The Shaping of Popular Consent: A Comparative Study of the Sovie ...

It is vital for the reader to note that this study will concentrate exclusively on the iconography, its themes and messages designed for mass consumption. It will examine the iconography in its purest form. In other words, as it was before it had entered the public domain. It will not examine the impact of such material upon the population. That is, this book will focus on intention not reception. This is not because the reception, comprehension, adoption or rejection of popular culture from below is unimportant (even if measuring “impact” is a problematic issue). Rather, it is because strict parameters must be set in order to build upon important work in both the Soviet and American historiography on the topic of social and cultural engineering, and to raise additional questions for further comparative studies. Moreover, certain logistical problems (location, access to materials, money, time, life in general) also prevent a full exploration of every single aspect of this study’s wider themes. It is also important to point out that while the following is an examination of the visual arts it is not a piece of art criticism, art history or an analysis of aesthetics. Moreover, due to the constraints already noted it will not be possible to discuss every single form of art that could broadly qualify as visual. Therefore, there will be no discussion about the role of dance and ballet. Soviet ballet was still the old repertoire and American ballet was largely abstract. In neither society did ballet of the 1930s lend itself to social comment on contemporary matters. Nor, given limitations on space and words, will I attempt to catalogue every possible example of a work of art which supports my point. It is not the intention here to compile a list. Rather, I will seek to demonstrate my points by discussing the most illuminating, representative and important examples and, furthermore, by showing that they reflect a much broader body of similar work.

I will also restrict my analysis to the interwar period and in particular the years from 1929 to 1941. There are several important reasons for delimiting the book with these dates. In both the Soviet Union and the United States 1929 ushered in a sustained period of economic change, centralisation and social upheaval.