“Holiday on the collective farm named after. Ilyich." 1938-1939 Canvas, oil. 387 x 628 cm.
“Holiday on the collective farm named after. Ilyich." Sketch. Canvas, oil.
State Central Museum modern history Russia (Central Museum of the Revolution), Moscow.
The painting was sent to the World Exhibition in the USA (1939). Upon returning from overseas, it was exhibited in the main pavilion of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition and was later transferred to the Museum of the Revolution.
The presence of petty-bourgeois relations in the sphere of agricultural production did not fit into the system of socialist doctrines. In this regard, at the 15th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1927, the country's leadership set a course for the collectivization of agriculture. The essence of the collectivization policy was to replace private property with collective (collective farm) property. The practical implementation of the collectivization course took place with gross violations of democratic norms. Peasants were forced into collective farms under the threat of repression. Not only the land was socialized, but also agricultural implements, small livestock, and poultry. By the beginning of the 1930s, there were practically no individual farms left in the country.
Already in the first years of collectivization, the collective farm form of agricultural production showed its extreme inefficiency. Grain production fell sharply, and meat and dairy production fell almost to zero. The famine that struck the country (especially Ukraine and the Volga region) was objectively generated by the collectivization policy.
Against this background, several “model” collective farms stood out clearly. They were used to make illustrations for unbridled propaganda, the press was choking with enthusiastic articles and benevolent essays. In the 1930s-1960s, many songs, films and books told about the good and friendly work of collective farmers, where the heroes were satisfied with their lives and work.
At the end of the 30s, the collective farm named after Ilyich, Dobrinsky district, Voronezh region, was known throughout the USSR. In 1938, the collective farm was visited by the correspondent of the magazine “Our Country”, the future political observer of “Pravda” and Hero of Socialist Labor Yuri Aleksandrovich ZHUKOV (1908-1991).
“Early in the morning, with a passing car, I go to the collective farm... Large buildings of the collective farm are already visible ahead. Two electric motors pump water for a large collective farm. Vast buildings of collective farms and new houses of collective farmers built this year are visible. Behind them is a large orchard. Nearby is a collective farm hippodrome for purebred trotters, which are bred here. The hospitable collective farm livestock breeder proudly leads us to a long stable. Above the entrance is a sculptural image of a horse’s head and the inscription “Breeding horse farm of the collective farm named after Ilyich”...". On the collective farm, the journalist was shown white English pigs weighing 450 kilograms. At the dairy farm, the guest saw “Simmental purebred cows, which produced an average of 2,400 liters of milk in a dry year,” “zealous owners built a cheese factory, a creamery, a sausage factory, and a mill on the collective farm.”
In the same 1938, shortly before Zhukov’s visit, the collective farm was visited by famous Moscow artists Boris Vladimirovich IOGANSON and Pyotr Dmitrievich POKARZHEVSKY. The guests got to know the collective farmers and their lives. They visited a school, a farm, a nursery, and visited the fields. The artists made several sketches. Later, Ioganson created the monumental painting “Harvest Festival on the Ilyich Collective Farm,” which was originally titled “Life has become better, life has become more fun.”
"Life has become better, life has become happier!" - a common version of the phrase uttered by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks I.V. STALIN on November 17, 1935, in a speech at the First All-Union Meeting of Stakhanovite Workers. The full phrase sounded like this: “Life has become better, comrades. Life has become more fun. And when life is fun, the work progresses... If life in our country was bad, unsightly, sad, then we wouldn’t have any Stakhanovist movement.”
FRIKH-HAR Isidor Grigorievich (1893-1978) “Life has become better, life has become more fun (Holiday on an Azerbaijani collective farm).” 1939
Majolica. 153 x 265 cm.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
Life has become better, comrades, life has become more fun, and when life is fun, work goes smoothly- a common version of the phrase uttered by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, I.V. Stalin, on November 17, 1935, in a speech at the First All-Union Meeting of Workers and Workers - Stakhanovites. The full phrase sounded like this: “Life has become better, comrades. Life has become more fun. And when life is fun, work progresses... If life in our country was bad, unsightly, sad, then we wouldn’t have any Stakhanovist movement.” .
use
No later than 1936, the phrase was enshrined in the chorus of the song “Life has become better, life has become more fun” (words by V. I. Lebedev-Kumach):
Calls like birds, one after another,
Songs fly over the Soviet country.
