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music according to soviet musicologists, is characterized by the original orchestras that are noble
in spirit and free of external effects (Olson). Amateur folk choruses on the other hand, have adopted
an aspect of the urban pop music. While these choruses are quick to taint the nature of Russian
high art, therefore, professional folk music is used as a restraint tool that enhances the spread of
Russian literature, ballet and culture. Several writings about Russian folk are considered a part of
the high art but they insist that professional control most be exercised to prevent crassness and
decadence (Olson). Pure Soviet folk has been tasteful over time and is oblivious of the vulgarity
that defines low art and this is one feature that folk and high art have in common.
Socialistic Realism and Social Realism
Social realism in the 19
th
century, was defined as a narrative technique in literature which
attempted to describe life without romantic subjectivity and idealization. This technique was not
limited to any particular sect of writers or century but it is mostly associated with the 19
th
century
movement in France whereby French novelists such as Balzac and Flaubert where the main
players. It is a style of writing that has been hailed for its efforts to record actual life in a faithful
manner within the middle and lower economic classes (Forrest). It is therefore a theory of fidelity
to nature that is meant to discredit the literary idealization that is associated with modern life.
Socialistic realism on the other hand, was a literary technique that was meant to record life
but it was defamed on the grounds of producing artistically stunted tales. Unlike realism, this
concept was borrowed from Russian beliefs. The Russian society was revolutionary at the time,
where fiction was either embraced or rejected depending on the power of the word. The coveted
form of social reality was underpinned by the writer’s ability to apply Soviet communism and
international Marxism in a way that could hide the collective and personal frustrations such that
life could be expressed as a gratifying tale.
