What is meant by the expression party literature. Party organization and party literature. References in literature
"PARTY ORGANIZATION AND PARTY LITERATURE"- article by V. I. Lenin. Published 13 (26) Nov. 1905 in gas. "New Life" (see Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 12, pp. 99-105). Written in connection with the revolution. events in Russia, which set new tasks for the party press and artists. liter swarm. Defining the nature of these tasks, Lenin put forward in his article the proposition that "literary work should become part of the common proletarian cause, “wheel and cog” of one single, great social-democratic mechanism, set in motion by the entire conscious vanguard of the entire working class”, emphasizing that “... the literary part of the party cause of the proletariat cannot be stereotypically identified with other parts of the party cause of the proletariat” (ibid., pp. 100-101). Having shown that “it is impossible to live in society and be free from society”, that “the freedom of a bourgeois writer, artist, actress is only a disguised (or hypocritically disguised) dependence on a money bag ...”, Lenin contrasted the supposedly free bourgeois.
lit-re "...really-free, open literature associated with the proletariat” (ibid., p. 104). In concluding. parts of the article are defined by Ch. features of the new literature, these Leninist thoughts are, in fact, the basis of the theory of socialist. lawsuit. Here, with amazing depth and accuracy, the paths of its future development are outlined, its artist is indicated. method, later called method socialist realism id=links>.
Lenin speaks of the new character of the historical reality, ch. trait to-swarm - revolutionary. struggle of the proletariat. The literature born by it will fertilize "... the last word of the revolutionary thought of mankind with the experience and lively work of the socialist proletariat ...", creating "... a constant interaction between the experience of the past (scientific socialism, which completed the development of socialism from its primitive, utopian forms ) and the experience of the present...” (ibid.).
In this new historical Lenin sees the content of literature as a guarantee of its societies. impact addressed to "... millions and tens of millions of working people who make up the color of the country, its strength, its future" (ibid.). On the other hand, it is precisely this new content of literature that will stimulate its growth and development: "... The idea of socialism and sympathy for the working people will recruit more and more new forces into its ranks" (ibid.). It is obvious that conclusions follow from this about a new type of plot conflicts, which literature will draw from the life and struggle of the proletariat and decide from the point of view of this struggle; it is just as clear that literature includes fundamentally new characters that are born in the process of living work and the struggle of the proletariat (“... the man of the future in Russia is a worker ...,” Lenin wrote on November 7, 1905 in the article “Petty-bourgeois and proletarian socialism" (ibid., p. 41). In other words, Lenin's definition of the new socialist literature contained, in an extremely concise form, a complete aesthetic content: an ideological and thematic orientation, a new type of plot-conflict organization, a new characterology with the necessary accompanying poetics. All this as a whole constituted the special, unconventional character of "... the literary part of the proletariat's party affairs..." (ibid., p. 101). least of all lends itself to mechanical equalization, leveling ... There is no doubt, - he wrote, - in this matter it is certainly necessary to provide more scope for personal initiative, individual inclinations, scope for thought and fantasy, form and content "(ibid.). Obviously, putting forward the principle party spirit, Lenin especially insisted on the thought of the originality of the claim: art. creativity is unthinkable without a variety of forms, styles, ways of depiction; mechanical regulation in this area can only bring harm to the development of lawsuits.
The concept of party membership, according to Lenin, is primarily an ideological trend that determines all aspects of the relationship of claims to reality: the type of hero, the nature of the image of societies. process as a whole, artist. purposefulness of creativity. The depth of the Leninist concept of party socialist. the claim is all the more significant because it essentially preceded its development, from the analysis of reality, as it were, deduced the nature of that claim, which must inevitably respond with its direction, its method to this new reality; the article touched upon the most important aspects communist party id=links>(vol. 9).
The first artist a work that can be fully attributed to the free literature characterized by Lenin, later called the socialist literature. realism, was created shortly after the publication of Lenin's article: this is M. Gorky's novel "Mother" (1906). Thus, the party nature of creativity, as shown by Lenin,
not determined directly. the writer's belonging to the party, not a direct repetition in his books of ready-made provisions and conclusions, but creative. appeal to reality itself, to the living work of the socialist. the proletariat, the search for themes and ideas, plots and characters, which would reveal in the claim those tasks and goals for which the party fought and is fighting.
