DOI Artikel:
Kachurin, Pamela Jill: Purchasing power: the state as art patron in early Soviet Russia
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48915#0175
170
Pamela Jill Kachurin
contributing to the decoration of the cities on new Soviet holidays, and the painting of
agitational trains, which rolled across rural Russia distributing Bolshevik propaganda.
The activity of the Purchasing Commission is one example of supposed State support
of Futurism. The Purchasing Commission was founded in 1918 and functioned within
the Museum Bureau of IZO until July 1921. The history of the short-lived Purchasing
Commission, however, can be seen as a case study of the application of a repressive arts
policy in early Soviet Russia, in contradiction to the stated policy of neutrality towards all
artistic trends and activities.
Many scholars concur that repression of Futurism, and indeed of all non-realist artistic
trends, began in the mid-1920s.3 Archival materials reveal, however, that the Soviet
government actively began the marginalization of the Russian avant-garde as early
as 1919, with the banning of Futurist participation in the November 1919 Anniversary
celebrations. Despite an official policy of tolerance and encouragement of all artistic
trends, it is elear that by the end of the civil war in 1920, when the Communist Party and
high-ranking government officials were finally in a position to attend to matters of artistic
culture, they chose a path of repression rather than of equal opportunity.
In this article, it will be shown that the Purchasing Commission, because of
its association with Futurism, became a target of conservative, anti-Futurist criticism
within Communist Party ranks, and received a large measure of the State’s hostility during
its battle for proletarian culture. However, it will also be argued that the Futurists them-
selves instigated the attacks, sińce, on the whole, they ceaselessly promoted themselves
and their art as true “proletarian art” and the official art of the new State.
Although IZO was organized within Narkompros in March 1918, it had neither
an operating budget nor employees until July 1918.4 Artists who had been opposed to
working within Bolshevik institutions as recently as April 1918 slowly began to join the
Moscow and Petrograd branches of IZO. The conditions created by the civil war in Spring
and Summer 1918 partially explain this reversal.
From the moment the Bolsheviks assumed power in October 1917, many factions
plotted its demise. The so-called ‘White’ movement, composed of tsarist loyalists and
other anti-Bolshevik groups, had already confronted the Reds in October 1917
in Petrograd, and by the following Spring the new Soviet government was engaged in a
complex battle with a yariety of opponents to the south, east, and north.5 At the beginning
of 1918, Russia faced famine. Food rations in Petrograd and Moscow had dropped to one
tenth of the calories needed to sustain working adults;6 robberies, strikes and murders
were rampant in the cities due to extreme shortages of food and fueL By the Spring,
thousands of people had already died of starvation.7 To combat an upswell of anti-
Bolshevik sentiment due to the war and privations, Lenin established the ‘All Russia
Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter Revolution and Sabotage’, better known
as the ‘Cheka’, on December 7, 1917. The Cheka was given unlimited powers to “terrorize
the enemies of the Soviet government in order to stop crime at its inception.” As Michael
3 See J. BOWLT, “Introduction,” in J. BOWLT, ed., Russian Art ofthe Avant-Garde: Theoryand Criticism, New York, 1988.
4 B. LINCOLN, Red Yictory: A History ofthe Russian Civil War, New York, 1989, p. 55.
5 E. MAWDSLEY, “The Civil War: 1917-1921,” in Harold Shukman, ed., The Blackwell
Encyclopedia ofthe Russian Revolution, Oxford, 1988, p. 142.
6 LINCOLN, op. cit. p. 55.
7 ibid., p. 135.
Pamela Jill Kachurin
contributing to the decoration of the cities on new Soviet holidays, and the painting of
agitational trains, which rolled across rural Russia distributing Bolshevik propaganda.
The activity of the Purchasing Commission is one example of supposed State support
of Futurism. The Purchasing Commission was founded in 1918 and functioned within
the Museum Bureau of IZO until July 1921. The history of the short-lived Purchasing
Commission, however, can be seen as a case study of the application of a repressive arts
policy in early Soviet Russia, in contradiction to the stated policy of neutrality towards all
artistic trends and activities.
Many scholars concur that repression of Futurism, and indeed of all non-realist artistic
trends, began in the mid-1920s.3 Archival materials reveal, however, that the Soviet
government actively began the marginalization of the Russian avant-garde as early
as 1919, with the banning of Futurist participation in the November 1919 Anniversary
celebrations. Despite an official policy of tolerance and encouragement of all artistic
trends, it is elear that by the end of the civil war in 1920, when the Communist Party and
high-ranking government officials were finally in a position to attend to matters of artistic
culture, they chose a path of repression rather than of equal opportunity.
In this article, it will be shown that the Purchasing Commission, because of
its association with Futurism, became a target of conservative, anti-Futurist criticism
within Communist Party ranks, and received a large measure of the State’s hostility during
its battle for proletarian culture. However, it will also be argued that the Futurists them-
selves instigated the attacks, sińce, on the whole, they ceaselessly promoted themselves
and their art as true “proletarian art” and the official art of the new State.
Although IZO was organized within Narkompros in March 1918, it had neither
an operating budget nor employees until July 1918.4 Artists who had been opposed to
working within Bolshevik institutions as recently as April 1918 slowly began to join the
Moscow and Petrograd branches of IZO. The conditions created by the civil war in Spring
and Summer 1918 partially explain this reversal.
From the moment the Bolsheviks assumed power in October 1917, many factions
plotted its demise. The so-called ‘White’ movement, composed of tsarist loyalists and
other anti-Bolshevik groups, had already confronted the Reds in October 1917
in Petrograd, and by the following Spring the new Soviet government was engaged in a
complex battle with a yariety of opponents to the south, east, and north.5 At the beginning
of 1918, Russia faced famine. Food rations in Petrograd and Moscow had dropped to one
tenth of the calories needed to sustain working adults;6 robberies, strikes and murders
were rampant in the cities due to extreme shortages of food and fueL By the Spring,
thousands of people had already died of starvation.7 To combat an upswell of anti-
Bolshevik sentiment due to the war and privations, Lenin established the ‘All Russia
Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter Revolution and Sabotage’, better known
as the ‘Cheka’, on December 7, 1917. The Cheka was given unlimited powers to “terrorize
the enemies of the Soviet government in order to stop crime at its inception.” As Michael
3 See J. BOWLT, “Introduction,” in J. BOWLT, ed., Russian Art ofthe Avant-Garde: Theoryand Criticism, New York, 1988.
4 B. LINCOLN, Red Yictory: A History ofthe Russian Civil War, New York, 1989, p. 55.
5 E. MAWDSLEY, “The Civil War: 1917-1921,” in Harold Shukman, ed., The Blackwell
Encyclopedia ofthe Russian Revolution, Oxford, 1988, p. 142.
6 LINCOLN, op. cit. p. 55.
7 ibid., p. 135.