Figure 3: Gerasimov, Aleksandr (1881-1963). I.V. Stalin and K.E. Voroshilov in the Kremlin After Rain, 1938. Oil on canvas, 296 x 386 cm. The State Tretyakov Gallery.
We can see how Stalin’s height is amplified n the painting of him and the leader of the Red Army, Kliment Voroshilov (fig. 3). In this painting, we see Stalin and Voroshilov taking a walk in the Kremlin, with the Kremlin towers and a panorama of Moscow in the background. Again, we can see the ‘utopian gaze’ on Stalin’s face: the furrowed eyebrows and the narrowed eyes, staring into a point far outside the dimensions of the canvas. Another striking feature of this painting however, is the height of Stalin. He is depicted as the taller man due to his position of being closer to …show more content…
If art has the power to mould our beliefs, a viewer of such paintings would get an image of Stalin as a wise leader – reinforcing that aspect of Stalin’s cult of personality. However, one should remember that the same effect could be achieved by photographs and posters. They are far more easier and quicker to create, and can be mass produced in great amounts to saturate the public space. At the time of Stalin’s cult of personality, photography was already widely used (“History of Photography”). It is also known that photomontage was prominent in the Soviet Union at that time, which meant that images could be manipulated to a much greater extent, to for example depict Stalin as a taller man, and produced in the thousands to be spread all around factories, schools, libraries and other public places (Gough 140). Thus, it becomes evident that despite the fact that socialist realism paintings might have done a good job in depicting Stalin as a wise leader, they were by far not the only medium that did so.
IV. Stalin as the father of all people
Anita Pisch argues that to be perceived as an authority, it important for the leader to be seen as a father to the people of his country (226). Thus, another archetype of Stalin’s cult of personality was born – Stalin as the father of all …show more content…
Vladimirskiy’s painting “Roses for I.V. Stalin” (fig. 5) shows Stalin surrounded by a group of children. In the background, we see trees and nature, and a body of water at the very back. The sun is shining, which creates a white shimmer around Stalin, who is dressed in all white, making him seem pure and almost like a saint or a godly being. One of the boys is giving him a bouquet of roses, a gesture that signifies gratefulness to someone who has protected you (Pisch 232). One boy has Stalin’s fatherly hand affectionately placed on his shoulders and is seen gazing up towards his face. The children look happy, but mostly they look like they are in great awe. While the gazes of all the children are fixed on their leader’s face, Stalin himself has the familiar utopian