The Struggle for Proletarian Music: RAPM and the Cultural Revolution

Slavic Review ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Politics ◽  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Musical Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Soviet Ideology ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Soviet Music ◽  
Russian Association ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

Since the 1930s, the zealous, idealistic proponents of musical revolution in Soviet Russia, the Rossiiskaia assotsiatsiia proletarskikh muzykantov (Russian association of proletarian musicians, RAPM), have served primarily as an embarrassing footnote to the history of Soviet music and cultural politics. Scholarly opinion of RAPM is remarkably consistent in its condemnation, as Russian-Soviet scholars and westerners alike dismiss the organization for its "simplistic" (western) or "vulgar" (Soviet) ideology and aesthetics. This consensus suggests that RAPM deserves its place in the dustbin of history alongside the Rossiiskaia assotsiatsiia proletarskikh pisatelei (Russian association of proletarian writers, RAPP) and other militant advocates of cultural revolution. But the condescending (western) and embarrassed (Soviet) dismissal of RAPM is itself simplistic. Seeing members of RAPM as undertalented and unwitting tools of the regime's agenda, or misguided if well-intentioned deviationists, obscures the important role the proletarian musicians played in the evolution of Soviet musical culture and aesthetics.

scholarly journals MUSICAL LIFE OF CHUVASHIA IN THE EARLY 1930s

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 98-105
Author(s):  
Andrey V. Mankov
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Musical Culture ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Radio Broadcasting ◽  
Symphonic Orchestra ◽  
15Th Anniversary ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Soviet Music ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

The article studies the main directions of musical life of Chuvashia at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in the USSR in the 1930s. The issues of the journal “Soviet music” were used as a historic source. The article, in particular, tells about the achievements of the Republic in creating the national culture within the framework of the Cultural Revolution which were demonstrated in the days of celebrating in 1935 the 15th anniversary of the Chuvash autonomous region formation. At this, the author pays special attention to the role of Cheboksary music college in forming the musical arts of the region and which became the center of musical life in Chuvashia. The article describes the creative activities of the leading music workers and composers of the Republic of the studied period (S.M. Maksimov, V.M. Krivonosov). The conclusion is made about undoubted successes in the development of musical culture of Chuvashia in the early 1930s. It adopted more modern forms at those times. Thus, in these years in the Chuvash territory the first major musical compositions in the Chuvash language are created. In the republic there were a symphonic orchestra and a state choir, music radio broadcasting was created. Composers from Chuvashia became known both at home and abroad where their songs were performed. Composers actively studied the Chuvash musical folklore.

MA SICONG AND HIS ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHINESE MUSICAL CULTURE

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 79-84
Author(s):  
Luo Yuanyuan ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Social Activities ◽  
Musical Culture ◽  
Xxth Century ◽  
Artistic Life ◽  
Musical Traditions ◽  
Creative Life ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

This article focuses on the life and creative activities of Ma Sicong, one of the most significant Chinese musicians of the mid-XXth century, a multi-talented and outstanding violinist who showed his prowess in various spheres of artistic life: performing, teaching, composing, musical and social activities. Ma Sicong contributed to each of these fields as a virtuoso soloist whose example was followed by his contemporaries, young musicians and as a teacher who trained numerous students retaining the most enthusiastic memories of their professor. The highly professional violin school he established, which continued Chinese and European musical traditions, became a fruitful source for the development of modern performing arts. Ma Sicong's creative life was not an easy one; periods of brilliant achievements and growth alternated with dramatic peripeteia, which led to his departure from China in the most difficult historical period for the country — the period of the "Cultural Revolution" (late 1950s — early 1970s ).

«(Великая) культурная революция» в приграничных к СССР районах КНР: ХулунБуир, провинция Хэйлунцзян (1966–1976 гг.)

2020 ◽  
pp. 127-134
Author(s):  
Ochirov Ts. Solbonovich ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
History Of ◽  
Oriental Studies ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
The Given ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

The research of the problems of the contemporary history of the NorthEastern China including the analysis of ideological and political campaigns of the second half of the XX century is one of the high-potential fields of the Oriental studies in our country. The article focuses on the period of the (Great) ‘Cultural Revolution’ (1966–1976) at bordering USSR Chinese regions — Heilongjiang province and Khulun-Buir aimak of the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. The goals of the study are set in concurrence with chronological order of the events: the ‘cultural revolution’ in the above mentioned regions had two stages. The study is based on the works of the Chinese historians. The given research highlights the specific features of the initial stage of the “cultural revolution” including the criticism of the party officials, establishment of revolution committees and running a political campaign ‘vasu’; considers the Soviet-Chinese conflict at the Daman island in 1969 to be a factor in the following political stabilization of the bordering territories; examines the movement for restoration of the party apparatus and the boost in the industrial development in 1970s of the last century.

