All Soviet citizens were officially required to adhere to the goals of self-cultivation and self-improvement through high culture, intellectual labor, and scientific knowledge. The “Soviet intelligentsia” had a crucial role in both creating and spreading these values, albeit under the guidance of the party authorities. As a reciprocal arrangement, the state provided educated professionals with exclusive access to limited resources, starting with food. In 1934, Stalin granted permission for the formation of “creative unions,” which were government-backed associations for writers, literary critics, singers, artists, architects, filmmakers, and theater professionals.

All Soviet citizens in Boris Pasternek era, Soviet intelligentsia, government censored Russian culture

Concurrently, scientists and scholars were integrated into the academy and academic institutes that were supported by the state. Literature, hitherto revered as the “educator of life” for the intellectual elite, has now assumed paramount importance in the realm of Stalinist culture. Stalin praised writers, describing them as “architects of the human psyche.” The Soviet leader astutely allowed writers to establish their own intellectual and aesthetic prison.

Maxim Gorky had a leading role in the creation of the new cultural ideology known as socialist realism, which was officially proclaimed at the First Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934. However, in reality, this ideology quickly became a reflection of Stalin’s personal tastes and preferences. The avant-garde formalist movement was rejected, and art supported by the state was used to foster Soviet nationalism and prepare the population for the imminent war. The entire “Soviet intelligentsia” was required to comply with Stalin’s unquestionable assessment of cultural products.

The government censored Russian culture, removing everything deemed “reactionary.” Simultaneously, the state seized control of the most prominent characters of classical Russian culture, including Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Chekhov, as well as certain individuals from the revolutionary vanguard, such as the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. Each of them assumed their position in the literary pantheon of Stalinism. Paradoxically, amidst the peak of Stalin’s reign of terror, the entire nation commemorated the centenary of Pushkin’s demise in a gruesome manner. Each municipality, every communal farm, and even the tiniest business were obliged to pay tribute to the aristocratic Russian poet through lectures, readings, and plays.

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The cult of Pushkin came to represent the linguistic and artistic standards that shaped the concept of socialist realism for millions of people. Shortly prior to this, the new Soviet constitution implemented by Stalin had established that individuals with higher education or employed in professional fields were considered part of the Soviet intelligentsia. This group was seen as an ambiguous “intermediary layer” (prosloika) within the Stalinist social structure, positioned between the supposedly dominant workers and the collectivized peasants. The state’s appropriation of academics and artists, as well as their social environment, cultural symbols, and language, had reached its highest point.

There were limited choices available for Russian intellectual and artistic groups that had not aligned themselves with the Bolshevik faction. Prior to this, in the 1920s, they were faced with the decision of either collaborating with the victorious revolutionaries or seeking alternative spaces outside of the public domain to establish semi-private groups, in order to maintain an atmosphere of unrestricted discourse and cultural exchange.

The initial choice involved adopting the role of “fellow travelers” with the dictatorship due to need, so sacrificing cultural autonomy in exchange for potential advantages. Frequently, this situation resulted in a gradual and dangerous progression towards coerced cooperation with the secret police and the act of reporting coworkers. The second choice was being excluded from intellectual and artistic circles, living in poverty, being forgotten, and ultimately being eradicated.

The increasing awareness of the inevitable result led to a surge of suicides among artists who had previously held the belief that the Russian Revolution represented cultural and spiritual liberation. The Stalinist administration effectively assimilated several members of the pre-revolutionary educated elites into the state-controlled cultural institutions. The autocratic system in Soviet Russia was not only enforced by coercion, the secret police, and the gulag, but also by the compliance of several artists and intellectuals who preferred it over the alternatives of famine, brutal death, or emigration.

The rewards were substantial. The state provided sustenance and attire for the Soviet intelligentsia, elevating them to a prominent position in the distribution system. Stalin’s creative unions provided exclusive advantages and privileges to the educated elites, while millions of people in the Soviet Union endured extreme poverty and deprivation. Writers, artists, scholars, and scientists who were part of labor unions were provided with superior food at a period of widespread scarcity.

Additionally, they were granted complimentary vacations at the unions’ guest houses and hotels, and had the privilege of dining in subsidized union restaurants that were exclusive to union members. The individuals who displayed the highest level of loyalty, achievement, and occasionally exceptional skill were granted substantial financial rewards, country houses, chauffeured vehicles, and rare luxury items.

Stalinism appealed to intellectuals by aligning the Soviet modernization endeavor with the principles of the Russian Revolution and the aspirations for social and cultural change advocated by previous generations of Russian socialist intellectuals. Stalinism not only undermined the revolutionary ideology, but also exploited the traditional values of the intellectual elite, like as self-development, social engagement, and dedication to advancing historical change.

The prospect of not joining the Soviet intellect was too grim to consider. The process of marginalization resulted in the near-impossibility of engaging in artistic endeavors and receiving societal acknowledgement. A significant number of individuals from the former intellectual elite, who were deeply affected by distressing transformations, willingly became involved in the course of historical events, thereby supporting the ruling dictatorship.