Lenin's article provoked numerous attacks by supporters of bourgeois individualism; at the same time, her ideas were supported by A. V. Lunacharsky (Article "Tasks of Social Democratic Artistic Creativity", 1907), Gorky (preface to the "Collection of Proletarian Writers", 1914). In some speeches of a later time, groundless attempts were made to prove that the article did not mean the artist. lit-ra, but only desks. print and journalism, so the article has lost its relevance. However, an appeal to the text confirms that Lenin speaks directly about art, literature, and writers. The article retains its significance as a programmatic speech characterizing the essence and principles of the art and literature of the socialist. realism.
Lit.: Kovalevsky V., V. I. Lenin and the artist. literature, M., 1972; Shcherbina V. R., V. I. Lenin and the artist. literature, M., 1974; Barabash Yu., The strength of the communist. partisanship, Pravda, 1975, November 25; Novikov V., Lenin's foresight, Kommunist, 1975, No. 17.
“It is impossible to live in society and be free from society.” These words of V. I. Lenin give the key to understanding the question of the partisanship of literature.
Bourgeois critics and writers at one time created theories according to which art is independent of social life: a poet, novelist, playwright allegedly create their works, like Pushkin's chronicler Pimen, "listening to good and evil indifferently." The thesis was put forward about "pure art", allegedly free from any kind of social predilections and sympathies. But this was an illusion that could only mask the artist's real connection with society. The principle of party literature was defended by many leading writers of the world who fought for its active, transforming role (French enlighteners of the 18th century, Russian revolutionary democrats of the 19th century).
Marxism-Leninism substantiated the principle of the partisanship of literature, relying on the entire centuries-old experience of literature, and connected it with one of the most important propositions of Marxism - with the doctrine of classes, of the class struggle. K. Marx and F. Engels proved with irrefutable persuasiveness that all history in the past was the history of the class struggle. Each artist, whether he wanted it or not, in one way or another expressed in his work the moods, feelings, ideology of a certain class. True, the great writers of the past knew how to rise above the interests of their class and often became spokesmen for the nation's thoughts and aspirations.
For the first time, the term "party membership" appeared on the pages of the New Rhine Gazette during the years of the 1848 revolution in Germany. The literary and artistic materials printed on the pages of the newspaper corresponded to the principle of proletarian party membership.
Historical merit in the development of the principles of communist party membership belongs to V. I. Lenin. From the first steps of his activity, he raised the question of party ideology: “... materialism includes, so to speak, party spirit, obliging, in any assessment of an event, to directly and openly take the point of view of a certain social group” (Poln, sobr. op. Vol. 1 pp. 419)
V. I. Lenin substantiated the principle of party membership most widely in his work “Party Organization and Party Literature” in 1905. Its main thesis is clearly expressed. Literary work must become an integral part of the general proletarian cause. A grandiose class struggle is unfolding in Russia. The country is heading for a revolution. And every artist faces a burning and acute question: with whom is he - with the forces of reaction, the old world, or with the people, with the working class fighting for a brighter future? V. I. Lenin exposes the bourgeois slogan of "non-party" art and counterposes it with art that is openly connected with the revolutionary people.
Thus, the partisanship of literature is the internal ideological and political aspiration of creativity. Under our conditions, this is above all an organic connection with the interests of the people, with their struggle for the triumph of the ideals of communism, for the building of a new society.
Putting forward with such decisiveness the question of the ideological and political self-determination of artists, V. I. Lenin, at the same time, opposed any attempts to simplify the interpretation of the principle of party membership, against the mechanical identification of the literary work of the party with other areas of party activity, against ignoring all the complexity and specificity of artistic creativity. He emphasized that literary work is least of all amenable to mechanical alignment and that here it is necessary to provide more scope for personal initiative, individual inclinations, thoughts and fantasies of the artist.
The principle of communist party membership is one of the cornerstones of our entire worldview, of our entire art. Naturally, it found expression throughout the history of Soviet literature, in the literature of socialist realism abroad.
The literature of socialist realism does not simply reproduce certain aspects of reality. Communist party membership presupposes an active, passionate, interested intervention of the writer in life. In this sense, literature actively and ardently helps to educate the new man of the revolutionary epoch.
