Dr Natalia Murray, co-curator of ‘Revolution: Russian Art 1917-32’, explores how visual art was used to propagate revolutionary and Communist ideas in the aftermath of the Russian revolution.

The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 aimed to destroy the old bourgeois society and build a new, homogenous socialist state. Overnight becoming the ruling party in Russia, the Bolsheviks aimed to use the power of mass propaganda to establish their founding mythology and disseminate their ideas to an overwhelmingly rural and illiterate population. The leader of the new Bolshevik state, Vladimir Lenin, proclaimed that culture should support political needs, which effectively meant that all culture was now viewed as propaganda. The Bolshevik regime also believed that culture should not be for a privileged minority, but should be of mass appeal, promoting a so-called “proletarian” art.

In this talk Dr Natalia Murray (The Courtauld Institute of Art) looks at the Bolsheviks’ employment of visual art, such as revolutionary slogans and monumental sculpture, for their propaganda and the first expressions of “proletarian” art after the revolution.

Doors open at 12.30pm. Unclaimed seats will be released to those waiting for returns at 12.55pm. No admittance will be granted after 1pm.