In 1917, Russia went through the most drastic political change in the country’s history. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, over threw Czar Nicholas II, whose family had been in control of Russia for over 300 years. After the Bolsheviks took power, Vladimir Lenin began to rebuild Russia. His focus was primarily in the political and economic spheres of Russian Life. Lenin did not place much of an importance on the cultural sphere of Russian life. This led to a period of tolerance in which artists, musicians, and composers enjoyed much freedom. Following Lenin’s death in 1924, Josef Stalin took power in Russia. Under Stalin, this period of Tolerance was ended and drastic changes came to the cultural sphere of Russian life, as freedom ceased
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Before discussing any composers, the greatest thing to happen in Russian music was the building the city of St. Petersburg (later Petrograd, then Leningrad). St. Petersburg since the city’s beginning has been the cultural center of Russia. Many consider Mikhail Glinka to be the “father” of Russian Music. Glinka is most known for his two operas; “A Life for the Tsar” and “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. “A Life for the Tsar” was unique because it was the first fully composed opera, and had no spoken dialogue. “A Life for the Tsar” was met with a fantastic reception by the Russian people. Following the reception of “A Life for the Tsar” Glinka took six years to write his second opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. Many were expecting “Ruslan and Lyudmila” to be a similar style to “A Life for the Tsar” and had many great expectations to meet before it premiered to the Russian public. “Ruslan and Lyudmila” was nothing like “A Life for the Tsar” as it was much more of a fantasy. After “Ruslan and Lyudmila” met a critical audience Glinka decided to leave to Paris in 1844. Other notable Russian Composers before 1917 include Anton Rubinstien who founded the St. Petersburg Conservatory. The Mighty Five included, Mily Balakirev, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin, and Nikolai Rimsky- Korsakov. The Mighty Five produced a …show more content…
Lenin as the head of the Bolsheviks promised the Russian people that he would bring them “peace, land and bread”. Leon Trotsky was later elected head of the Petrograd Soviet, together with Lenin being the head of the Bolshevik party, which would now be known as the Russian Communist Party the two took control of the Russian Government. Nobody thought that the Communists would be in power for very long and even their political opponents believed that the Communist party would be overthrown very quickly. Even Vladimir Lenin himself thought the Communists would be able to hold power for 3 months at the longest. Lenin knew that in order to stay in power he would have to make true of his political promises. This meant that Lenin would have to successfully impenitent peace, land and bread, and he did just that. Lenin pulled Russia out of World War I fulfilling the peace aspect of his promise. Under the new Communist government all property belonged to the government and Lenin distributed land to the peasants that didn’t have land. This way Lenin fulfilled now two of his three political promises by bringing peace to Russia, and giving land to those who did not have land to call their own. The last thing that Lenin had to do was to bring food to his people, and that is what he did. Lenin gave food to the people as they no longer had to ration as the military was out of
Before discussing any composers, the greatest thing to happen in Russian music was the building the city of St. Petersburg (later Petrograd, then Leningrad). St. Petersburg since the city’s beginning has been the cultural center of Russia. Many consider Mikhail Glinka to be the “father” of Russian Music. Glinka is most known for his two operas; “A Life for the Tsar” and “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. “A Life for the Tsar” was unique because it was the first fully composed opera, and had no spoken dialogue. “A Life for the Tsar” was met with a fantastic reception by the Russian people. Following the reception of “A Life for the Tsar” Glinka took six years to write his second opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. Many were expecting “Ruslan and Lyudmila” to be a similar style to “A Life for the Tsar” and had many great expectations to meet before it premiered to the Russian public. “Ruslan and Lyudmila” was nothing like “A Life for the Tsar” as it was much more of a fantasy. After “Ruslan and Lyudmila” met a critical audience Glinka decided to leave to Paris in 1844. Other notable Russian Composers before 1917 include Anton Rubinstien who founded the St. Petersburg Conservatory. The Mighty Five included, Mily Balakirev, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin, and Nikolai Rimsky- Korsakov. The Mighty Five produced a …show more content…
Lenin as the head of the Bolsheviks promised the Russian people that he would bring them “peace, land and bread”. Leon Trotsky was later elected head of the Petrograd Soviet, together with Lenin being the head of the Bolshevik party, which would now be known as the Russian Communist Party the two took control of the Russian Government. Nobody thought that the Communists would be in power for very long and even their political opponents believed that the Communist party would be overthrown very quickly. Even Vladimir Lenin himself thought the Communists would be able to hold power for 3 months at the longest. Lenin knew that in order to stay in power he would have to make true of his political promises. This meant that Lenin would have to successfully impenitent peace, land and bread, and he did just that. Lenin pulled Russia out of World War I fulfilling the peace aspect of his promise. Under the new Communist government all property belonged to the government and Lenin distributed land to the peasants that didn’t have land. This way Lenin fulfilled now two of his three political promises by bringing peace to Russia, and giving land to those who did not have land to call their own. The last thing that Lenin had to do was to bring food to his people, and that is what he did. Lenin gave food to the people as they no longer had to ration as the military was out of