Why did the Stalin era, a period characterized by bureaucratic control and the reign of Socialist Realism in the arts, witness such an extraordinary upsurge of musical creativity and the prominence of musicians in the cultural elite? This is one of the questions that Kiril Tomoff seeks to answer in Creative Union, the first book about any of the professional unions that dominated Soviet cultural life at the time. Drawing on hitherto untapped archives, he shows how the Union of Soviet Composers established control over the music profession and negotiated the relationship between composers and the Communist Party leadership. Central to Tomoff's argument is the institutional authority and prestige that the musical profession accrued and deployed within Soviet society, enabling musicians to withstand the postwar disciplinary campaigns that were so crippling in other artistic and literary spheres.

Most accounts of Soviet musical life focus on famous individuals or the campaign against Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth and Zhdanov's postwar attack on musical formalism. Tomoff's approach, while not downplaying these notorious events, shows that the Union was able to develop and direct a musical profession that enjoyed enormous social prestige. The Union's leadership was able to use its expertise to determine the criteria of musical value with a degree of independence. Tomoff's book reveals the complex and mutable interaction of creative intelligentsia and political elite in a period hitherto characterized as one of totalitarian control.

About the Author

Kiril Tomoff is Professor of History at the University of California, Riverside. He is the author of Virtuosi Abroad: Soviet Music and Imperial Competition during the Early Cold War, 1945-1958 and Creative Union: The Professional Organization of Soviet Composers, 1939-1953, both from Cornell.

Reviews

Tomoff deftly challenges the mythology of the martyred Soviet artist. His thoroughly researched study explores not only the institutional structures and bureaucratic processes of the Composers' Union but also the personal and professional networks within it that protected members and preserved artistic values. Tomoff ably balances high politics and personal relationships to show how Soviet composers successfully negotiated shifting ideological terrain.... This study provides a much-needed corrective to the traditional interpretation of Stalinist musical life and makes an important contribution to Russian cultural and political history. It will fascinate all those interested in the complex relationship between music, society, and the wielders of political power.

* Russian Review *

Impressive.... Tomoff has given us both detail and a broad new way of thinking about the mechanisms of Soviet ideological control. It undermines many of the broad, standardized approaches to Soviet culture and provides a nuanced appreciation of the opportunities and constraints that shaped Soviet music during the years when Stalin was alive. It is a text that should be read by anyone interested in the cultural dynamics of the Soviet Union.

* European History Quarterly *

Tomoff's book is precisely the kind that historians of Soviet musical culture most need right now: a repository of solid documented facts, interpreted with a light touch that strives only to outline general observations from the evidence he presents.... It is invaluable to have such a wealth of concrete detail at one's fingertips at long last.

* Music and Letters *

Tomoff's most significant achievement is to have taken full advantage of newly opened archives: the argument in each of his ten chapters is backed up by exhaustive documentation from previously unpublished sources.... [A] considerable contribution to the field of Soviet cultural history.... Musicologists and historians have much cause to be grateful to the author for the assiduous way in which he has compiled the detailed case study presented here.

* The Journal of Modern History *

This excellent book fills an important void in the diverse and growing body of literature on Stalinist culture.... Based on diligent, exhaustive archival research in Moscow, this study also develops a sophisticated conceptual apparatus.... Remarkably well researched, with every minute detail of the composers' everyday life and work duly clarified and placed in its proper context.... An excellent and innovative book that explains many intricate facts related to the functioning of Stalinist culture. It will be read widely by historians of the Soviet Union and historians of music.

* Ab Imperio *

A level-headed yet provocative examination of the creation, structure, and workings of the Composers' Union in the USSR at the end of the Stalin period. Tomoff provides the most detailed discussion thus far of the official organization that allowed Soviet composers and musicologists to practice their trades, and the sobriety with which he evaluates his rich archival materials is much appreciated.... A valuable contribution to our understanding of musical production in the USSR; it will undoubtedly help foster productive debate about the politics and practices of the Composers' Union and Soviet music in general.

* The American Historical Review *

A fascinating read.

* American Journal of Sociology *

One of the finest books written on Soviet music life. This work will be of interest not only to specialists on Soviet musical life but also to those who want to gain an insight into the relationship between artists and organs of state and into how an elite was created and perpetuated during the Stalin period. Creative Union is therefore a book that successfully challenges long-held preconceptions about Soviet musical life in the period 1939-1953.

* Slavic Review *

Kiril Tomoff's Creative Union represents a milestone in the literature on the musical life of the Stalin-era Soviet Union by addressing for the first time the need for a comprehensive study of the Soviet Composers' Union. An excellent and most welcome study of an institution that stood as one of the cornerstones of Soviet musical life. Many a scholar will benefit from Tomoff's excellent work, particularly those interested in broad issues of music and politics, as well as those concerned with more specific issues of Stalinist culture and the enormous impact of World War II on Soviet cultural life.

* Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association *

Tomoff's detailed interpretation moves brilliantly beyond the heroic narrative and disaggregates the idea of a unified 'state' to tell the story of Soviet music production in a much broader and complicated context. In analyzing the evolving relationship between artistic production and political power in the USSR, Tomoff provides a fresh and convincing account of the intricate workings of the post-war Stalinist system.

* Social History *



Book Information
ISBN 9781501731211
Author Kiril Tomoff
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 907g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 155mm * 19mm