100 years of Mari fine art: socialist realism (late 1930s – 1980s)

Introduction. The article continues a series of publications dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Mari autonomy and the emergence of professional fine art among the Mari people. It characterizes the period of socialist realism. From the point of view of the development of the national fine arts of the Mari, socialist realism needs to be comprehended using new methodological paradigms. Materials and Methods. The fine arts of the Mari Region have been analyzed using the author’s cultural and archetypal approach and the methods of historical research. The research materials include works of fine art from the museums of the Republic of Mari El, documents from the State Archives of the Republic of Mari El, media publications, newsletters and catalogs. Results and Discussion. In the history of the Mari art of socialist realism, two stages have been defined. The first one is the period of recovery after repressions and the Great Patriotic War in the late 1930s – 1950s. The second one is the heyday of the fine arts of the Mari ASSR in the 1960–1980s. Socialist realism as an artistic method is indirectly representative of the process of ethno-cultural reflection as the essence of national fine arts, it is focused on showing the achievements of ethnic cultures in the modernization of the economy and culture. V. I. Lenin is represented as a teacher close to the people (by analogy with Kugu Yumo) in the pantheon of political leaders. The cultural hero is typified through the image of a national cultural figure, a machine operator, and historical personifications. The semantics of the image of a war veteran is supplemented by the function of the world tree on the social field. The female archetype is represented by the type of a collective farmer and milkmaid, less often it is represented by a woman engaged in creative or intellectual work. Conclusion. The era of socialist realism is the most important period in the formation of professional fine arts in the Mari Region, also being a national and ethnic phenomenon. The ambivalence of socialist realist artistic practice lies in the fact that, on the one hand, reflection boils down to the use of national ethnographic signs for visual agitation for socialism, to ignoring real mental processes, and on the other hand, a real process of modernization of national culture emerges through an ideologically idealized form. The ambivalence of socialist realistic artistic practice lies in the fact that, on the one hand, reflection boils down to the use of national ethnographic signs for visual agitation for socialism, to ignoring real mental processes, and on the other hand, a real process of modernization of national culture emerges through an ideologically idealized form.