Soviet propaganda was the true aim behind what came to be called Socialist Realism art. It amounted to nothing more than an advertisement glorifying the Soviet Union, showing the endlessly positive and - usually totally unrealistic - smiling images of workers in the fields, scenes of bountiful agricultural production, and an urban proletariat that was always to be "the vanguard of the working people."
Of course, one could never forget another essential element in Socialist Realism: life size or often even larger than life-size representations of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Joseph Stalin. One of the most iconic paintings of Stalin, entitled "Roses For Stalin", painted by a Kyiv-born artist Boris Yeremeyevych Vladimirsky, shows Stalin, the man who was known to have been personally responsible for millions of deaths, surrounded by adoring children who are presenting him with a rose bouquet.
Size was an important part of all art of this period; monumental artworks were created in the form of paintings, sculptures and posters. Socialist Realism became state policy in 1932, controlling the personal artistic expression of artists and sculptures through almost the entire Soviet period.
The life of the proletariat was the focal point of communist ideals and the subject matter used by artists, moving rapidly away from the aristocratic art of the Russian tsars. If artists broke away from these ideals or refused to employ them, they could be inviting a long visit to the labor camps of Siberia.
Morgan Williams, an American who has been collecting Soviet Art and nurturing Ukrainian Art for many years has a fascination for the history associated with the collecting process. He has many paintings as well as posters and postcards on the subject.
Some of William's paintings come from the Soviet period with its idealization of its leaders and communist ideas. However, since beginning his work related to Ukraine in the early 1990s, Williams has become passionately interested in the country's history as well as concerned that many stories have still to be told. He is particularly interested in the Holodomor (induced famine; genocide) 1932-33, that time in Ukraine's history that, according to Williams, was swept under the carpet and not talked about and not even properly recorded.
Williams' intense interest in Ukraine is all the more peculiar since he grew up in America's agricultural heartland of Kansas and is, as he says, "100 per cent Welsh and makes no claim of Ukrainian roots." After beginning his career managing a farm cooperative in Kansas, he eventually went on to the national political scene in Washington, where he served on the staff of Sen. Bob Dole prior to long years working in non-governmental agricultural development organizations. His NGO work took him to many countries, including India, Egypt, Indonesia and Haiti, before his 14 years direct involvement with Ukraine and to a lesser extent, Russia.
"Because I was studying and researching famines and food shortages, I naturally became more interested in events like the Great Famine in Ukraine and wanted to find out how it happened," Williams said. "Through my studies, I came to understand that food shortages, usually attributed to drought, are more often caused by bad economic systems and bad politicians."
Several million people died during Ukraine's great famine of 1932-33 while businesses, universities, farms and private property were taken away from their rightful owners and made state property. During 1929-35, people were arrested and their land taken; many millions were killed in the process of solidifying communist control of the economy.
In Ukraine, control of the population was organized through control of all land and its organization into what the communists thought of as farm factories, i.e. the collective farms. Although there were fits and starts, over the period from 1918 to 1937 the whole of Ukraine's rich agricultural land was brought under state control. The kurkuls [successful private farmers, many of whom remained anti-Soviet] are often represented in the art of the period, particularly agricultural paintings, in a highly negative way because of their steadfast opposition to the state's appropriation of their land.
 Most of the paintings portray the kurkuls looking on unhappily as their farms were made part of the Moscow-controlled Soviet agricultural system. The artists of the period usually portrayed a kurkul as an old man with an expression that was sour or evil-looking, often with a broken wooden plow or old horse, while collective farm workers were always portrayed happily clustered around a tractor, the symbol of communist mechanization of the formerly private farms. Happy kolhozniks, bitter kurkuls and the fluttering red flag of Soviet Communism were the staples of virtually every agricultural painting for many decades.
Of course, propaganda, not truth, was the purpose of Socialist Realism art, so the truth lay hidden for many years. However, occasionally one did find a bit of truth conveyed in subtle ways. Even after the death of Stalin and the relatively enlightened period that followed, there was still repression in the 50's and 60's with people trying to protest against it. Nina Marchenko, a Ukrainian artist with whom the authorities were not enamored, often conveyed truths in her painting, particularly in "Registering Collective Farmers" [1985, oil on canvas, 179x239]. In this artwork, she is clearly showing the viewer that some unpleasant things did happen when people were being registered for collective farming. The farmer is clearly being coerced by a Communist party apparatchik. In the work by V. Nasedkin, "Signing up for the Collective Farm," Lenin's portrait is framed in Christmas decorations, obviously a sly way for the artist to remind those with sharp eyes that in spite of decades of official atheism, the always-stubborn Ukrainians were still Christian believers. These painters were brave in breaking certain rules to get their message across.
As Williams has become more involved in the history of the country, he has particularly learned more about the art he collects. "When I was quite young, I was interested in becoming a historian, but later followed economics and business studies. However, history is still my first love and I sometimes think studying history at university might have better prepared me for my interests today," he said.
When Williams became interested in Socialist Realism, he found that during the Soviet era the government purchased huge numbers of artworks, some of which hung in government offices, some in museums while other pieces were distributed to collective farms. After the Soviet breakup, much of the art in official hands stayed put, but much that was in the hands of collectives eventually made it into the market place. Over a period of time, Williams has bought most of his collection from private sources, although he says that now the task of finding good quality pieces has become more difficult.
Williams pointed out that many the painters of this Soviet period were quite good in their techniques and methods, but their talents were clearly subverted to serve political rather than artistic ends. For example, Vladimir Krikhalsky was a great painter whose artistic abilities were used for such purposes as commemorating the first Fordson tractor that was imported, copied and then manufactured in the Soviet Union with no payment for or attribution as to the western sources of its design and technologies.
In spite of disappointment with the lack of progress in some areas, Williams' enthusiasm for Ukraine and its art remain undiminished. "This is such a great country and I want to focus the rest of my career here. It has many similarities to Kansas; there is a focus on bringing about freedom with a passion."
Those interested in seeing other examples of Socialist Realism are advised to visit the Russian Art Museum, 9 Tereschenkovskaya st, Kyiv as well as examples of sculpture around Kyiv.
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