Normal view MARC view ISBD view

Chapter 13 Stalinism, War, and Artistic Representation of Reality Konstantin Simonov's Critique of the 'System of Silence' in 1956

By:

Ikonen, Susan [auth]

Material type: Text

TextLanguage: English Publication details: Taylor & Francis 2023Description: 1 electronic resource (25 p.)Content type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9781003219835-13
9781032114200
9781032114217

Subject(s):

Online resources:

Summary: This chapter analyses Konstantin Simonov's thought from the largely understudied point of view of de-Stalinization. Simonov showed already in 1956 how the representation of the Great Patriotic war was tightly intertwined with the personality cult of Stalin, and how this entanglement had caused literature and art either to portray Soviet reality in a distorted manner or to keep silent about social difficulties. By criticizing key authoritative documents of the early post-war years, Simonov revealed how Stalin's wish to forge the image of the Great Patriotic war resulted in the widespread tendency of embellishing reality in Soviet literature and art. The chapter also tracks how the Party rebuked Simonov's claims without mentioning him as the initiator of the ideas. The chapter thus testifies to some of the problems of 'de-Stalinization' and how some of its key issues could not be openly discussed in the Soviet Union until the late 1980s. The chapter is based on previously untapped archival material, and it contributes to the scholarly discussion of the thaw-era de-Stalinization, Simonov's roles within the Soviet literary establishment, and questions of the representation of reality in Soviet art in general and the representation of the Great Patriotic war in particular.

Item type:

Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Home library	Collection	Call number	Materials specified	Status	Date due	Barcode
Electronic-Books	OPJGU Sonepat- Campus	E-Books Open Access			Available

Open Access Unrestricted online access star

This chapter analyses Konstantin Simonov's thought from the largely understudied point of view of de-Stalinization. Simonov showed already in 1956 how the representation of the Great Patriotic war was tightly intertwined with the personality cult of Stalin, and how this entanglement had caused literature and art either to portray Soviet reality in a distorted manner or to keep silent about social difficulties. By criticizing key authoritative documents of the early post-war years, Simonov revealed how Stalin's wish to forge the image of the Great Patriotic war resulted in the widespread tendency of embellishing reality in Soviet literature and art. The chapter also tracks how the Party rebuked Simonov's claims without mentioning him as the initiator of the ideas. The chapter thus testifies to some of the problems of 'de-Stalinization' and how some of its key issues could not be openly discussed in the Soviet Union until the late 1980s. The chapter is based on previously untapped archival material, and it contributes to the scholarly discussion of the thaw-era de-Stalinization, Simonov's roles within the Soviet literary establishment, and questions of the representation of reality in Soviet art in general and the representation of the Great Patriotic war in particular.