Soviet Monuments

[Mercury]

Does anyone else find that a lot of old soviet monuments ironically remind them of capitalism? I guess a lot of them are in the romantic style, but have a look at these and tell me you don't think of capitalism, or at least objectivist aesthetic principles when you see them:

[dark_unicorn]

After reading "Das Kapital" for the second time I can tell you that Karl Marx was probably one of the most blatant plagarists of Adam Smith's view of economics (meshed with his own secular version of the Old Testament and Medievalist Lutheran mysticism) to serve the end of destroying it. In the same respect you could kind of argue that the artists and architects who created these monuments were plagarizing egoistic romantic art in the interest of destroying the soul of a people that may well have aspired to something better than what they recieved when the Czars fell.

[StarBuck]

Such statues also defy the basics of Marxism in praising the individual.

[dark_unicorn]

Such statues also defy the basics of Marxism in praising the individual.

Contradictions are common in most forms of irrationalism, be them secular or religious. Plus, I've also read that alot of the Soviet Marxists (Josef Stalin included) were also heavily influenced by Czarism, particularly the doctrine of absolute power, which would explain the arcane nature of alot of these statues. Although these statues appear heavily romantic, they also have a tinge of a "tyrannical" soul about them, something which I don't personal think is fitting of Romantic Art.

[StarBuck]

We are talking about Communism, in the land of Ivan the Terrible led by Stalin-the paranoid schytsophrenic (sp) bookie from Hell.

In all seriousness, the only one that seems Marxist is the first one as a man and woman are presented together.

It may also be to to simple, unconquered artists trying to remake the classics in Russia. I wonder if there was opposition to sculpture the way there was to literature in the USSR?

As for a tyrannical soul, you're probably right. I for one can't tell if something is soviet or nazi art without a flag in the background.

[dark_unicorn]

As for a tyrannical soul, you're probably right. I for one can't tell if something is soviet or nazi art without a flag in the background.

Or the various monarchs that preceded them. Tyranny is something that is all too common in human history. Individual rights, by way of contrast, has been a short-lived island in an ocean of collectivism, tribalism and statism.

Edited February 9, 2006 by dark_unicorn