Towards Socialist Realism

Abstract

The argument between the naturalists and the conventionalists of the pre-revolutionary period which was examined in Chapter 1 continued in several different forms after the Revolution, although the line of development was not a simple one. For a while the theatrical left appeared to have gained the upper hand, with mass revolutionary spectacles suggesting the monumental nature of the Russian Revolution. Then, in 1923, there was a move back to traditional nineteenth-century models with Lunacharsky’s slogan ‘Back to Ostrovsky’. For a while Meyerhold continued to insist on the conventionality of theatre, whereas the Moscow Art Theatre’s new style of production developed out of their traditional natural­istic manner. Throughout the 1920s there was support both for the naturalists, who emphasised the continuity of past and present in drama and theatre, albeit with a new content reflecting the transformation wrought by the Revolution, and the latter-day conventionalists, for whom a break with the traditions of Ostrovsky and Chekhov was an essential feature of a modern, specifically Soviet drama. It is important to point out that in the 1920s neither side had exclusive political support. Nor did the division correspond to other divisions within Soviet literature at this time. Thus, the naturalists included in their number both committed proletarian writers and non-aligned fellow-travellers, as did the conventionalists.