Reading Fyodor Vasilievich's Cement, I was struck by the similarities between Ayn Rand's "romantic realism" and socialist realism. Both share similar types of ideal, heroic protagonists; both emphasize non-religious moral virtues, especially hard work; both make use of an aesthetic emphasizing the gargantuan and un-ornate-- really, there are too many similarities to let this pass and still be accused of good taste. Let me be specific.
According to the Columbia Online Encyclopedia, socialist realism can be defined as "Soviet artistic and literary doctrine". Continuing:
The role of literature and art in Soviet society was redefined in 1932 when the newly created Union of Soviet Writers proclaimed socialist realism as compulsory literary practice. As conceived by Stalin, Zhdanov, and Gorky, socialist realism prescribed a generally optimistic picture of socialist reality and of the development of the Communist revolution. Its purpose was education in the spirit of socialism. Its practice is marked by strict adherence to party doctrine and to conventional techniques of realism. Socialist realism has been widely condemned as stifling to artistic values. After the death of Stalin in 1953 some relaxation of strictures was evident, although socialist realism continued as the official doctrine. A similar approach to the creation of art and literature was also enforced for a time in the People's Republic of China.
Given the Stalinist state's economic interest in the promotion of heavy industry, socialist realism tended to portray peasants as the laggards of society-- the dregs on the creation of commi-topia-- while idealizing the hard-working iron man of industry. The least desirable characters in socialist fiction and Soviet propaganda were the dreaded "parasites", those who found value in activities apart from working to add value to the coffers of the Soviet state.
In a 1934 document outlining the goals and distinctions of Soviet fiction, chief propagandist and founder of Cominform Andrey Zhdanov attacked "bourgeouis, capitalist fiction" on the grounds of its moral looseness and lack of vision:
A riot of mysticism, religious mania and pornography is characteristic of the decline and decay of bourgeois culture. The "celebrities" of that bourgeois literature which has sold its pen to capital are today thieves, detectives, prostitutes, pimps and gangsters. . . .
Rand also places an almost maniacal attention on the dangers and immoralities of mystical, non-realist thinking. For Rand, as for Zhdanov, spirituality is a direct moral affront. In The Romantic Manifesto, Rand explains how an eye to the heroic stimulates man's sense of morality:
It is not abstract principles that a child learns from Romantic art, but ... the emotional experience of admiration for man's highest potential, the experience of looking up to a hero - a view of life motivated and dominated by values, a life in which man's choices are practicable, effective and crucially important - that is, a moral sense of life.
And a "moral sense of life" necessarily includes certain values, many of which might be traced to Judeo-Christian teachings. Did Rand and Soviet propagandists also share a poetic preference for cement and steel? There are certainly endless passages depicting protagonists in the throes of handling railroad steel and cement.
- For a parody of socialist realism, watch an episode of The Simpsons with the fictional cartoon, "Worker and Parasite".
- For more on Rand's high regard for "the projection of ideal man", see the Editor's Preface to her short story, "The Husband I Bought".
- Chris Sciabarra noted a while back that Rand's philosophic influences were steeped in historical materialism. I just want to make a similar point about her aesthetic and moral influences.
- James G. Lennox's review of Sciabarra's study of Rand's influences.