The melody of cities and fields is merry -
Life has become better, life has become more fun!
“This slogan is on all banners, posters, banners.”
"The most beautiful flowers, the most best combinations The workers of Leningrad selected colors for two endlessly repeated slogans: “Life has become better, comrades!” Life has become more fun,” “Thank you, Comrade Stalin, for a happy and joyful life!”
in art
sources
- Glebkin V. Ritual in Soviet culture. - M.: Janus-K, 1998.
Life has become better, life has become happier
From the speech of J.V. Stalin (1878-1953) at the First All-Union Conference of Stakhanovites (November 17, 1935): “Life has become better, comrades. Life has become more fun." Further, the party leader continued: “And when life is fun, work goes well... If our life was bad, unattractive, sad, then we would not have any Stakhanov movement.”
In modern speech, it is usually quoted ironically - about unfavorable life circumstances.
Encyclopedic Dictionary of winged words and expressions. - M.: “Locked-Press”. Vadim Serov. 2003.
Books
- "Light at the end of the barrel". Works in 5 volumes. Volume 5, Aleshkovsky Yuz. “The generosity of Yuzov’s gift was expressed in the amount of what he wrote and composed, in the number of readers and admirers he made happy. Thanks to well-known events, Yuzov’s work came out of...
- Valentin Gaft. Favorites, Valentin Gaft. This collection includes selected works by Valentin Gaft in a stunning performance by the great artist. Collection of poems “There’s no escape from thoughts” Childhood, flies, sea, ashes... about everything... audiobook
- Life has become better, life has become happier! , Valentin Gaft. A stunning one-man show by Valentin Gaft! …I was having a dream. He was so strange, I couldn't invent him. Here, in the seductive fog, Stalin made an appointment for me, came, sat down on...
The period from 1935 to 1940 is known in Russian history as a time of relative commodity abundance. It was then, in 1935, that Stalin, speaking at the First All-Union Meeting of Stakhanovite workers and workers, declared: “Life has become better, comrades. Life has become more fun."
At this time, the food industry increased production volumes at an accelerated pace. Modern meat processing plants, fish canning plants, refrigerators, dairies, agricultural processing plants, and glass container manufacturing plants were built.
At the end of 1935, Resolution No. 1462 of the People's Commissariat of Internal Trade of the USSR “On the use of advertising methods to expand trade turnover” was published, marking the beginning of the creation of a new centralized advertising system that replaced the market element of the NEP. In the same year, the first Soviet rules for the maintenance of shop windows and signs were approved.
On February 1, 1936, Torgsin was abolished. The vacated premises were reconstructed and Gastronom stores were located in them. We have launched the production of commercial equipment and elements of external and internal decoration for state and cooperative stores.
In February, an Advertising Bureau was created under the Gostorgizdat of the People's Commissariat of Internal Trade of the USSR. Posters, leaflets, playbills, labels, directories, radio advertising, illuminated stands, illuminated advertising, advertising on trams, rental of poster stands, outdoor advertising - all this was the responsibility of the Advertising Bureau. In the same 1936, issues regarding the procedure for spending funds on advertising were resolved - advertising costs were approved in the amount of 0.1% of turnover.
At the end of 1937, the People's Commissariat of Internal Trade created the all-Union office "Soyuzkreklamtorg", designed to serve the economic organizations of the People's Commissariat system with all types of advertising, produce and sell advertising inventory and equipment. At the same time, by merging the Advertising Bureau of the USSR Narkopischeprom and the advertising department of the Main Perfumer, the Soyuzpischepromreklama office was created. Experienced professional artists were recruited in large numbers to work at the newly created advertising enterprises.
Posters and outdoor advertising introduced customers to all the new trade products that were produced in abundance at that time: packaged meat and butter, pasteurized bottled milk, natural juices, fruit waters, dumplings, ice cream, crackers, sausages, processed cheese, bouillon cubes, mayonnaise, ketchup, figured chocolate.
The most effective posters were selected from a variety of printing products from advertising factories and transferred to plywood firewalls using stencils. At the same time, of course, the posters had to be greatly enlarged and sometimes the composition had to be changed, adjusted to the size and configuration of the wall.
