Worker and Kolkhoznitsa: Soviet Propaganda at Its Best and Biggest

    Vera Mukhina (1889-1953) was a Russian sculptor whose greatest work remains the symbol of ’s largest and oldest film studio, Mosfilm. The statue, entitled Worker and Kolkhoznitsa[1], was created for the 1937 International Exhibition in
Paris
and stands 24 meters tall[2]. Until recently, it enjoyed a place at the All-Soviet Exhibition Centre in
Moscow
, all 75 tons of it projecting the very essence of Soviet propaganda. After restoration is completed, the statue will be put back together and prominently placed, ironically enough, “atop a cinema and cultural complex in Moscow” according to UK-based newspaper, The Independent. Doomed to exude its socialist message from on top of what is essentially a mall, the statue nevertheless remains the product of one of the bloodiest periods in Russian history.

    Without considering the contemporary trends in the arts, it is impossible to understand how a work that displays such an idealized version of reality could have sprung from the widespread terror of the 1930s. The two figures in the sculpture exhibit a mix of triumph, pride, and determination as rigid as the steel that they are made of. Each figure holds aloft a symbol of the Soviet nation, the man a hammer and the woman a sickle. Both figures are full of energy and vitality, striding forward (presumably toward a bright future) against immeasurable forces with steely wills, shoulder to shoulder in their battle. The image suggests that these figures are the average people, everyday members of the working class who, by working together, will triumph after all. But these aren’t average people. Average people were busy being arrested, working in labor camps, and dying of hunger –millions of them- while the rest of the population remained mysteriously enthralled by Stalin’s rhetoric.