Evgeniy Dobrenko (University of Sheffield)
One of the most striking features of Soviet culture during WWII (and especially of the first phase of it) was a clear departure from ideological and visual sterility of pre-war culture in which any depiction of violence, suffering, death or victimization was practically tabooed. The disastrous beginning of the war for the Soviet Union and German atrocities brought about major changes to Soviet ideology. The focus of this lecture will be the retuning of Soviet art according to this new ideological doctrine. This “translation” of ideology into literature (first of all, poetry and journalism) and music was followed by visual arts such as poster, painting and film, completely changing their narrative, style and tune.