Aleksandr Deineka (1899-1969) : an avant-garde for the proletariat


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Foreword Fundación Juan March 

2

Lenders and Acknowledgments 



    4

Aleksandr Deineka (1899



1969). A Life in the Country of the Soviets 

11

Essays



 

Aleksander Deineka: the Mimesis of a Utopia (1913



53)  

Manuel Fontán del Junco 



  30

Aleksandr Deineka: A One-Man Biography of Soviet Art 

Christina Kiaer 

  56

Socialist Realism or the Collectivization of Modernism 

Ekaterina Degot 

  68

Aleksandr Deineka: The Eternal Return of the Athletic Body 

Boris Groys 

  76

Aleksandr Deineka or the Processual Logic of the Soviet System 

Fredric Jameson 

  84

Works on Exhibition 

(1913–53)

I. 1913–34

From Victory over the Sun to the Electrification of the Entire Country  

  

96

The Graphic Work of Aleksandr Deineka (1929





40)  

   

Irina Leytes 

136

II. 1935

Deineka in Stalin’s Metro 

 

234



Underground Explorations in the Synthesis of the Arts: Deineka in Moscow’s Metro

Alessandro De Magistris 

239

Underground as Utopia

Boris Groys 

249

III. 1936–53

From Dream to Reality

 

254



 

Contents

Fundación Juan March



Documents

Between the Avant-Garde and Socialist Realism (1913



64)  Selection by Manuel Fontán del Junco 

310


I.   Russian Avant-Garde, Revolutionary Art and Socialist Realism, 1913–35

Texts, Manifestos and Documents 

312 

1913 (D1) Aleksei Kruchenykh: 

Victory over the Sun, 313 / (D2) Nikolai Fedorov: The Museum, its Meaning and Purpose, 321 / 1916 (D3) Aleksei Kruchenykh: 

The Biography of the Moon, 322 / 1917 (D4) The Union “Freedom for Art”: An Appeal, 323 / (D5) For Revolution. An Appeal, 324 / 1918 (D6) Osip Brik: The 

Artist-Proletarian, 324 / (D7) Natan Al’tman: “Futurism” and Proletarian Art, 325 / 1919 (D8) Viktor Shklovskii 

 Nikolai Punin: 



Communism and Futurism, 

326 / (D9) Kazimir Malevich: 

On the Museum, 327 / (D10) Komfut Program Declaration, 329 / (D11) Boris Kushner: “The Divine Work of Art” Polemics, 330 

1920 (D12) Anatolii Lunacharskii: 

Theses on Art Policy, 331 / (D13) Anatolii Lunacharskii and Iuvenal Slavinskii: Basic Policy in the Field of Art, 331 / (D14) 

Anatolii Lunacharskii: 

Revolution and Art, 332 / (D15) David Shterenberg: Our Task, 334 / 1921 (D16) Velimir Khlebnikov: The Radio of the Future, 335 / 1922 

(D17) Aleksei Gan: 

Constructivism, 337 / (D18) AKhRR: Declaration of the Association of Artist of Revolutionary Russia, 339 / 1923 (D19) Ivan Kliun: A New 

Optimism, 340 / (D20) Sergei Tret’iakov: From Where to Where? Futurism’s Perspectives, 341 / (D21) Nikolai Tarabukin: From the Easel to the Machine, 345 / 

(D22) LEF: 

Declaration: Comrades, Organizers of Life!, 349 / (D23) Lev Trotsky: Revolutionary and Socialist Art, 350 / (D24) Aleksandr Vesnin, Anton Lavinskii, 

Liubov Popova and Aleksandr Rodchenko: 

On the Question of the Organization of a Production Workshop at VKhUTEMAS, 351 / 1924 (D25) Sergei Sen’kin 

and Gustavs Klucis: 

The Workshop of Revolution, 353 / (D26) AKhRR: The Immediate Tasks of AKhRR, 353 / (D27)

 

Valerian Murav’ev: 



Mastering Time as the 

Fundamental Goal of the Organization of Labor, 354 / (D28) Statements from the Catalogue of the “First Discussional Exhibition of the Active Revolutionary 

