Boris Asaf'ev and the Soviet Musicology - E-thesis

even three different things despite their ideological connections. This distinction is
important especially when considering the Soviet aesthetical thought in music which
was far from being logically traceable from original Marxism. Nevertheless, the social,
political, economical and historical aspects of Marx and Engels, and the Hegelian
dialectics were applied strongly to Soviet rhetoric and also to Soviet aesthetical
literature. 48 Marxism functioned certainly as one of the many ideologies and
philosophies that shaped Soviet Russian theory and practice.
In other words, an important source to view socialist realism consistes of the statements
of the essential Soviet theorists, to read the art critics written in the official Soviet
newspapers and to examine the lives of Soviet artists their artworks. In this light one
can also view the development of socialist realism through the following presentation of
the life and works of Boris Asaf’ev. He is actually a good example of the modern
understanding of the nature of the concept: the term contains many contradictious
elements. The theory was in constant process and its roots were pluralistic.
To show the many-faced, controversial and in some sense inexhaustible nature of
socialist realism as a system and as a result of historical development, I will now look at
it through two statements. First statement ‘socialist realism as a totalitarian aesthetics’
or ‘a totalitarian system’ will look at socialist realism from the point of view of a readymade
aesthetical codification. It attempts to advance from the narrow view to the wide
view. The second statement considers ‘socialist realism as an ideology’ by Gutkin 49 .
2.2.1.1 Socialist Realism as a Totalitarian System
An important feature of official socialist realist aesthetic method or theory was that it
was an evolving entity or as formulated by Juri Barabash: “The principles of Party
guidance of art are not at all merely a list of recipes and instructions to be applied to any
case [..], for this guidance itself is alive, developing and creative.” 50 As a result the
48
Because it is not a concern of a present study, it is assumed that the reader possesses the basics.
49
Gutkin 1999, p. 2.
50
Barabash 1980, p. 29 in Marxist-Leninist Aesthetics and Arts.
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