Jana Howlett (University of Cambridge)
The Politburo and the 1948 Revival of Attacks on ‘Anti-artistic’ Phenomena in Culture
This paper looks at the precedents for the 1948 Politburo Decree 'On V.
Muradeli's Opera Great Friendship'. It argues that the subject-matter
of the decree has little to do with the opera (or Stalin's visit to the
Bolshoi which preceded the decree). Instead it is the context of the
economic and political situation in 1948 which prompts the Politburo to
return to matters 'artistic'.
