Soviet literary criticism

Soviet literary criticism was the approach to analyzing and evaluating literature practiced in the Soviet Union, heavily influenced by Marxist ideology. It emphasized literature’s role in promoting socialist values, class struggle, and the collective good, often promoting works that aligned with state goals. Critics prioritized themes of socialism, heroism, and workers’ rights, while censoring or denouncing works seen as bourgeois, formalist, or counter-revolutionary. This framework aimed to shape cultural production to serve ideological ends, blending aesthetic judgment with political doctrine, and functioned as both an evaluative and a tool for promoting socialist realism.