Party spirit is expressed not only in the ideological and political essence of the work. In art, it primarily manifests itself in the fact that the party's assessment of life follows directly from the pictures of life that the writer (or representatives of other forms of art) paints. The protagonists of the work, especially the positive characters and usually the image of the narrator, are associated in the reader's mind with the assertion in the human personality of the principles of communist morality and behavior and the struggle for this morality (or - when depicting negative characters - with a feeling of indignation caused by its violation), plots are ultimately built on the clash of various principles of attitude to life, affirming the communist attitude to reality or opposing them, the language reveals the features of the human personality, in the same way depicting the type of its consciousness, attitude to the world of communist construction (for example, in "Young Guard" A A. Fadeeva) and everything that opposes it. In each genre in its own way, depending on the historical situation, on the outlook and talent of the writer, communist party spirit finds its aesthetic expression in critical analysis, insofar as it is inextricably linked with the method of socialist realism.
After the victory of October, the Leninist principle of party membership was further developed in party documents on questions of literature and art, summarizing the many years of experience of the party leadership and providing a profoundly scientific analysis of Soviet literature at the present stage. The Resolution of the 27th Congress of the CPSU notes: “The Party supports and will continue to support everything talented in literature and art, imbued with the spirit of party spirit and nationality. The norm of the work of party organizations with the artistic intelligentsia is ideological adherence to principles and exactingness, respect for talent, tact.
- "Party organization and party literature" - an article by V. I. Lenin. It was first published in the newspaper "New Life" No. 12 of November 13 (26), 1905 under the pseudonym N. Lenin. In the 5th edition of V. I. Lenin's PSS, the article is given in volume 12 on pages 99-105.
A well-known proposition from this article: “Literary work must become part of the general proletarian cause, the “wheel and cog” of one single, great social-democratic mechanism, set in motion by the entire conscious vanguard of the entire working class.”
“It is impossible to live in society and be free from society” is an often quoted and well-known phrase from this article by Lenin.
Related concepts
The Soviet press is a set of print media (press) published in the Soviet era (Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union). The conductor of the Soviet ideology.
Spirit of Journals, or A collection of everything that is best and most curious in all other journals, in terms of the history of politics, the state economy, literature, various arts, rural economics, etc. - a periodical published in St. Petersburg in 1815-1820.
Censorship in the USSR - control of the Soviet and party organs of the USSR over the content and dissemination of information, including printed materials, musical and stage works, works of fine art, cinematographic and photographic works, radio and television broadcasts, in order to suppress all sources of information that are alternative to official ones. , limiting or preventing the dissemination of ideas and information considered harmful or undesirable.
LEF ("Left Front of the Arts") - a creative association that existed in 1922-1929 in Moscow, Odessa and other cities of the USSR.
References in literature
Wed also in Lenin: “For the socialist proletariat, literary work cannot be an instrument for the gain of individuals or groups, it cannot be an individual affair in general” (“ Party organization and party literature", 1905). Lenin, 12:100.
Related concepts (continued)
"Herald of Knowledge" is a monthly illustrated literary and popular science magazine with applications for self-education.
Decree of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks "On the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad" - a document adopted by the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on August 14, 1946. The decree affected the fate of individual periodicals, contributed to the exclusion of Anna Akhmatova and Mikhail Zoshchenko from the Writers' Union of the USSR, and caused a wide public outcry. In 1988, it was recognized as erroneous and cancelled.
Literature of the Soviet Union - a set of literary works published on the territory of the RSFSR and other union republics after the establishment of Soviet power there. It included, in addition to Russian, the literature of other peoples in 88 languages of the USSR (according to 1987), although literature in Russian was predominant. The literature of the USSR also included old-written literatures (such as Armenian, which is older than Russian), but many national literatures were created in languages that did not have ...
A new trend (Latvian: Jaunā strāva) in the history of Latvia is a mass left-wing socio-political movement that existed during the First Latvian National Awakening (in which the Young Latvians played a leading role from the 1850s to the 1880s), the highest point of development of which was the Revolution of 1905. The participants in the movement were called "New Techenians" (Latvian jaunstrāvnieki).
" Marxism and the national question" - the theoretical work of I. V. Stalin, published in 1913-1914. After the articles and speeches of V.I. Lenin, the article by I.V. Stalin was the first Bolshevik work in the Russian labor movement, in which the arguments of the supporters of "cultural-national autonomy" from Austro-Marxism were considered and refuted. The work gained fame among Russian Marxists, from that time Stalin was considered an expert on national problems.
