Few epochs have seen more turmoil, struggle, suffering and destruction than those visited on Russia and its people in the 20th century. The art and artists of Russia , from the late 19th through the early 21st centuries, vividly reflects the drama of this period in Russian history. After the fall of the Imperial regime of the Tzars, the birth of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ( 1870-1924) initiated a remarkable, though short lived, period in the arts. The theatre, film, ballet, music, literature and the plastic arts all reflected a period of unrestrained exuberance and hope. The influence of the artists working during this period in Russia is still felt today.

In the plastic arts, the pioneering work of Kasimir Malevich ( 1878-1935), Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953),Lazar (El) Lissitzky (1890-1941) and Liubov Popova (1889-1924), to name a few, broke exciting new ground and planted the seeds of innovation and vision that continued to grow and inspire throughout the 20th century. The films of Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (1898-1948) also provided lasting inspiration throughout the subsequent development of the new art form. These artists embraced the traditions of Slavic art ranging from the iconic art of the church to the vital folk traditions of the Russian peasant and re-invigorated these genres with the infusion of the ideas of the avant-garde which they embodied.

As the dictates of communism took hold and the comparatively enlightened leadership of Lenin was superceded by the despotism of Joseph Stalin (1879-1953), the long decades of suppression of the arts began. Soviet artists were herded into state controlled unions as esthetic decrees were promulgated by the government. These stifling bureaucracies were presided over by the most desiccated of academics and the most fervent of party aparatchniks. Artists were driven underground or relegated to the hell of Stalin's gulags. Even musical luminaries of the stature of Sergei Sergeivich Prokofiev ( 1891-1953) and Demitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) were endentured to party hacks and subjected to terrifying audiences with Stalin when they strayed from the Party line. They were saved from a worse fate only by their international stature. In literature, one has only to peruse the life and writing of Alexander Solzhenitsyn to realize the draconian measures taken by the state to control the artists of the Soviet Union. At this time many great artists sought escape and fled to the west. Wassily Kandinsky ( 1866-1944), Marc Chagall (1887-1985), Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky (1882-1971), Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich ( b.1927) and Rudolf Nureyev (1939-1993) are among the many artists who left their homeland to realize the full extent of their respective genius in the western world. The heroic stature and suffering of those that remained in the Soviet Union cannot be too emphatically stated.

After the initial burst of artistic freedom and innovation that accompanied the Revolution of 1917, the miasma of socialist realism cast its pall. Many of the artists of integrity remaining in the Soviet Union were driven underground as others were co-opted into the State system. Some arts could more readily accommodate the new Soviet reality than others. Literature sought refuge in samizdat, the manuscripts and typescripts circulated with great secrecy among fellow artists and the intelligentsia. The visual arts faced a more difficult problem and many gifted artist were turned into drones used to execute the propaganda of the party. Entire generations of artists were defeated either by state design or by the grim consequences of abject poverty.

Beginning roughly in the last quarter of the 20th century, the failures of the communist state began to produce fissures in the militantly maintained facade of the Soviet Union. The death of Stalin in 1953 produced a prolonged internal struggle for power. This eventually opened the way for new leaders such as Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (1894-1971) and Mikhail Gorbachev (b.1931) , both of whom made movements towards a more open society. In 1986, Gorbachev proclaimed the new concepts of “perestroika” and “glasnost” which acknowledged the extent of internal dissent and the ultimate impossibility of containment. The death grip of the state on the arts began to dissipate. Long suppressed works of literature were published in the west and this brought international pressure to bear. Internally, young poets such as Andrei Vosnesensky and Yevgeny Alexandrovich Yevtushenko ( b.1933) were once again speaking directly to the people.

In the visual arts, a regeneration of dynamic proportions began to take place. The current generation of Russian artists combine a keen sense of their fecund cultural history and identity with a profound appreciation for the innovations and originality of their early 20th century forbears. This heritage is being enriched by their belated familiarity with what has transpired in the rest of the world during their long enforced isolation. Music, literature, film and the plastic arts of the west have permeated Russian culture in bits and pieces. They have had no less an impact in spite of their fragmented introduction.

Mail Art, Correspondence Art and the artistamp have long been ideal media for penetrating censorious barriers. Mail Art has provided an historically unique matrix for connecting artists directly with one another without official interference. It provided one of the rare ways to penetrate the “iron curtain” during the decades of the cold war. Now, with the advent of the internet, the free flow of creative dialogue is difficult, if not impossible, to impede. The battle is not over. The perpetual pendulum of history continues to swing from left to right and back again. Artists continue to lead the charge against suppression of every ilk, be it fascism, dictatorship or social injustice.

Harley
March 27, 2006
Terra Candella.