Socialist realism is a type of art style typically associated with the USSR. The communist doctrine stated that all art is political to one degree or another, and the promoted art style was meant to be enslaved to such a purpose entirely. One of the more common definitions of socialist realism is that it comprises all works of art officially sanctioned by the communist party that promote the socialist message. One example of this style is “The Motherland Calls” statue in Volgograd. This essay will elaborate on the statue’s message while comparing it to the most recent political art piece dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr., titled “Embrace.”
“The Motherland Calls” is a massive piece of art, presenting a statue of a beautiful woman wielding a sword as if leading others to battle. The statue is meant to commemorate the Soviet victory in the Second World War, represent the soviet might, and serve as a message to all enemies of the USSR (Lahusen 63). The statue is part of the tri-partite composition – the sword Motherland wields is forged in the Ural Mountains (Rear-Front Memorial), lifted up in Stalingrad (The Motherland Calls), and brought down in Berlin (Warrior-Liberator monument) (Lahusen 64). One piece of the political message relates to the Cold War.
The statue was purposefully made to be much bigger than the Statue of Liberty; standing at 91 meters tall, it is almost twice as tall as its American counterpart and about equal if one counts the base on which it stands. “The Motherland Calls” conveys the message through aesthetics and impressive engineering alike. The woman looks aesthetically beautiful while also being fierce, and the sheer size of the monument makes the onlookers experience the Soviet might (Lahusen 71). Its messages to its own people and to foreigners are clear – respect the sacrifices made by the nation, stand in awe of its achievements, and beware.
Modern political art is not quite as imposing as the finer examples of socialist realism. Martin Luther King Jr.’s statue, titled “Embrace,” shares some of the elements of socialist realism. It is a rather large monument on its own, around 20 feet high and 40 feet long (Gamble and Chavez). It shows two people embracing one another, one of them being MLK himself. The statue is supposed to represent the triumph of the human rights movement, freedom from enslavement and segregation, and hope that the world moves forward to a better, equal future. In connection to socialist realism doctrine, the place for the statue’s presentation was chosen accordingly – on Boston Common, where MLK spoke to the crowds on April 23rd, 1965 (Gamble and Chavez). The statue’s composition was inspired by the photo taken of MLK receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
However, instead of uniting people in admiration and promoting the political message of peace, equality, and inclusivity, the statue served as fuel for the pyre of the existing political and racial divides in the US. One particular piece of controversy was related to how the statue appeared to onlookers, with some individuals seeing an erotic context to the imagery, with hands being intertwined the way they are. Art, in general, tends to be divisive when addressing internal political situations rather than external and generates discussion and social friction. There is a difference in how art was used politically then versus how it is nowadays. Since the fall of the USSR and the decisive victory of the capitalist system over socialism, art started pointing inward instead of outward. Now that a new socialist grassroots has emerged within Western countries, socialist realism might make a renaissance, even if adapted to modern realities, where race and gender become as important as class allegiance.
Works Cited
Gamble, Justin and Nicole Chaves. “A new monument dedicated to MLK and Coretta Scott King sparks debate.” 2023. CNN. Web.
Lahusen, Thomas. How Life Writes the Book: Real socialism and socialist realism in Stalin’s Russia. Cornell University Press, 2019.