PEN Club (eng. PEN International) is an international human rights non-governmental organization that brings together professional writers, poets and journalists working in various literary genres.
"Letter of the Seventy-Four" - a common alternative name for two documents: "Letters of Russian writers to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, delegates of the XXVIII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union", signed by 74 writers, as well as its finalized after the election of the President of the USSR M. S. Gorbachev variant - "Letters from writers, cultural figures and scientists of Russia to the President of the USSR, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the delegates of the XXVIII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet ...
Lenin's phrases - statements by V. I. Lenin, as well as phrases attributed to him, which have become catch phrases. At the same time, a number of quotations in their well-known formulation do not belong to Lenin, but first appeared in literary works and cinema. These statements were widely used in the USSR.
"Literary discussion" - the name of the campaign in the Soviet press associated with the appearance of the article by Leon Trotsky "Lessons of October".
" Zubatovshchina"- the name accepted in literature for the system of legal workers' organizations created in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. It is named after the official of the Police Department of the Russian Empire, Sergei Vasilyevich Zubatov, whose main idea was to create government-controlled organizations to distract workers from the political struggle. To do this, educational organizations of the workers should be created, put under the control of the police, and the working-class movement should be directed exclusively towards the struggle ...
“ How to organize a competition" - an article by V. I. Lenin, written on December 24-27, 1917 (January 6-9, 1918), first published on January 20, 1929 in the Pravda newspaper No. 17, signature: V. Lenin. In the 5th edition of the Complete Works of Lenin published in volume 35, pp. 195-205.
The Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia (ukr. Ukrainian Radian Encyclopedia, URE) is a multi-volume universal encyclopedia published in the Ukrainian SSR. The first Soviet republican encyclopedia.
Russian Notes is a socio-political and literary magazine published in Paris and Shanghai in 1937-1939. There were 21 issues in total.
Biocosmism is a direction in Russian philosophy and literature of the early 20s of the XX century, the main principles and goals of which were the maximum freedom of the individual and his creativity, up to freedom of movement in space, the spread of the influence of human activity throughout the Universe, the achievement of physical immortality, the ability to create and recreate the universe, manage time, resurrect dead people, etc. It was associated with anarchism.
Pages from the diary - an article by V. I. Lenin, dedicated to public education. Written on January 1-2, 1923. First published in the newspaper Pravda on March 4, 1923 in No. 2. The article was among the last works of Lenin, in which he developed a plan for the transition to a new economic policy.
"Fight against cosmopolitanism" - a political campaign conducted in the USSR in 1948-1953, and directed against a separate layer of the Soviet intelligentsia, which was considered as a bearer of skeptical and pro-Western tendencies.
Encyclopedia Italiano, "Encyclopedia Treccani", "Italiana"; the full name "Italian Encyclopedia of Sciences, Literature and Arts" (Italian l'Enciclopedia Italiana di scienze, lettere ed arti) is the largest Italian universal encyclopedia.
Propaganda literature is a collection of artistic and other literary works that, influencing the feelings, imagination and will of people, induce them to certain actions, actions.
De-Stalinization is the process of overcoming the personality cult of Stalin and the liquidation of the political and ideological system created in the USSR during the reign of I. V. Stalin. This process led to a partial liberalization of public life, called the "thaw". The term "de-Stalinization" has been used in Western literature since the 1960s.
The human rights movement is a part of the dissident movement in the USSR, focused primarily on defending the civil rights and freedoms of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution of the USSR (freedom of speech, press, demonstrations, associations, etc.), regardless of their belonging to any social, national or ideological groups (unlike other factions of the dissident movement, who defended certain socio-political projects - monarchist or left-wing socialist, demanding ...
Steps of History - a calendar wall newspaper in A0 format with notes on significant historical events that took place on these days in the history of Russia. Each note is accompanied by an illustration, each issue of the newspaper - a statement of famous people about history. It was created in Novosibirsk by activists of the movement "Parental All-Russian Resistance". As of 2015, it is distributed in all major cities of Russia, the CIS, and even in the LPR and DPR.