Art Associations,”  356 / (D29) Aleksei Fedorov-Davydov: The Artistic Life of Moscow, 358 / (D30) OST Platform, 359 / 1925 (D31) E. Beskin: Again about 

the Easel, the Painting, the Chair and VKhUTEMAS, 363 / (D32) Boris Arvatov: Reaction in Painting, 364 / (D33) Boris Arvatov: AKhRR at the Factory, 364 / 

(D34) Nikolai Tarabukin: 

Inventiveness in the Poster, 365 / 1926 (D35) Boris Arvatov: On the Reorganization of the Artistic Faculties of VKhUTEMAS, 368 / 



1927 (D36) Aleksandr Bogdanov: 

The Struggle for Viability, 369 / (D37) Sergei Tret’iakov: How to Celebrate the Tenth, 371 / 1928 (D38) Aaron Zal’kind: The 

Psychology of the Person of the Future, 372 / (D39) Aleksandr Rodchenko: A Caution!, 373 

 Boris Kushner: 



Fulfilling a Request, 374 / (D40) AKhR: Declaration 

of the Association of Artists of the Revolution, 375 / (D41) Boris Arvatov: A New Association of Artistic Labor in Moscow, 376 / (D42) October: Association of 

New Forms of Artistic Labor Declaration, 376 / (D43) Alfred Kurella: The Reconstruction of Artistic Life in the USSR, 379 / (D44) Iakov Tugenkhol’d: Art and 

Contemporaneity, 380 / (D45) A. Mikhailov: Cinema and Painting, 381 / 1929 (D46) A. Mikhailov: Why do We Need Fresco?, 382 / (D47) F. Nevezhin and D. 

Mirlas: 

Soviet Monumental Painting, 382 / (D48) D. Mirlas: At the Factory, 383 / 1930 (D49) The Shock Brigade of AKhR: For New Methods of Work, 384 / 

(D50) Durus, A. I. Gutnov and F. Tagirov: 

On the Upcoming Soviet Exhibition of the October Group in Berlin, 385 / 1931 (D51) Dmitrii Moor: It is Necessary 

to Study Poster Design, 386 / (D52) Resolution of the Central Committee of the VKP(b) about Poster-Picture Agitation and Propaganda, 386 / 1932 (D53) 

Resolution on the Reconstruction of Literary and Artistic Organizations, 387 / 1934 (D54) Contributions to the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, 388 

1935 (D55) 

Discussion by the Art Commission of the Cooperative “The Artist” about the Painting Old and New by Solomon Nikritin, 390 



II.  Texts by Aleksandr Deineka, 1918–64  

392


1918 (D56) 

The Art of Our Days, 393 / 1934 (D57) On the Question of Monumental Art, 393 / 1936 (D58) Autobiographical Sketch, 394 / 1940 (D59) 

Vladimir Vladimirovich, 395 / 1946 (D60) Art and Sport, 397 / 1956 (D61) About Modernity in Art, 398 / 1957 (D62) Conversation about a Beloved 

Matter, 399 / 1964 (D63) A Living Tradition, 400



III.  Texts about Aleksandr Deineka, 1957  

402


(D64) Evgenii Kibrik: 

The Artist of Modernity, 403 / (D65) Iurii Pimenov: The Artist’s Path, 404



Exhibitions 

408


Bibliography 

414


Glossary of Acronyms 

424


Index of Periodical Publications  

428


Catalogue of Works on Exhibition 

430


Credits 

436


FJM Exhibition Catalogues and Other Publications  

438


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1899

May 20 [May 8 OS]. Aleksandr Aleksandrovich 

Deineka is born in Kursk to a family of railway 

workers. His father, Aleksandr Filaretovich Deineka 

(1872–1927), was responsible for overseeing the 

trains at Kursk II station. 

Birth of the writers Andrei Platonov (September 1 

[August 20 OS]) and Vladimir Nabokov (April 22 

[April 10 OS]), and the third child of Tsar Nicholas 

II and Empress Alexandra, Maria Nikolaevna Ro-

manova, Grand Duchess of Russia (June 26 [June 

14 OS]).

1900

May 14 – October 28 [May 1 – October 15 OS]. In 

Paris, Russia participates for the first time in the 

modern era Olympic Games. The Russian team 

does not win any medals. 



