Latviešu kreisās mākslas uzliesmojumi 20. gs. 20.–30. gados Latvijā un Padomju Krievijā

In the interwar period, the consistently developed output of leftist artists proved unacceptable and dangerous to both Soviet Russia’s and Latvia’s political elites and civic circles. This is largely evident from the previous research on this subject that has encountered numerous obstacles. Among these was either partial or complete annihilation of artists and their art during the Great Terror in Russia, the dogmatic perspective of Socialist Realism focused on meticulously realist form, direct Communist ideological connotations affecting leftist art as well as the traumatic historical experiences of Latvia and Latvians under the Soviet occupation and waves of repressions. The article is a pioneering look at the most radical leftist Latvian artists’ activities in Soviet Russia and Latvia, searching for their common denominators. In 1922 and 1923, the artist Kārlis Johansons (1890–1929) who was known in Russian avant-garde circles wanted to organise two exhibitions in Latvia with himself as well as Gustavs Klucis (1895–1938) and Aleksandrs Drēviņš (1889–1938) as participants but met with a lack of interest. Klucis and Johansons later took part in the leftist Latvian group Kref that was active from 18 November 1923 to spring 1924, uniting fine artists and writers. In Latvia, the tandem of writer Linards Laicens (1883–1938) and artist Ernests Kālis (1904–1939) took over the popularisation of leftist art in the second half of the 1920s. They were active for some time before the onset of the Great Depression paying attention to constructivist form alongside socially critical ideas. The brightest example of their cooperation was the revolutionary literary magazine of Latvian workers Kreisā Fronte published in Riga from March 1928 to December 1930 when it was closed. Leftist Latvian authors had episodic contacts via the cultural and educational society Prometejs (1924–1937). At first, the society was active in publishing Latvian books and periodicals at its publishing house Prometejs but in the early 1930s it also oversaw the Latvian section of the International Bureau of Revolutionary Artists (IBRA). Kālis as well as Samuils Haskins (1909–1974), emigrated to Soviet Russia in the mid-1930s but, instead of Soviet benefits, both encountered the directives of Socialist Realism and were arrested in 1937 and 1938 as Latvian spies. Although, unlike Drēviņš and Klucis, they escaped death during the Great Terror, they experienced confinement or exclusion from culture as “wrong” leftists, threatening or too alien to the established artistic life or political system.