“Tserkvushka nad tikhoi rekoi”: russkoe klassicheskoe iskusstvo i sovetskii peizazhnyi patriotizm

Abstract

In order to understand why and how nationalistic images and ideals created by political and intellectual elites become routine to the point where they are no longer recognized as ideological statements, one may inquire into the ways in which images of nature are used in visual arts, poetic works, and literary mass production. The genre of landscape lyrics, being instrumental in matters of nationalistic upbringing and propaganda, helps to generate the sense of national identity through popular songs and reproductions of paintings published in popular magazines. The poetic text makes people living in different regions and having different life experiences feel nostalgic about the rural Russia as the lost motherland associated with their childhood years, even if those years had been actually spent in modern urban environments.