1903

September 25 [September 12 OS]. The artist Mark 

Rothko (née Marcus Rothkowitz) is born in the city 

of Dvinsk, Russia. 

1904

February 8 [January 27 OS]. Outbreak of the Rus-

so-Japanese War, which ends in September 1905.



July 15 [July 2 OS]. The writer Anton Chekov dies in 

Badenweiler, Germany. 

This chronology was drawn up by Iana Zabiaka and 

María Zozaya on the basis of the one prepared by Natalia 

Alexandrova, Elena Voronovich (State Tretyakov Gallery, 

Moscow), Andrei Gubko, Anna Grigorieva and Tatiana Iudkevich 

(Interrosa publishing program) for 

Deineka. Zhivopis’ [Deineka. 

Painting], eds. I. Ostarkova and I. Lebedeva (Moscow: Interrosa, 

2010). It was revised by Christina Kiaer.

 

In the nineteenth century, the Julian calendar, used by 



Russia, was twelve days behind the Gregorian calendar (by 

then used by most of the Western world) until March 1, 1900, 

when it became thirteen days behind. Russia continued to use 

the Julian calendar until January 31, 1918, when it adopted the 

Gregorian calendar, changing its date to February 14, 1918. 

 

In this timeline, dates are in the Gregorian “New Style” 



followed by Julian “Old Style” dates in square brackets [XX] 

until the change on January 31, 1918. Thereafter, all dates are in 

the Gregorian.

Aleksandr Deineka 

(1899–1969)

A Life in the Country 

of the Soviets

Fundación Juan March



12

1905

January 22 [January 9 OS]. Bloody Sunday in Saint 

Petersburg. The Russian Revolution begins. Several 

parts of the country are in a state of political tur-

moil, leading to the establishment of a limited con-

stitutional monarchy with an assembly of people’s 

representatives called the State Duma. 



1906

May 6 [April 23 OS]. Russia’s first constitution, 

known as the Fundamental Laws, is enacted on the 

eve of the opening of the First State Duma. 

September 25 [September 12 OS]. The composer 

Dmitrii Shostakovich is born in Saint Petersburg. 



1907

August 31 [August 18 OS]. The Anglo-Russian 

Entente is signed in Saint Petersburg, resolving the 

countries’ colonial disputes over Persia, Afghani-

stan and Tibet.



1909

May 19 [May 6 OS]. The first Ballets Russes season 

opens at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. 



1910

November 20 [November 7 OS]. The writer Lev 

Tolstoi dies in Astapovo, Russia. 



1911

July 21 [July 8 OS]. Mendel’ Beilis is arrested for the 

murder of a Christian boy and is accused of blood 

libel and ritual murder. The trial proper is held 

in Kiev from September 28 to October 28, 1913, 

whereby Beilis is acquitted. 

Oborona Sevastopolia (The Defense of Sevastopol), 

the first feature film made in Russia on the subject 

of the Crimean War of 1854, directed by Vasilii 

Goncharov and Aleksandr Khanzhonkov, premieres 

at Livadia, Tsar Nicholas II’s palace in Yalta.



1912

May 5 [April 22 OS]. 

Pravda, a newspaper aimed at 

Russian workers, is launched by the Bolsheviks. It 

would later become the off icial newspaper of the 

Communist Party of the Soviet Union/CPSU (KPSS) 

between 1918 and 1991. 



June 30 [June 17 OS]. The Russian national foot-

ball team first takes part in the Olympic Games at 

Stockholm. It joins the FIFA later in the year.

1913

December 16 [December 3 OS]. The cubo-futurist 

opera with libretto by Aleksei Kruchenykh and 

music by Mikhail Matiushin, 

Pobeda nad solntsem 

(Victory over the Sun) [cat. 2, 3], premieres at Luna 

Park Theatre in Saint Petersburg. Malevich de-

signed the set and costumes for the opera, based 

on a prologue by Velimir Khlebnikov.

The founder of futurism, Marinetti, visits Moscow 

and is booed by the futurists, accused of being a 

bourgeois artist. 

