SHADOWS
OF SOCIALIST REALISM

The starting point for the formation of the Soviet literature language can be considered the First Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934, when the socialistic realism was declared the main method. For the project, documentary accuracy is important and the preserved photographs of the congress served as the source material for my graphics. It is impossible to consider this project in isolation from the historical context, it is well known that a huge number of the Congress participants were subsequently repressed, passed through the camps or were shot. A series of artwork reveals the emotionality of persons in one of the most terrible and tense periods of totalitarianism. These are the smiles and applause of the writers and literature critics of Stalin era, shortly before the peak of the mass purges