Explain the impact of totalitarianism on literature, painting, photography, and music

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

One of the main methods of totalitarian control is through propaganda, that is, manipulation of all the arts in order to further the controlling party's agendas. For example, in 1934, the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers officially approved the style of socialist realism in the arts. It condemned all manifestations of "Modernism" (from cubist painting to hot jazz) as "bourgeois decadence." The congress called upon Soviet artists to create "a true, historically concrete portrayal of reality in its revolutionary development." Artists were instructed to communicate simply and directly, to shun all forms of decadent (that is, modern) Western art, and to describe only the positive aspects of socialist society. Thus the arts served to reinforce in the public mind the ideological benefits of communism.
Music, especially, was controlled by totalitarian governments, as its inherent power to inspire was greatly feared. The Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev at first defended Soviet principles, proclaiming, "The composer . . . is in duty bound to serve man, the people. He must be a citizen first and foremost, so that his art may consciously extol human life and lead man to a radiant future." The Soviets nevertheless denounced Prokofiev's music as "too modern"; and, along with his contemporary Dmitri Shostakovich, Prokofiev was relieved of his position at the Soviet music conservatories.
Film also provided a permanent historical record of the turbulent military and political events of the early twentieth century. It also became an effective medium of political propaganda. In Russia, Lenin envisioned film as an invaluable means of spreading the ideals of communism. Following the Russian Revolution, he nationalized the fledgling motion-picture industry. In the hands of the Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, film operated both as a vehicle for political persuasion and as a fine art. In America, film served as propaganda as well, working to inform, to boost morale, and to lobby for the Allied cause.