Kazimir Malevich develops suprematism, the foun-

dations of which are presented in his 1915 manifes-

to 


From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism. 

1914

Deineka attends the N.1 high school in Kursk and 

pays frequent visits to the painting workshop man-

aged by the artists V. Golikov, M. Iakimenko-Zabuga 

and A. Poletiko. “Looking back at my childhood, I 

was always drawing, trying to turn my impressions 

and observations into drawings . . . To me drawing 

was as important as swimming in the river, riding 

on a sled or playing with children my age” 

(A. Deineka, 

On My Working Practice [Moscow, 

1961], 5).



June 28 [June 15 OS]. The assassination of Arch-

duke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife So-

phie, Duchess of Hohenberg, by Serbian nationalist 

Gavrilo Princip precipitates Austria’s declaration of 

war against Serbia and the subsequent outbreak 

of the First World War. 



July 28 [July 15 OS]. First World War begins

August 31 [August 18 OS]. With Russia’s entry into 

the war, Saint Petersburg is renamed Petrograd to 

remove the German cognate “burg” from the name 

of the city. 



1915

March

Tramway V: The First Futurist Painting 

Exhibition takes place in Petrograd. 

September 18 [September 5 OS]. The political situ-

ation becomes critical in Russia when Tsar Nicholas 

II assumes supreme command of the Russian Army 

and leaves the government in the hands of his wife 

Alexandra. 

December. At the 

Last Futurist Exhibition 0.10, 

Malevich refers to his work, for the first time, as the 

“suprematism of painting.”



1916

Deineka concludes his studies in Kursk. He receives 

a copy of 

Don Quixote as a reward for his academic 

merit and excellent behavior. 

Following the advice of friends and artists, he en-

rolls at the School of Fine Arts of Kharkiv (Ukraine) 

in the fall. Among his teachers are Mikhail Pestrikov 

and Aleksandr Liubimov, former students of the 

Imperial Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Petersburg. 



December 29 [December 16 OS]. Grigorii Rasputin 

is murdered in Saint Petersburg. 

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1919

September 20 – November 19. The White Army—

led by Anton Denikin—occupies Kursk. Deineka 

participates in the Red Army’s battles in defense of 

Kursk during the occupation. 

Deineka is awarded two prizes for his set designs 

for the opera 

Groza (The Tempest), based on the 

play by Aleksandr Ostrovskii, and the tale 

Ole 

Lukøje (The Sandman) by Hans Christian Andersen, 



staged at the Soviet Theater of Kursk. 

He is mobilized into the Red Army where he coor-

dinates agitation and propaganda, including the 

direction of the Kursk delegation at the Off icial Rus-

sian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) in producing what 

were known as the “ROSTA windows,” stencil-rep-

licated propaganda posters that were displayed in 

telegraph off ices and handed out at factories and 

in the trenches. His first designs consisted of illus-

trations for poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky, whose 

work had a great influence on Deineka.

April. Opening of the 10th State Exhibition 

Non-


Objective Art and Suprematism. 

April 12. The first communist 

subbótnik (work on 

Saturdays) is organized by workers of the Moscow-

Sortirovochnaia railway station. 



June 28. The Treaty of Versailles is signed, marking 

the end of the First World War. 

New actions are taken by the Soviet of the People’s 

Commissars, such as abolishing the Academy of 

Fine Arts and off icially recognizing the Free State 

Art Studios, later called the State Higher Arts and 

Technical Studios.

The Society of Young Artists (OBMOKhU) and the 

Champions of the New Art (UNOVIS) are created. 

1920

January. Deineka is employed as a teacher/instruc-

tor at the Proletarian Studio of Fine Arts for Adults. 

From April onwards, in addition to painting, he 

teaches sculpture. 



April – May. As head of the workers and peasants 

theater division, Deineka oversees various produc-

tions.

November 1. Deineka is appointed director of the 

regional division of the Regional Department of 

Fine Arts (Kursk IZO). 

In late 1920, Deineka travels by airplane for the first 

time, an experience he described as “a new feeling, 

that of a man rising in the air and seeing his home-

town in an absolutely new light.”

May. With Wassily Kandinsky at the forefront, the 

Institute for Artistic Culture (INKhUK) is founded in 

Moscow. 

