User:Kajakeh/sandbox

Cultural Bolshevism Cultural Bolshevism is an ideology that was developed by Bolsheviks (supporters of Marxism and communist) with a view of modernizing art seizing power to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat. This was a cultural revolution which also took a political overtone. The Bolshevik ideas are built on the foundation of Karl Marx’s social theory which aims to empower working class. The proletariat see themselves as being exploited by the bourgeoisies who own all means of production and controls the economy. Bolsheviks want to revolutionaries the already existing culture which was contrary to goals of the Nazi government. This was a huge issue in Weimar Germany many German artists such as Max Ernst and Max Beckmann, were denounced by the Nazi as "cultural Bolsheviks”. Some academics argued that Bolsheviks cannot create a society without oppression and exploitation. During this period culture was a very important aspect which countries want to maintain in order to establish national identity of people. Any form of innovation that is not aligned to the government’s view of how society or people should be was crushed or oppressed by authorities. The Nazi government at the time had a Minister for popular enlighten and propaganda Joseph Goebbels who did synchronization of culture by using art as a tool which is aligned with Nazi goals. The government then disestablished all Jewish cultural organizations and anyone who was alleged politically or artistically suspect. The governments also embark on destroying the work of well-known German writer such as Alfred Kerr, Bertolt Brecht, and Lion Feuchtwanger who were considered “Bolsheviks” by burning their materials at a book burning ceremony which was held in Berlin. This later followed the promotion of literature work by writers such as Hitler Youth poet Hans Baumann and Adolf Bartels in an effort to facilitate the fast removal of unacceptable books from public libraries. The German cultural authorities also promoted war novels in order to prepare its population for possible conflict that may arise. The German artistic movement focus on emphasizing the Propagandistic value of art and glorified the peasantry, the “Aryan” and heroism of war. This ideology was contrary to modern day art such as abstract painting which was the government denounced as “degenerated art” as well as “art bolshevism” and “cultural bolshevism”. In an effort to cultivate art aligned with Nazi goals the state subsidized motion picture industry which was used as an important propaganda tool. This led to the production of films such as "Ich klage an," (I accuse) justified the “Euthanasia Program” (good death) which glorified Hitler and the Nazi party. On the other hand films such as "Jud Suess" and the "Der ewige Jude" (The Eternal Jew) were produced to perpetuate anti-Semitic stereotypes. The overall aim of Bolsheviks to revolutionize culture was not successful in Germany because Weimer government scrutinized the system which makes it hard for any new form of culture to dominate the  existing culture.