Stalin’s musical propaganda and its reinterpretation in the Perestroika period (using the example of the album «Suleiman Stalsky» by the group «Communism»)

In the Stalin era (1920s-1950s), songs and music were a powerful means of supporting and strengthening the cult of personality and Stalinism. The musical legacy of Stalinism reflects the strategy of using art to form the image of a strong leader and unity of the nation. During the period of perestroika (1985-1991), with the weakening of ideological pressure ironic songs about Stalin appeared which demonstrates a change in the attitude of society towards his legacy. The text considers not just an ironic project in relation to Stalin (for example, as in the Soviet conceptual art group «Mukhomor»), but a complex deconstruction of the Stalinist myth in the framework of the album «Suleiman Stalsky» by the group «Communism» (1988).