Marksizm-leninizm i chudožestvennaja literatura [1933] - [D148]

Concise description of the directive:

In the editorial that opens the third issue of the journal in 1933, it is stated that the strength of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine lies first and foremost in its truth, in its faithfulness, in the fact that it correctly explains reality, the laws of the development of nature and society, profoundly and completely revealing the dialectic of this development. The strength of Marxism-Leninism then lies in the fact that it scientifically shows how history is made, what are its main driving forces, what is the role of each class, of each social stratum. By unveiling the truth of life, Marxism-Leninism has obliterated all those ideological constructions that the exploiting classes have used to conceal it, and has indicated the only right path to a radical transformation and a definitive break with existing social relations, creating a new socialist society that eliminates the exploitation of man over man at the root.
The slogan of socialist realism represents a brilliant application of dialectics to literature. Its depth and acuity lie in its comprehensive understanding of literature’s own tasks. The fundamental requirement of socialist realism is a truthful and realistic representation of reality, based on a profound knowledge of life. To faithfully represent the development of capitalist society is to show the internal contradictions that corrode the foundations of capitalism, the revolutionary struggle of the working class, the developmental tendencies that inevitably lead to the dictatorship of the proletariat, and to demonstrate that objective development is in favour of the proletariat, of socialism.
The second fundamental line in the relationship between Marxism-Leninism and literature, stemming from the first, is the question of the writer’s Marxist-Leninist education. A profound knowledge of our reality, an understanding of the processes of class struggle and the victory of the socialist system, the collection of an enormous amount of concrete material and its complete study on the basis of and in connection with the assimilation of the greatest treasure of human thought, namely Marxism-Leninism: this is the path of the Soviet writer, the path of socialist realism.

Ilaria Aletto, Maria Zavyalova