Stalin’s Music Prize

Stalin’s Music Prize was more than just 100,000 roubles awards to the best compositions of that year. Frolova-Walker makes the point that “an elite was already in place” for the musicians and composers because they already could afford basic necessities and luxury goods which is a step over the masses (Frolova-Walker, 12). The most important aspect in historical terms of Stalin’s Music Prize is that the Stalin Prize Committee (KSP) by awarding these prizes clearly illustrated what fit the national agenda of the arts. Stalin’s saying, “national in form, but socialist in content” and the concept of socialist realism were the spoken instructions for what Stalin wanted, but the pieces awarded Stalin’s Music Prize were clear examples of what the KSP thought Stalin wanted.

            Yet, the KSP struggled with deciding between praising ideology and aesthetic. On the one hand, ideology was so easy to laud, but those compositions could easily lack aesthetic. On the other hand, aesthetic pieces were masterfully composed and beautiful to listen to, but those pieces if ideology was not shown through words or tone could easily be construed as “formalist” and “Western” and not Soviet enough. Initially the KSP emphasized aesthetic over ideology because they had more autonomy over their choices and most members were traditionalists (17). As the higher members of Soviet bureaucracy became involved including members of the Politburo, the KSP’s sovereignty was usurped because Stalin’s Music Prize could conveniently be used to send messages to artists and as a propaganda tool. When the KSP’s choices were widened to include music as far back as 1935 for their first awardees, they knew that “it would set in stone the canon of Soviet art, and thereby codify Socialist Realism” (48). It was a momentous task that could not be left up to the autonomy of conservative composers and artists.

  1. What criteria encouraged the KSP (and members of the Soviet bureaucracy) to pick certain pieces over others?
  2. How did the differences of Shostakovich’s pieces and the changing politics of each year affect his ability to be granted an award?
  3. Why did the national republics go from winning barely any awards to becoming a “reliable choice” in 1948? (Frolova-Walker, 180)

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