Art and Nationalism in Soviet Armenia

Abstract

Before the events of the Thaw, Stalin's regime was totalitarian and highly restrictive of cultural expression. This was particularly true in the non-Russian republics of the Soviet Union. After Stalin's death in 1953 and Khrushchev's policies, there was an easing of restriction and increased cultural exchange with the West, known as the Thaw. The comparative freedom of the thaw led to new artistic movements like Nonconformism, which asserted individual expression and modernist aesthetics in contrast to the Stalinist style of Socialist Realism. The freedom that came from the events of the Thaw and Khrushchev's policies also led to a cultural revival in Soviet Armenia. The Armenian Nonconformist movement coincided with the rise of nationalism in Soviet Armenia, where artists focused on generating art rooted in their culture and minimized the political critique and aesthetic experimentation found in the centers of Moscow and Leningrad. Armenian artists of the Thaw looked to their cultural roots in religion, literature, and landscape for inspiration in their new art. The influence of Western Modernism is evident in the style but there is always a distinctive Armenian content.