Stalinism
At first the Bolshevik Revolution under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin supported the new abstract art but from 1920 onwards the freedom of artists in Russia was increasingly curtailed. Many artists wanted their work to contribute to the creation of a new society whilst others, for example the Suprematists continued to work independently.
Lenin died in 1924 and Joseph Stalin who succeeded him as leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, brought about a form of totalitarism . In 1932 socialist realism became the official state policy. It was within this political environment that Costakis experienced the development, suppression and final disintegration of the older culture in Russia.
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