Socialist realism

Socialist realism is the main socialist style of art, depicting reality and its beauty, in contrast to bourgeois art (especially postmodern art) depicting ideals divorced from reality.

Marxist theory of art and culture

Art reflects its class basis. A normal, productive class, like the proletariat, wants to see beauty in real life. An obsolete class, which is not advancing production but living as a parasite, such as the bourgeois, separates itself from reality as far as possible, getting lost in ideals.

Bourgeois art

Under bourgeois cultural hegemony, most art is slop. In the name of "abstract art", the bourgeois consume completely meaningless splatter they call "art". Many people believe this is purely a money laundering scheme, but actually that is only partly true. The bourgeois (and unproductive lumpen) genuinely enjoy abstract slop.

Socialist art

The very early Soviet Union had various art trends. This was a result of the intellectuals and stopped when Stalin took over. The futurist trend also could have been due to the circumstances of destruction in the civil war and the need for hope despite a bleak reality.

The proletariat and other productive classes tend to enjoy realism - they make real life beautiful, and make beauty reflect real life. Realism was popular in all revolutionary eras, from the French Revolution to the Soviet Union.

Stalin particularly made communist housing beautifully designed, whereas later Khrushchev and Brezhnev downgraded to commie blocs. Still, many metro stops and infrastructure like the Moscow train station remained well designed.

Maxim Gorky was considered a socialist realist writer. How the Steel Was Tempered by Nikolai Ostrovsky was also a socialist realist fiction book and movie about a Russian comrade.

Further reading

• Bill Bland. Stalin and the Arts. https://espressostalinist.com/2014/11/17/bill-bland-stalin-the-arts-on-marxist-leninist-aesthetics/