This scaling often led to the most unexpected results. Thus, a poster by the artist of the Soyuzpischepromreklama plant, S. Prokoptsev, from 1938, depicting a pike and a suckling pig with a jar of mayonnaise, when enlarged and transferred to the wall, not only multiplied the inherent tastelessness of it, but also gave birth to creepy, frightening monsters. Five-story “gastronomy victims” advertise the mayonnaise they should be consumed with.
The curtailment of trade advertising began in 1940, simultaneously with the emergence of problems in supplying the population with food and industrial goods caused by preparations for war. With the outbreak of the war, all advertising activities in the USSR were completely stopped.
The article uses materials from the books:
This phrase is always relevant for our country. It was and is, and most likely will be. An outstanding personality, no matter how you treat her, and no matter how she glorifies herself, differs from mediocrity in that she speaks with imperishable speeches. So this phrase, one way or another, resonates with Russians. Simply, in different periods life of the country it was perceived differently. It’s literally like the joy of a sunny day, when a bright future full of hope loomed happy life. Well, maybe not for everyone, maybe someone won’t live to live, but for their children certainly. And then the chest filled with enthusiasm, and Komsomol enthusiasm flared up in the eyes. “United, the country grows and sings, and with song forges new happiness. If you look at the sun, the sun becomes brighter. Life has become better, life has become more fun.”
And at other times, it was already perceived as a vestige of some kind of yesterday’s life, full of youthful illusions that already looked stupid in the stagnant, gray everyday life.
But even today, this phrase is relevant. The truth is revealed to her, already some kind of mocking meaning. After all, what has become better is perceived not in comparison with the past, but in comparison with the best - with comfortable Europe. Yes, and when it comes to more fun, Comedy Club can’t beat it either. But, on a personal level, “more fun” is annoying. It is perceived as the need to constantly be on our toes and fight for life. Won't relax. There's a pensioner in Novosibirsk having fun. For an increase in my pennies, I came to the Minister of Labor and Social Development with rope and soap, matches, salt, and with the words: “There are no words how grateful I am for the increase in pension of 89 rubles from the minister! Here is a gift, I present the increase for the amount of the increase” - “The melody of the cities and fields is cheerful - life has become better, life is more fun.”
And the best is already like the worst. The worse, the better - survival of the fittest. This is the slogan of today. After all, no one is against it. The government wants to instill survival instincts in the people, rather than create parasites. After all, the currency is volatile, inflation is progressing, prices are rising for everything from fuel to dill. But we just can’t understand why this world community doesn’t realize that man is man’s friend. It grabs you in the throat and tries to bite you. So everything returns to normal. Darwin's laws, like Newton's, have not been repealed. Of course, you can also remember humanitarian values, but this is for those who have mastered the law. And so, socialism and all sorts of others with a human face discouraged us. They forgot that mammals are animals too. “Know, all of you, we are on the alert, we will not yield an inch of land to the enemy.”
Maybe from official platforms, statesmen are ashamed to cut the truth. They stand at the microphone, hesitate and choose affectionate expressions, so as not to scare people away. They hide behind varnished words. Well, after all, they can also be understood, we are the electorate, we must vote. But we have elections, this is a permanent process. Now there, now here, now there, now here. We elect the head of the country, then where, which mayors, then members of the Duma, to this or that legislative assembly, or even just some municipalities. So, dear friends and comrades, and gentlemen, if you so want to cut into your eyes, no one will. Otherwise, why not go and rebel? If they all ate at once, then the Russian Guard won’t be enough for everyone, it’s not like they’re intimidating with the Almaty. “Fathers and children have strength, life has become better, living with bills.”
Why be sad, where to go. Why look at the little things, so what if there are a third more micro-borrowers compared to last year. And to hell with the fact that the black market for such loans is comparable to the white market (100 billion rubles). On the other hand, the number of citizens who believe that they live above average has doubled compared to 1991 (10%). And 64% consider themselves to be at the average level, which is 15% more than in the 1990s (VTsIOM). In addition, since then Russia has been able to catch up and overtake America. Not in everything, of course, but in the level of concentration of wealth per capita, they were made like children. So in Russia, 10% of the population accounts for 82% of personal wealth, and in the States, only 76%, and in China even less - 62% (data from a report by the Swiss bank Credit Suisse). So that we live, without straining - “Life has become better, life has become more fun.”