Glasnost is a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information. In modern usage, the term is most often used in relation to the policy of glasnost, pursued by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s in the USSR, which meant the inadmissibility of hushing up local economic problems, a significant weakening of censorship and the removal of numerous information barriers that existed in Soviet society.
“The Great Initiative (On the Heroism of the Workers in the Home Front. Regarding the “Communist Subbotniks”)” - an article by V. I. Lenin, written on June 28, 1919. First published as a separate pamphlet in Moscow in July 1919. As of 1969, it was published 130 times in the USSR and 38 times in 51 languages in other countries.
Ideological control in Soviet science is the assessment by state and party-state authorities of Soviet Russia and the USSR of scientific areas and research in terms of their compliance with the dominant ideology of Marxism-Leninism and the declared goal of social development - the construction of socialism and communism. Along with constant administrative control over the development of fundamental and applied sciences, party control resulted in campaigns of repression, during which some scientific...
Pedocracy (literally "the power of children"; from other Greek παῖς "child" + κράτος "power, state, power") - the dominance of youth in public life or a separate social movement. The term has a negative connotation and is used in conservative journalism.
“The Testaments of Ilyich” (or “the Testaments of Lenin”) is a popular expression in Soviet times, which indicated that the Soviet country lives and develops along the path outlined by its founder Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Sometimes the last articles and notes of Lenin were considered as testaments, in other cases a wider range of works were classified as testaments. Some of Lenin's quotes gained particular popularity as testaments, for example: "Study, study, study, as bequeathed ...
Jewish periodicals - periodicals (magazines, newspapers, etc.), which are either created in Jewish languages (Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino), or, due to the nature of their content, appeal mainly to a Jewish audience. Jewish periodicals do not limit themselves to issues that affect exclusively Jewry, but may include global and local news, as well as literary, artistic and scientific materials.
The Vladimir Encyclopedia (bio-bibliographic dictionary) is a regional reference publication designed for the widest range of readers. The volume includes over 2600 articles about representatives of various spheres of human activity, one way or another connected with the region: its natives or those who, although not born on the Vladimir land, connected their lives with it and realized their creative potential here, or made a significant contribution in her study.
"Questions of Philosophy and Psychology" ("Questions of Philosophy and Psychology") - a journal published in Moscow from November 1889 to 1918 at the Moscow Psychological Society. The inspirer of the creation and the first editor-in-chief of the journal was N. Ya. Grot.
The Khrushchev thaw is an unofficial designation of the period in the history of the USSR after the death of I.V. Stalin, which lasted about ten years (mid-1950s - mid-1960s). In the internal political life of the USSR, it was characterized by the condemnation of the personality cult of Stalin and the repressions of the 1930s, the release of political prisoners, the liquidation of the Gulag, the weakening of totalitarian power, the emergence of some freedom of speech, the relative liberalization of political and public life, openness to the West ...
The concept of party spirit in literature is closely connected with the concept of the class character of literary creativity. The partisanship of writers' creativity lies in their conscious and active defense of the vital and political interests of certain social classes, social groups and political parties. The partisanship of literature arises at the highest stage of the class struggle, when political parties become at the head of the social classes and direct the struggle of these classes for a dominant position in society. Since literature is an important factor in the social class struggle, political parties seek to use literary creativity as a means of propagating their ideology and their policies. In turn, writers take the side of one or another political party and their work acquires a party character.
The doctrine of the partisanship of literature was developed by
V. I. Lenin in his famous article "Party Organization and Party Literature". The appearance of this article at the height of the 1905 revolution was far from accidental. Lenin's teaching on the partisanship of artistic creativity met the pressing needs of the revolutionary struggle of the working class and all working people for socialism; it also met the needs of the progressive development of literature itself. The fact is that the problems of party membership not only in literature, but also in all spheres of social and ideological life acquired a particularly topical meaning in the era of imperialism. Imperialism sharpened all class contradictions to the utmost and created the prerequisites for the victory of the socialist revolution. But the doomed bourgeois-imperialist system does not yet consider itself defeated; he fiercely resists, maneuvers, goes into counterattacks. The deadly struggle between the two worlds demands from all people, including writers, a clear definition of their place in the class and political struggle, the choice of their party!) position. The logic of the struggle leads to the fact that even the very rejection of partisanship (a maneuver that the defenders of an obsolete system willingly resort to) acquires a partisan character. In an effort to turn the masses (including writers, artists, actors) away from the class, political, and ideological struggle, the imperialist bourgeoisie calls for the abandonment of class and partisanship in the name of "the general prosperity of society," i.e., for the sake of preserving the dominance of capital.
