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The Zhdanov Doctrine (also called Zhdanovism or Zhdanovshchina; russian: доктрина Жданова, ждановизм, ждановщина) was a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
cultural doctrine developed by
Central Committee
Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...
secretary
Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov ( rus, Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Жда́нов, p=ɐnˈdrej ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈʐdanəf, links=yes; – 31 August 1948) was a Soviet politician and cultural ideologist. After World War ...
in 1946. It proposed that the world was divided into two camps: the "
imperialistic
Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic
...
", headed by the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
; and "
democratic", headed by the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. The main principle of the Zhdanov Doctrine was often summarized by the phrase "The only conflict that is possible in Soviet culture is the conflict between good and best". Zhdanovism soon became a Soviet cultural policy, meaning that Soviet artists, writers and
intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the in ...
in general had to conform to the party line in their creative works. Under this policy, artists who failed to comply with the government's wishes risked persecution. The policy remained in effect until the death of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
in 1953.
History
The 1946 resolution of the Central Committee was directed against two literary magazines, ''
Zvezda'' and ', which had published supposedly apolitical, "
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
", individualistic works of the satirist
Mikhail Zoshchenko
Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko (russian: Михаи́л Миха́йлович Зо́щенко; – 22 July 1958) was a Soviet and Russian writer and satirist.
Biography
Zoshchenko was born in 1894, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, according to h ...
and the poet
Anna Akhmatova
Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; uk, А́нна Андрі́ївна Горе́нко, Ánna Andríyivn ...
.
Parallel to Zhdanovism, "courts of honor" were introduced in the party apparatus. Taken from the Tsarist era, these courts were aimed at intensifying Russian patriotism through staged mock trials. The people indicted were not executed, but they paid with their careers.
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
party leader
Alexey Kuznetsov
Alexey Alexandrovich Kuznetsov (, in Borovichi – 1 October 1950, in Moscow) was a Soviet statesman, CPSU (since 1925) functionary, Lieutenant General, member of CPSU Central Committee (1939-1949).
He was Second Secretary (deputy leader) to Le ...
explained in 1947 that these were designed to target educated individuals within the party. Due to doubts about servility to the West in the central apparatus, even the Central Committee and the MGB had courts. In the battle for spiritual and cultural "independence", Zhdanovism led to the purging of such characters as
Solomon Mikhoels
Solomon (Shloyme) Mikhoels ( yi, שלמה מיכאעלס lso spelled שלוימע מיכאעלס during the Soviet era russian: Cоломон (Шлойме) Михоэлс, – 13 January 1948) was a Latvian born Soviet Jewish actor and the art ...
and the writers of the
Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, ''Yevreysky antifashistsky komitet'' yi, יידישער אנטי פאשיסטישער קאמיטעט, ''Yidisher anti fashistisher komitet''., abbreviated as JAC, ''YeAK'', was an organization that was created i ...
. In 1950, with the "
Leningrad affair", Kuznetsov himself was purged along with Deputy Premier
Nikolai Voznesensky
Nikolai Alekseevich Voznesensky (russian: Никола́й Алексе́евич Вознесе́нский, – 1 October 1950) was a Soviet politician and economic planner who oversaw the running of Gosplan (State Planning Committee) dur ...
. Stalin himself had influence over the turn to more Tsarist policies, reinstating the "
table of ranks
The Table of Ranks (russian: Табель о рангах, Tabel' o rangakh) was a formal list of positions and ranks in the military, government, and court of Imperial Russia. Peter the Great introduced the system in 1722 while engaged in a s ...
" and revising the Soviet anthem. These policies were rolled back by Khrushchev when he came to power.
Earlier some critics and literary historians were denounced for suggesting that Russian classics had been influenced by
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
,
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...
,
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
or
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
. Part of Zhdanovism was a campaign against "
cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all human beings are members of a single community. Its adherents are known as cosmopolitan or cosmopolite. Cosmopolitanism is both prescriptive and aspirational, believing humans can and should be " world citizens ...
