the beginning years, Socialist Realism did not automatically rule out abstraction or experimentation. Early Socialist Realists made their primary focus this mission: art should serve the interests and needs of society. Service was what mattered most; the vehicle was of secondary consideration. Stalin himself would praise Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930). This was the same Mayakovsky who was considered a Futurist during the pre-War Silver Age but who committed his talents to the proletarian cause, giving voice to the post-Revolution Russian society.
Within such a context, Aleksandr Blok's 1918 poem "The Twelve" could be officially lauded as an example of early Socialist Realism, despite Symbolist imagery that conveyed an anti-revolutionary subtext:
So on they go with sovereign tread -
Behind them limps the hungry mongrel,
And wrapped in wild snow at their head
Soft-footed in the blizzard's swirl,
Invulnerable where bullets sliced -
Crowned with a crown of snowflake pearl,
Ahead of them Christ Jesus goes (Part 12, lines 31-39).
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