theoretical congruence between the priorities of professionals and party ideologues, which had peaked during the war. Though the Composers' Union was not a direct target of the early phases of the Zhdanovshchina, professional leaders' ability to set their own professional agenda, so strong during the war, came under assault. They responded with a revealing two-part effort: first to preserve distinct professional and political spheres and then to use their control over the professional sphere to fulfill the tasks assigned to them according to the party's agenda. This effort shows the importance of agency in understanding how the profession operated. The professional leadership worked to keep political and professional spheres intact, but they did so as loyal party members.