thing has already been done in that direction: it will suffice to mention here the erection of fifty monuments in Moscow in honor of leaders and heroes of the world revolution; erection in the Mars Field of a memorial monument to the victims of the revolution; decision of the Penza Soviet to erect a monument to Marx, etc. The other way is, through the socialization of art, turn it into a joy for all—holding of solemn and sumptuous national revolutionary and socialist holidays, similar to those which were so frequently and gorgeously celebrated during the days of the Great French Revolution, when famous artists such as David, and many prominent composers had charge of these festivals and beautified them with their compositions. At these revolutionary and socialist feasts, art—music, songs, decoration—ought to play an important role, and the ceremonial pageant, already beautiful in itself, ought from time to time, at big squares and especially in summer time beyond the confines of the city, to rise to a real festival of art.
The second problem to be solved by the art sections or sub-sections attached to the Soviets of workmen's deputies, will consist not only in evoking in the large masses of the city populations an interest in all things artistic, not only the "democratization" of art, but also in laying a foundation and building up a genuine, democratic, proletarian, socialistic art. The best means for the solution of this second problem is, first, staging of such plays as represent bourgeois society in a negative-satirical vein—society's manners, its heroes, favorites and idols, or such as describe in tragic tone the struggle of the working class against its oppressors, the struggle of the proletariat for its emancipation, and, finally, the birth of a new socialist culture and morality. The accomplishment of this aim—planting the seeds for a proletarian socialist art—can be also considerably aided through the organization, at People's Houses and workmen's clubs, and, on some solemn occasions, at theatres, of specially arranged literary-musical evenings devoted, from beginning to end, from the introductory word to the concert part (recitation, singing and music), to emphasizing the subject of the particular evening, for an example, the Idea of the Revolution, Significance of May 1st, or Proletarian Poetry, etc.
It is necessary not only to socialize and democratize art, but it is also a matter of great urgency—and this forms the third problem of the art sub-sections attached to the Soviets of work-43
