The growing prominence of women as active members of Russian society paralleled the heightened depiction of women in art and portraiture during the Petrine era. Peter sought to westernize Russia, which made it necessary to shift Russia’s attitudes towards women. As Lindsey Hughes notes: “he must have reasoned…that it was no use creating a new breed of men…to represent Russia abroad without also reforming their wives on the model which he had observed in Europe.” (Hughes,187) In bringing European artists to Russia, it became inevitable for these artists’ more “western” views on women to permeate into their portraits and depictions of Russian women. Yet, it is difficult to tell whether the increasing prominence of women in art was a passive result of the increasing prominence of women in society, or an active and deliberate move to shift Russia’s views on women.
Similarly, Stalin used his depictions in art to legitimize his reign, yet it is unclear how much the art passively documented, or actively shaped, the attitudes of the time. Perhaps the two processes fed into each other simultaneously. As art was used to normalize Stalinization, Evgenii Evtushenko used poetry as a means to normalize De-Stalinization. He wrote, “the halls where people listen to poetry are crowded. The Party ordered me not to be quiet,” (Evtushenko, Web) thereby implying a deliberate move to use poetry to shift people’s attitudes against Stalin.
The prominence of women in society and the prominence of women in paintings paralleled each other in the Petrine era, just as Stalin’s rise to — and fall from — power were reflected in how art depicted him, but was the art created in these periods of change a reflection of the shifting cultural views, or a calculated method to shift cultural views? More broadly, how does art serve to normalize and institute new and unconventional ideas? Is art more the product or the cause of cultural reform?