A Recent Movement to Redefine the Role and Status of Women

1977 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 591-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Croll
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Self Image ◽  
History Of ◽  
Stated Time ◽  
Women's Role ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Status Of Women ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

At the outset of the recent anti-Confucian and Lin Piao campaign it was forecast that this movement would “ surely create still more •r favourable conditions for the emancipation of women.” x To create conditions advantageous to women the campaign set out to identify the obstacles inhibiting the redefinition of the role and status of women, j The identification of problem areas is not a new element in the history of the women's movement, indeed the problems have been stated time and again. The significance of this campaign lies in its concentrated and analytical attempt to integrate the redefinition of the female role with a nation-wide effort to change the self-image and expectations of both men and women. In this it provides a contrast with the strategy of the previous national campaign, the Cultural Revolution. Historically the women's movement has been very much concerned with raising the confidence of women in their own individual and collective abilities and translating the individual experience of suppression into a coherent analysis of oppression, but there is evidence to suggest that there was too little attention given to the position of women in the Cultural Revolution. For instance many associations and enterprises encouraged their members to believe that so long as overall revolutionary aims were fulfilled, there was no need to pay” particular attention to the position of women.2 The recent campaign and its application to practical problems among both men and women is a new recognition that because of their history of oppression it is still necessary to pay special attention to the restraints that continue to hinder the redefinition of women's role and status in society.

scholarly journals Nikolay Myaskovsky and the “Regimentation” of Soviet Composition

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 354-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Zuk
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Great Emphasis ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
New Era ◽  
Standard Work ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
Harmonic Language ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Soviet Music ◽  
Russian Association

Western studies of musical life in the USSR have typically placed great emphasis on the constraints to which composers were subject and often appear to have accepted as axiomatic the notion that the styles of Soviet composition of the Stalinist era were fundamentally conditioned by external pressures. One of the most influential formulations of this view is to be found in Boris Schwarz’s Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia, which has remained a standard work of reference for over four decades. Schwarz considered the promulgation of the Communist Party’s resolution of 23 April 1932 “On the Reconstruction of Literary and Artistic Organisations” to represent a fateful turning point in the fortunes of Soviet music, marking the inauguration of a stultifying new era of “regimentation” and the demise of freedoms that had remained after the persecution of leading modernists by the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians. According to Schwarz “advanced composers turned conventional, and conventional composers turned commonplace.” In Schwarz’s view, the newly founded Composers’ Union, just as Goebbels’s Reichsmusikkammer, presided over an artistic wasteland. In this essay I question such generalizations. I focus on Nikolay Myaskovsky (1881–1950), regarded by Schwarz as a prime example of a modernist who retreated into safe conventionality in the early 1930s after the composition of his notorious Twelfth Symphony, ostensibly written to glorify Stalin’s grandiose project of agricultural collectivization. A re-examination of the circumstances surrounding the symphony’s genesis suggests that the constructions Schwarz placed on this phase of Myaskovsky’s career are questionable. Although the composer’s harmonic language became noticeably less dissonant after 1932 than in certain works of the 1920s, I argue that this cannot be attributed solely to external pressures, as Myaskovsky’s later style evinces strong continuities with tendencies manifest in his earlier work. The essay closes by reflecting on the wider implications of these findings for our understanding of Soviet composition of the Stalinist era.

The Aura of Confucius

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia K. Murray
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Contemporary China ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Modern Shanghai ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

The Aura of Confucius is a ground-breaking study that reconstructs the remarkable history of Kongzhai, a shrine founded on the belief that Confucius' descendants buried the sage's robe and cap a millennium after his death and far from his home in Qufu, Shandong. Improbably located on the outskirts of modern Shanghai, Kongzhai featured architecture, visual images, and physical artifacts that created a 'Little Queli,' a surrogate for the temple, cemetery, and Kong descendants' mansion in Qufu. Centered on the Tomb of the Robe and Cap, with a Sage Hall noteworthy for displaying sculptural icons and not just inscribed tablets, Kongzhai attracted scholarly pilgrims who came to experience Confucius's beneficent aura. Although Kongzhai gained recognition from the Kangxi emperor, its fortunes  declined with modernization, and it was finally destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Unlike other sites, Kongzhai has not been rebuilt and its history is officially forgotten, despite the Confucian revival in contemporary China.

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