In response to such calls for “non-partisanship”, V. I. Lenin wrote: “Non-party membership in bourgeois society is only a hypocritical, covered, passive expression of belonging to the party of the well-fed, to the party of the ruling, to the party of exploiters. Non-partisanship is a bourgeois idea. Party membership is a socialist idea. In the article “Party Organization and Party Literature”, V. I. Lenin revealed the deceitful, hypocritical nature of the “non-party” nature of the work of writers and other artists who gave their talent to the service of the exploiting classes, showed that living in a class society and being free from this society it is also impossible that "the freedom of a bourgeois writer, artist, actress is only a disguised (or hypocritically disguised) dependence on a bag of money, on bribery, on maintenance."
The entire course of literary development confirms the irrefutability of these Leninist propositions. Thus, the magazines of Russian decadents, who boasted of the "absolute freedom" of their creativity, were published with the money of millionaires Ryabushinsky, Polyakov and others. The "non-partisan" works of D. Merezhkovsky, F. Sologub, Z. Gippius and other pillars of Russian decadence were imbued with hatred for the working people and their revolutionary aspirations.
The same picture is observed in modern bourgeois society. Bourgeois patrons, publishers, literary societies and unions in every possible way support and advertise those writers whose work serves the purpose of preserving the bourgeois order. And vice versa, bourgeois society does not favor, for example, with its attention the contemporary French writers André Stil, Louis Aragon, Elsa Triolet, whose work is connected with the life and liberation struggle of the working class. The bourgeois literary critic from West Germany, K. Ziegel, in his book The Literary Factory, attacks writers who criticize the Bonn regime, reproaching them for "invading the realm of politics." “Any participation of writers and poets in political life,” he declares, “is in principle contrary to the essence of art and should not take place.” But then the author takes under the protection of writers who once glorified Hitler and his regime. "It's time to stop persecuting them," he writes, "only because they considered Hitler a good man and thought that he would establish good order."
V. I. Lenin called for literature, associated with the bourgeoisie and its parties and at the same time hypocritically declaring its non-partisanship, to be opposed to literature openly associated with the revolutionary struggle of the working class and its vanguard, the Communist Party. "Literary work," wrote Lenin, "should become part of the general proletarian cause... Literary work must become an integral part of organized, planned, united Social-Democratic party work." V. I. Lenin predicted that the idea of socialism and sympathy for the working people would sooner or later attract the most honest and talented writers to literature inspired by the ideas of the proletarian, communist party spirit. And so it became. At first, M. Gorky, A. Serafimovich, D. Bedny responded to Lenin's call, and then, after the victory of the socialist revolution, communist party membership became the basis for the development of Soviet literature.
Soviet writers do not hide their communist partisanship, that is, their connection with the policy and ideology of the Communist Party, with its goals and ideals. Moreover, our writers are proud of their partisanship. V. V. Mayakovsky proudly wrote about the hundred volumes of his "party books". A. T. Tvardovsky, on behalf of Soviet writers, declared at the 21st Congress of the CPSU: “The happiness of Soviet literature is that the main ideological and organizing force of our society, the Communist Party, teaches and encourages it to reflect living life, all the truth and the regularity of its phenomena, brought by unprecedented in terms of the scope of the labor creative activity of the people of socialism. It turns us, writers, to life, teaches us to see its new remarkable features there, in the most decisive areas where ore is mined, steel is brewed, grain and herds are grown, buildings of factories and dwellings are erected, not only everything necessary for the life of society, but and making her beautiful and joyful.
The partisanship of literature, like classism, is expressed not by the writer's formal affiliation to one party or another, but by his worldview, the ideological orientation of his work. This applies entirely to the communist party spirit. Moreover, communist party membership does not at all cancel all other signs and qualities of fiction, as slanderers from the bourgeois camp assure, but, on the contrary, requires the highest conscientiousness and honesty of the writer. For a Soviet writer, being a party member in his work means following the method of socialist realism, which requires a truthful, historically concrete depiction of life in its revolutionary development from the ideological positions of the Communist Party in order to educate readers in the ideological spirit in the communist spirit. To be a member of the Party in creative work means constantly improving one's craftsmanship, looking for new, effective forms of art, for only talented, bright, artistically perfect works can excite readers, give them pleasure, and educate them.
