The Influence Of Stalin 's Literary And Artistic Policy On The Soviet Union' S Music Elite

Using the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich as an example,this article aims at studying the effect of the literature policy changes on the elite of the Soviet Union music under Stalinist regime.From 1924 to 1953,Stalin came to power until his death.In the nearly three decades, literature and artistic policy shows the phriodic characteristics which have the main features of the evolution of a nonintervention——strengthen intervention——relax during the war——strengthen again. The evolution of this policy had a significant impact on the arts elite personal destiny and artistic creation.Dmitri Shostakovich is an outstanding Soviet composer and been recognized as one of the greatest 20th century composers by the world. He was born in 1906, has undergone a complete whole Stalin era and has withstood the impact of all the changes caused by Stalin’s arts policy. Shostakovich,therefore,has been choosed as a case study which have typicalness and universal meaning.Using the method of case analysis,this article is aiming at demonstrating the effect of the Stalin literary policy changes on the entire literary and art circles and elite intellectual in literary and art circles, by studying those changes on Soviet literary elite musician Shostakovich personal future and destiny.The first chapter mainly discusses guidelines for art and literature in the age of new economic policy which under Stalin’s regime and composer Shostakovich under this policy.This paper begins with an introduction to the literature and artistic policy of this time and the main music groups as well as their proposals, furthermore, points out this policy offered an good condition to the development of music. Then, the article introduces the Shostakovich’s life and creation during this period.The second chapter in the focus of this article, mainly discusses the policy of literature and art after Stalin consolidating his power and the effect of 1936 events to Shostakovich. After consolidating power in 1928, Stalin tightened his intervention in the ideology, he terminated the originally various groups in literary and art circle, and established a single organization led by the party.Moreover, the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party ousted all of the aesthetic ideas and methods and established the creation principle of literature and art——socialist realism. At this point,the development of literature and art transformed diversification to unification. To strengthen the control of the music, Stalin set off a campaign against "formalism" in 1936, which hit a large number music elites.However,The direct cause of 1936 event is Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, so Shostakovich suffered an enormous hit in this case.The third chapter discusses that Stalin relax the control of literary and arts,and the situation of Shostakovich’s music creation during the great Patriotic War. On June 22, 1941, the German fascist invaded the Soviet union, so the Soviet union were involved in the World War II. In the special period, Stalin relaxed the control of the literature and art, this realm had a relatively loose development period. The elites inspired by the patriotic enthusiasm created a number of excellent works of literature and art, Shostakovich was not exceptional.The Seventh Symphony and the Eighth Symphony,his wartime creations, became the most successful music creation during the World War Ⅱ.The Ninth Symphony created after the war, but this work did not satisfy Stalin, and heralding the next crisis of the Soviet union music.The fourth chapter is the second key part of this paper, mainly discusses Stalin’s intervention policy to literature and art after the World War II, and the change of Shostakovich’s fate under this policy. After the war, Stalin tightened the policy in the circles of literary and art once again. Since 1946, he has made successively criticism on the literature, drama, film, music. In 1948, the Soviet union music industry badly battered a second time. In this case, many famous musicians suffered criticism and accusation, which strike a serious blow at the creative enthusiasm of music elite, this situation continues to 1953 when Stalin died.The fifth chapter is the conclusion of this article. This chapter summarizes the evolution of Stalin’s policy of literature and art, and the condition of Shostakovich’s fate in different periods. Then I draw a conclusion that Stalin strengthen the control continuously on the literary art has seriously affected these intellectuals’ personal fate, tied their artistic creativity, and made extremely negative influence to the development of art and literature of the Soviet union.