architecture and archeology. Inspired by the radical literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, Stasov promoted realist and national artistic forms that would engage the public in current social and historical issues. His original, liberal, and open-minded stance in opposition to the regnant academicism invigorated the cultural scene. But by the 1890s his aesthetics had turned conservative and chauvinistic, condemning as decadent the new artistic trends that were challenging national realism, which had by then become a new form of academicism.
With the publication of his monograph on Mikhail Glinka in 1847, which stressed the composer’s originality in using folk motifs, Stasov began to advocate Russianness in music. Thereafter he consistently championed young, independent composers-Miliy A. Balakirev, Alexander P. Borodin, C?sar A. Cui, Modest P. Musorgsky, and Nikolai A. Rimsky-Korsakov-whom he jointly called “The Mighty Five” (moguchaya kuchka). They all were self-taught, opposed the hidebound rules of the conservatory, and strove to create, in Glinka’s footsteps, a distinctly Russian school of music. Stasov supported these composers with polemical publications and contributed significantly to their creative work, suggesting topics, supplying historical documentation, and commenting on compositions. He was especially close to Musorgsky, whose genius he was the first to recognize.
In the 1860s Stasov began to comment regularly on the situation in the pictorial arts, questioning the authority of the Imperial Academy of Arts with its Italianate tastes. Instead, he advocated art that depicted Russian subjects in a manner that would instruct the public about the country’s realities. He became closely associated with young painters who in 1863 had quit the academy in protest against its outdated routines and in 1871
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY
founded the independent Association of Traveling Art Exhibits. Commonly known as the peredvizh-niki (wanderers or itinerants), these artists painted Russian landscape, social genre, or historical scenes that were literally read by both Stasov and the public as critical commentary on current events. Stasov was very closely associated with Ilya Repin, the foremost painter of the school.
In the 1890s, as aestheticism began to supplant national realism, Stasov’s renown and influence waned. Prior to World War I and during the first decade of the Soviet regime, Stasov’s views were not respected, and were even derided, by the creative intelligentsia. His standing was restored by the Communist Party after the imposition of socialist realism as the guiding ideology for literature and the arts in 1932. But Stasov’s views were increasingly distorted to legitimate a narrow politi-cization of the arts and cultural isolationism that bore little resemblance to his original position in his creative period from 1860 to 1890. The pedestal on which Stasov stood as the preeminent art and music critic was toppled during the period of glasnost. See also: ACADEMY OF ARTS; MIGHTY HANDFUL; MUSIC; OPERA; SOCIALIST REALISM
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Curran, M. W. (1965). “Vladimir Stasov and the Development of Russian National Art, 1850-1906.” Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin. Olkhovsky, Vladimir. (1983). Stasov and Russian National Culture. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press. Stasov, Vladimir Vasilievich. (1968). Selected Essays on Music, tr. Florence Jonas. New York: Praeger.
The term state capitalism was coined by political economists to describe market economies heavily regulated or controlled by the state, on behalf of property owners. Unlike stateless capitalism, where markets function without governmental assistance, commonly called “free enterprise,” political authorities play a powerful role in state capitalist systems. The government is the agent of property holders, and functions as the executive committee of the capitalist class, even though it usually claims to rule in the interests of all the people. Social democratic regimes such as those of France and GerENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY many, and big- government systems such as the United States that rely on Keynesian and other macromanagement methods, are often classified as state capitalist. Post-Soviet Russia, which describes itself as a mixed social economy, combining state and private ownership of the means of production with an autocratic state, can also be listed under this heading.
Even states dominated by administration and planning, with restricted markets such as the Soviet Union during the era of the New Economic Policy (NEP) 1921-1929, have been accused of being state capitalist by alleging that self-serving bureaucrats, or capitalist roaders had subverted and co-opted the state. Post-Maoist China provides a good example of how a socialist society governed by a Communist Party can serve the interests of property holders from the perspective of Marxist-Leninism.
These distinctions are devoid of any rigorous economic content. They may serve some useful purpose for ideologues, but the classification reveals nothing about the productive potential, economic efficiency, or welfare characteristics of any particular state capitalist regime, or even whether the system relies primarily on markets or plans. The burden of the term is to place most economies outside the hallowed pale of Marxist socialism. Only North Korea and Cuba appear to be mostly directive regimes, with strong states and a socialist credo, in the twenty-first century. See also: CAPITALISM; COMMAND ADMINISTRATIVE ECONOMY; ECONOMIC GROWTH, SOVIET; MARKET SOCIALISM
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bettelheim, Charles. (1975). The Transition to Socialist Economy. Hassocks: Harvester Press. Buick, Adam, and Crump, John. (1986). State Capitalism: The Wages under New Management. Houndmills, UK: Macmillan. Cliff, Tony. (1974). State Capitalism in Russia. London: Pluto Press. Coleman, Kenneth M., and Nelson, Daniel N. (1984). State Capitalism, State Socialism and the Politicization of Workers. Pittsburgh: Russian and East European Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh. Crosser, Paul K. (1960). State Capitalism in the Economy of the United States. New York: Bookman Associates. Dunayevskaya, Raya. (1992). The Marxist-Humanist Theory of State-Capitalism: Selected Writings. Chicago: News and Letters.
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Gallik, Dmitri; Kostinsky, Barry; and Treml, Vladimir. (1983). Input-Output Structure of the Soviet Economy. Washington DC: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. James, Cyril Lionel Robert. (1969). State Capitalism and World Revolution. Detroit: Facing Reality. Raiklin, Ernest. (1989). After Gorbachev: A Mechanism for the Transformation of Totalitarian State Capitalism Into Authoritarian Mixed Capitalism. Washington, DC: Council for Social and Economic Studies.
The first state committees in the USSR, STO (Sovet truda i oborony, the Council of Labor and Defense) and Gosplan (State Planning Committee) were standing commissions of Sovnarkom (Council of People’s Commissars). Their number grew during the 1930s, and the 1936 constitution granted Sovnarkom membership to the chairpersons of the All-Union Committee for the Arts (Komiskusstv or Vsesoy-uzny komitet po delam iskusstv) and the All-Union Committee for Higher Education (Komvysshshkol or Vsesoyuzny komitet po delam vysshei shkoly). Chairpersons of other committees, such as the All-Union Committee for Physical Culture and Sport (Komfizkult or Vsesoyuzny komitet po delam fiz-kultury i sporta), were not granted this status. During World War II, the State Defense Committee (GKO or Gosudarstvenny komitet oborony), chaired by Josef Stalin, was created as the extraordinary supreme state body to direct military and civilian resources and the economy, in order to achieve victory. This body was very significant during the war, and was the most powerful of all state committees during the USSR’s existence.
In the 1950s and 1960s, with the increasing complexity of the economy of the USSR, and the increased importance of science and technology, the system of state committees developed rapidly as central interdepartmental agencies that coordinated and supervised the work of ministries and other state departments in their areas of responsibility. Although the state committees were formed theoretically by the Supreme Soviet, and their structure was approved by the Council of Ministers, the real decisions concerning their existence and structure lay with the Politburo. State committees were allocated administrative powers to organize, coordinate, and