The party nature of Soviet literature is also manifested in the fact that its development takes place under the constant beneficial influence of the CPSU. The Communist Party recognizes in art and literature the enormous power of influencing the consciousness of the builders of the new world and is doing everything to ensure that Soviet literature develops along the path of high ideological and artistic perfection, along the path of drawing closer to the life and needs of the working people. The Program of the CPSU states: “Soviet literature and art, imbued with optimism and life-affirming communist ideas, play a great ideological and educational role, develop in Soviet people the qualities of a builder of a new world. They are called upon to serve as a source of joy and inspiration for millions of people, to express their will, feelings and thoughts, to serve as a means of their ideological enrichment and moral education.”
Bourgeois opponents of Soviet literature, in an effort to undermine its growing influence throughout the world, assert that party membership deprives our writers of freedom of creativity. Such statements are clearly slanderous. It is the work of writers who have connected their entire lives and literary activities with the struggle for socialism that is most free and corresponds to the true purpose of art. After all, the highest purpose of art is to serve the working people, to make their life full, joyful, free. The same goals are set by the Communist Party. That is why V. I. Lenin, defining the main features of literature inspired by the ideas of the proletarian party spirit, wrote: “It will be free literature, because not self-interest and not a career, but the idea of socialism and sympathy for the working people will recruit more and more new forces into its ranks. It will be free literature, because it will serve not the jaded heroine, not the bored and obese "top ten thousand", but the millions and tens of millions of working people who are the color of the country, its strength, its future. It will be free literature, fertilizing the last word of the revolutionary thought of mankind with the experience and lively work of the socialist proletariat, creating a constant interaction between the experience of the past (scientific socialism, which completed the development of socialism from its primitive, utopian forms) and the experience of the present (the real struggle of the worker comrades). This is exactly what Soviet literature has become. It is inextricably linked with the life, work and struggle of millions of Soviet people, the builders of the new world, is inspired by their ideals and inspires them to new exploits.
The communist partisanship of Soviet writers is, consequently, the highest expression of the freedom of their creativity. M. A. Sholokhov said this very well from the rostrum of the Second All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers: “The malicious enemies abroad say about us, Soviet writers, as if we write at the behest of the party. The situation is somewhat different: each of us writes according to the dictates of his heart, and our hearts belong to the party and our native people, whom we serve with our art.
Communist party membership as the basis for the development of Soviet literature is clearly and clearly stated in the appeal of the Fourth All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers to the Central Committee of the CPSU: “We openly and proudly call our literature party literature, because it does not and cannot have other interests than the interests people expressed by our party. We call our literature Party literature because we see in the Party's policy the most complete embodiment of the cherished aspirations of progressive mankind. And we say today in the name of all our multinational literature: “Having chosen communism as our ideal, we will be faithful to it to the end!”
The article by V. I. Lenin was first published in the newspaper "New Life" N 12 of November 13 (26), 1905. The article discusses with polemical fervor, not without a hint of demagogy, the burning question of the attitude of the Party organ towards non-Party writers: whether to grant a place in their own pages or not. The question is unambiguously solved in the second variant. In Soviet times, this article became the cornerstone of the entire Marxist-Leninist philosophy of art, and science to boot.
It was reprinted countless times independently, in collections, collections of Lenin's writings, by central and local publishing houses. "Party organization" was included in the circle of compulsory reading and taking notes starting from school, in transit through institutes and technical schools, regardless of the chosen specialty or direction, and ending with the party education system (which was mandatory not only for party members) up to pensioners. There are few literary works that would be promoted with such fervor and that no one would read: not only students, but also teachers. For a corrosive reader, it may have been “necessarily outlined” and “no one read it,” and it will seem like a blatant inconsistency, but not for someone familiar with the Russian mentality: which, by the way, the author of this article was extremely outraged at one time - these ideological goats, brandishing a Marxist -Lenin's bludgeon, did not even bother to get acquainted with its contents.