November. The Russian Civil War ends.

November. Vladimir Tatlin exhibits his model for 

the Monument to the Third International

 in Petro-

grad and presents it in Moscow in December. 



December. Approval of the GOELRO plan, the first-

ever Soviet plan for national economic recovery 

and development. The program, drawn up and 

endorsed by Lenin, is meant to fulfill his slogan 

“Communism is Soviet power plus the electrifica-

tion of the entire country.” 



December 19. The Higher Arts and Technical Stu-

dios (VKhUTEMAS) is founded in Moscow following 

a decree issued by Lenin. The school anticipated 

the educational program developed by the Bau-

haus at Weimar two years later. The school eventu-

ally became the center of the three leading avant-

garde movements in the country: constructivism, 

rationalism and suprematism. 



1921

Following a governmental order from Kursk at the 

start of the year, Deineka is released from the Red 

Army and moves to Moscow. There he enrolls in the 

department of Graphic Art at VKhUTEMAS, where 

Vladimir Favorskii and Ignatii Nivinskii are among 

his professors. 

In the spring, he participates in the production of 

scenery for a play based on 

Misteriia-buff  by 

Mayakovsky.

Deineka spends the summer in Kursk, where he 

continues to direct the regional division of the 

Kursk IZO and prepares the decorative panels for 

the Workers’ Palace, to be displayed at the 8th 

Regional Congress of Soviets. 



March 21. The New Economic Policy (NEP, 1921–

29), which partially permitted the return of private 

property and enterprise, is put forward at the 10th 

Congress of the Communist Party. The Gosplan 

State Planning Committee of the Russian Federa-

tion is created. 

Severe famine strikes the Volga region, resulting in 

5 million deaths. 

The First Working Group of Constructivists is 

created. El Lissitzky (née Lazar Markovich Lisitskii) 

develops his own style of suprematism called 

Proun (Design for the Aff irmation of the New). 



1922

Deineka illustrates two fables by Ivan Krylov, “Kot i 

povar” (The Cat and the Cook)

 and “Krest’ianin 

i smert’” (Death and the Peasant)

. The latter is 

printed at the VKhUTEMAS graphic studio. 

Fall. The Association of Artists of Revolutionary 

Russia (AKhRR) is created. The main purpose of the 

association is to depict the lives of workers in the 

new Russian state in a realistic style. 



October 15. The 

1st Russian Art Exhibition opens at 

the Van Diemen gallery in Berlin. It includes works 

by Kazimir Malevich, Ol’ga Rozanova, Liubov 

Popova, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Vladimir Tatlin, 

Naum Gabo and El Lissitzky, who designs the cover 

of the catalogue.

December 29. The Treaty of the Creation of 

the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the 

USSR are approved. The documents recognized 

the Soviet Union as a union of Soviet socialist 

republics.

1923 

In the summer, Deineka takes part in the 1st All-Un-

ion Agricultural and Domestic Crafts Exhibition in 

Moscow, presenting his drawings at “The Parasites 

of the Countryside” Pavilion. 

Deineka’s drawings are featured in issue no. 9–10 of 

the magazine 

Bezbozhnik u stanka, marking the be-

ginning of his career as an illustrator, which would 

span to the early 1930s. 



March. The association Left Front of the Arts (LEF) 

is founded and launches a journal under the same 

name with Rodchenko as its main artistic contribu-

tor (the journal was known as 

Novyi lef from 1927 

to 1928) [cat. 27–29, 66, 102–105]. The avant-garde 

movement of soviet photographers, Foto-LEF, owes 

its name to the journal. 



April 3. Josef Stalin is appointed General Secretary 

of the Central Committee of the Russian Commu-

nist Party (Bolsheviks).

The first national holiday of physical culture is 

celebrated.

The poem 

Pro eto (About This) by Mayakovsky is 

illustrated by Rodchenko’s photomontages.

Rodchenko and Mayakovsky embark on a joint 

venture, working together as an advertising agency 

(Reklam-Konstruktor) for a number of Soviet enter-

prises. 


The Petrograd State Institute of Artistic Culture 

(GINKhUK) is founded under the direction of 

Malevich. 


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