", which meant that foreign models were not to be unthinkingly emulated, and native Russian accomplishments were emphasized.
A further decree on music was issued on 20 February 1948, "On Muradeli's Opera The Great Friendship" and marked the beginning of the so-called "anti-formalism campaign". (The term "
formalism
Formalism may refer to:
* Form (disambiguation)
* Formal (disambiguation)
* Legal formalism, legal positivist view that the substantive justice of a law is a question for the legislature rather than the judiciary
* Formalism (linguistics)
* Scient ...
" referred to art for art's sake which did not serve a larger social purpose.) Nominally aimed at
Vano Muradeli
Vano Muradeli ( ka, ვანო მურადელი; russian: Вано Ильич Мурадели; in Gori – 14 August 1970, in Tomsk), was a Soviet Georgian composer.
He was born in Gori, Georgia (then part of Imperial Russia) t ...
's
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
''
The Great Friendship ''The Great Friendship'' ( Russian: ''Великая дружба'' Velikaya druzhba; also called ''The Extraordinary Commissar'') is a 1947 opera by Vano Muradeli, to a libretto by Georgi Mdivani. It was premiered in Donetsk (then known as Stalino ...
'', it signaled a sustained campaign of criticism and persecution against many of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
's foremost composers, notably
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...
,
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...
,
Aram Khachaturian
Aram Ilyich Khachaturian (; rus, Арам Ильич Хачатурян, , ɐˈram ɨˈlʲjitɕ xətɕɪtʊˈrʲan, Ru-Aram Ilyich Khachaturian.ogg; hy, Արամ Խաչատրյան, ''Aram Xačʿatryan''; 1 May 1978) was a Soviet and Armenian ...
and
Dmitri Klebanov
Dmytro Lvovych Klebanov ( ua, Дмитрo Львович Клебанiв; russian: Дми́трий Льво́вич Клеба́нов; – 6 June 1987) was a Soviet-era Ukrainian composer. He studied at the Kharkov Music and Drama Institute ...
for allegedly writing "hermetic" music and misusing dissonance.
[Braudel (1993), 565.] The decree was followed in April by a special congress of the
Composers' Union, where many of those attacked were forced publicly to repent. The campaign was satirized in the ''
Anti-Formalist Rayok'' by Shostakovich. The composers condemned were formally
rehabilitated by a further decree issued on 28 May 1958.
In
Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...
, a congress met in mid-1948. Accompanying Soviet consolidation of power in Eastern Europe, Zhdanov's chosen man
Fadeyev, president of the
Soviet writer's union, made a speech establishing the base for socialist realism outside of the Soviet Union. This targeted three main groups - Soviet-leaning Western intellectuals that Zhdanov hoped would be brought around to Zhdanovism instead of just preaching peace, sympathetic non-Communist artists and intellectuals in liberal democracies, and artists and intellectuals in Eastern Europe and Soviet-occupied Germany who were to be forced to accept the tenets of Zhdanovism and socialist realism. This led to ripples in the West that led to more sympathies and
pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
in the West and benefited the
SED
sed ("stream editor") is a Unix utility that parses and transforms text, using a simple, compact programming language. It was developed from 1973 to 1974 by Lee E. McMahon of Bell Labs,
and is available today for most operating systems.
sed wa ...
in later East Germany.
See also
*
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...
References
Bibliography
*Braudel, Fernand, 1993. ''A History of Civilizations'', translated by Richard Mayne. New York: A. Lane, 1993. . Reprinted New York: Penguin Books, 1994. ; (pbk).
*Green, Jonathan, and Nicholas J. Karolides. 2005. ''The Encyclopedia of Censorship'', rev. ed. New York: Facts On File. .
*Taruskin, Richard, 2010. ''Music in the Late Twentieth Century''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. .
*Solomon.Maynard,1979. "Marxism and Art", Wayne State University Press.
{{Authority control
Soviet internal politics
Eastern Bloc
1946 in the Soviet Union
Soviet culture
Ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Cold War history of the Soviet Union
Stalinism
1946 in international relations
1946 in politics
Political and cultural purges