The latest times and technologies have by no means lessened the interest in Lenin's work, which, however, is very peculiar. It is enough to type its name in any search engine, and dozens of links to its text will fall out to you, but it is almost impossible to find comments on it or a more or less superficial analysis: a sure sign that it is still unreadable. And, accordingly, the content of the article was overgrown with a mass of fantastic conjectures and assumptions, no worse than some apocryphal gospels.
The article was written when Lenin and his Bolshevik henchmen, like weaklings in basketball from the three-second zone, were ousted from the Iskra editorial office and they were frantically looking for a printed platform for expressing their views. Thanks to the money of M. Gorky's wife, the wonderful actress M. Andreeva, Lenin finally managed to set up the publication of the New Life newspaper, the release of which the authorities endured exactly up to issue 13.
It is important to pay attention to the fact that the situation with printing at that time has changed dramatically. In place of the wolf laws of the suppression of any opposition speech, when the workers greedily grabbed the soiled sheets of Iskra, after the manifesto of October 17, Russia was overwhelmed by the sudden freedom, in particular, of the press. At the beginning of the century, 14 thousand periodicals were published in the country, including more than 2 thousand socio-political ones. With their views climbed not only the Bolsheviks or liberals, but also Christians, non-resistance. All sorts of "Shards", "Bulletins of gardeners" were published. It was very difficult to be noticed in such conditions. Therefore, in order to attract readers, political publications attracted all kinds of writers on any topic, not particularly caring about their political or worldview orientation.
There was also a popular point of view among the Bolsheviks that in order to popularize our ideas, one should not be too picky about the ideological views of the author, but give space to everyone on the pages of the Bolshevik newspaper: if only they wrote interestingly. Lenin put a hard filter on such encroachments.
“Literary work must become a part of the general proletarian cause, a 'wheel and a cog' of one single, great social-democratic mechanism set in motion by the entire conscious vanguard of the entire working class. Literary work must become an integral part of organized, planned, united Social-Democratic Party work.
It is important to emphasize that all the fuss was started exclusively around party literature, that is, the specific agitation and propaganda press of one of the many parties. Literature in general, where L. Tolstoy and Shakespeare worked, was not touched upon in Lenin's article. Nor was it an infringement on freedom of speech. “We are talking about party literature and its subordination to party control. Everyone is free to write and say whatever he pleases, without the slightest restriction. But every free union (including the Party) is also free to expel such members who use the firm name of the Party to propagate anti-Party views. Freedom of speech and press must be complete. But the freedom of association must also be complete. I owe you, in the name of freedom of speech, the full right to shout, lie and write whatever you like. But you owe me, in the name of freedom of association, to give me the right to enter into or dissolve an alliance with people who say this and that.
One can reread Lenin's words from front to back and from back to front, but it is impossible to detect any special genius in them. As there is nothing with which one could disagree with one in sound mind and solid memory. The question of whether to quarrel with everyone in a row or only with like-minded people - in the conditions of democracy and the unbridled press - is a matter of survival and preservation of one's self-identity. Democracy does not consist in publishing everything indiscriminately, but in the fact that society provides those who disagree with the opportunity to express their views elsewhere (of course, not on the bunk).
Lenin was faithful to the principles expressed throughout his entire activity. Already after the victory of the Soviet power in 1919, at a meeting with Komsomol members, he threw out that you can become a communist only when you enrich your memory with the riches that humanity has developed. He gave it up when he saw a communist pamphlet in the hands of one of the delegates, and to the question: “Apart from this, do you read anything else?”, he proudly replied: “No, only party literature.”
Soviet ideology turned Lenin's article on its head. She put an equal sign between party literature and literature (art and science) in general. In a communist society, there can be no other than the communist ideology - such a principle was strictly and cruelly carried out. It can be said that Lenin himself gave an ambiguous pretext to the end of the article, imperceptibly replacing the concept of party literature with literature in general.
“It is impossible to live in society and be free from society. The freedom of a bourgeois writer, artist, actress is only a disguised (or hypocritically disguised) dependence on a bag of money, on bribery, on maintenance.
Although it is difficult to doubt the relevance of this thought, and precisely in modern conditions. One has only to look at how much dirt various show business stars, proclaiming the apoliticality and purely entertaining orientation of their antics, poured on the head of a colleague when he, at a meeting with state leaders, dared to hint at the violation of democratic freedoms in the country.