The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism · Chapter
Art and Education explained
Russell examines the Bolshevik approach to art and education, noting initial freedom for artists but arguing that the revolutionary atmosphere inevitably subordinates art to propaganda.
What happens
Russell examines the Bolshevik approach to art and education, noting initial freedom for artists but arguing that the revolutionary atmosphere inevitably subordinates art to propaganda. He contrasts the preservation of old bourgeois art with the rise of a new, popular, and religiously-toned Communist art, and warns that industrialization poses a greater threat to artistic impulse than Communist doctrine itself.
Themes in this chapter
Art and Industrialization
Russell argues that the real threat to art in Russia is not Communist doctrine but the coming industrialization, which will crush crafts and instinctive creativity, turning artists into practical workers.
Bolshevism as a Religion
The religious nature of Communism makes propaganda art inevitable; old artistic traditions are fading like medieval Church art being replaced by Communist iconography.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“It is plain from the religious nature of Communism in Russia, that such controlling of the impulse to artistic creation is inevitable, and that propaganda art alone can flourish in such an atmosphere.”
Because Communism in Russia functions like a religion, it must inevitably control artistic expression, allowing only propaganda art to thrive.
Russell connects the religious character of Bolshevism to the suppression of artistic freedom.
“What the Bolsheviks would not therefore willingly do to art, the Juggernaut which they are bent on setting in motion may accomplish for them.”
The industrialization that the Bolsheviks are determined to pursue will destroy art even more thoroughly than their own policies would.
Russell warns that industrialization, not Communist ideology, poses the greater long-term danger to art.