History UsefulNotes / TheSoviet20s

When the United States had TheRoaring20s, and when Europe had TheGolden20s, for the young [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]], the [=1920s=] were decidedly not a fun time.

When the United States had TheRoaringTwenties, and when Europe had TheGoldenTwenties, for the young [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]], the [=1920s=] were decidedly not a fun time.

* ''Recap/TintinTintinInTheLandOfTheSoviets'', published in 1929, the very first adventure of Hergé's iconic comic book hero. It was designed to be [[AuthorFilibuster a work of anti-Marxist propaganda]] at the direction of his boss, a conservative Catholic abbot. The plot revolves around the young Belgian reporter and his dog Snowy, who travel, via Berlin, to the Soviet Union, to report back on the policies instituted by the Bolshevik government. However, an agent of the Soviet secret service, the OGPU, attempts to prevent him from doing so, consistently setting traps to get rid of him. Despite this, Tintin is successful in discovering the secrets of the Bolsheviks and how they are stealing the food of the Soviet people, rigging elections and murdering opponents. While the comic was pretty successful, Hergé later [[OldShame wasn't fond of it in the slightest]], and it remains his only album [[CanonDiscontinuity that was never redrawn in color]]. And this while even the paternalistically racist and condescending ''Recap/TintinTintinInTheCongo'', his other OldShame, was reworked and republished multiple times (though in a significantly edited way).

When the United States had TheRoaringTwenties, and when Europe had TheGoldenTwenties, for the young Soviet Union, the [=1920s=] were decidedly not a fun time.

* The Criminal Youth: orphans or abandoned children who formed street gangs and engaged in petty theft, robbery, and worse. Often addicted to opiates, as they staved off hunger and became widely available after the looting of the country's drugstores during the Civil War. [[note]] When a serious effort was made to crack down on criminal activity during the Great Purge of 1935 the state was forced to choose between gaoling irredeemably screwed-up teens and children for life, or releasing them back into the community at some point. Instead, they TookAThirdOption and had the minimum age for the Death Penalty lowered to 12. During the Cold War Robert Conquest and other prominent Sovietologists had speculated that the lowering was prompted by a desire to execute the families of political dissidents, but analysis of internal documentats and messages has shown that it was rooted in the desire to check (youth) street-crime. [[/note]]

* ''Recap/TintinTintinInTheLandOfTheSoviets'', published in 1929, the very first adventure of Hergé's iconic comic book hero. It was designed to be [[AuthorFilibuster a work of anti-Marxist propaganda]] at the direction of his boss, a conservative Catholic abbot. The plot revolves around the young Belgian reporter and his dog Snowy, who travel, via Berlin, to the Soviet Union, to report back on the policies instituted by the Bolshevik government. However, an agent of the Soviet secret service, the OGPU, attempts to prevent him from doing so, consistently setting traps to get rid of him. Despite this, Tintin is successful in discovering the secrets of the Bolsheviks and how they are stealing the food of the Soviet people, rigging elections and murdering opponents. While the comic was pretty successful, Hergé later [[OldShame wasn't fond of it in the slightest]], and it remains his only album [[CanonDiscontinuity that was never redrawn in color]]. And this while even the psychotically racist and condescending ''Recap/TintinTintinInTheCongo'', his other OldShame, was reworked and republished multiple times (though in a significantly edited way).

* The majority of Creator/MikhailBulgakov's works, including ''ATheatricalNovel'', ''Literature/HeartOfADog'', ''Film/IvanVasilievichChangesProfession'', ''Literature/TheFatalEggs''[[note]]Comrade Stalin said you can't make omelette without breaking eggs[[/note]], ''Zoya's Apartment'' and others. ''Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita'', whose writing started in the twenties, is a mix of that era and the thirties.

* The majority of Creator/MikhailBulgakov's works, including ''Literature/HeartOfADog'', ''Film/IvanVasilievichChangesProfession'', ''Literature/TheFatalEggs''[[note]]Comrade Stalin said you can't make omelette without breaking eggs[[/note]], ''Zoya's Apartment'' and others. ''Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita'', whose writing started in the twenties, is a mix of that era and the thirties.

* The majority of Creator/MikhailBulgakov's works, including "Literature/HeartOfADog", ''Film/IvanVasilievichChangesProfession'', ''Literature/TheFatalEggs''[[note]]Comrade Stalin said you can't make omelette without breaking eggs[[/note]], ''Zoya's Apartment'' and others. ''Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita'', whose writing started in the twenties, is a mix of that era and the thirties.

* The majority of Creator/MikhailBulgakov's works, including "Literature/HeartOfADog", ''Film/IvanVasilievichChangesProfession'', ''The Fatal Eggs''[[note]]Comrade Stalin said you can't make omelette without breaking eggs[[/note]], ''Zoya's Apartment'' and others. ''Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita'', whose writing started in the twenties, is a mix of that era and the thirties.

This period sometimes shows up in Osterns, serving as the Soviet equivalent of TwilightOfTheOldWest. In some regions (Turkestan and the Chinese border) the RedOctober status quo was preserved much longer, well into the Stalinist 1930s, by various Basmach gangs and White warlords who fled to China, but on most Soviet territory civilization was finally setting up shop.

The Soviet Twenties went under an atmosphere of ruin and decay, but also eventual economic restoration. Even though the Whites were defeated and the Reds reunited most of the territory of the former Russian Empire, they were left dealing with the fallout of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, the RedOctober, and the Russian Civil War. At the beginning of the decade, public infrastructure barely worked, and the new authorities, consisting mostly of unsophisticated, poorly-educated worker-peasant councils, had no idea how to run a country.

* The majority of Creator/MikhailBulgakov's works, including "Literature/HeartOfADog", ''IvanVasilievich'', ''The Fatal Eggs''[[note]]Comrade Stalin said you can't make omelette without breaking eggs[[/note]], ''Zoya's Apartment'' and others. ''Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita'', whose writing started in the twenties, is a mix of that era and the thirties.

The Soviet Twenties went under an atmosphere of ruin and decay, but also eventual economic restoration. Even though the Whites were defeated and the Reds reunited most of the territory of the former Russian Empire, they were left dealing with the fallout of WorldWarOne, the RedOctober, and the Russian Civil War. At the beginning of the decade, public infrastructure barely worked, and the new authorities, consisting mostly of unsophisticated, poorly-educated worker-peasant councils, had no idea how to run a country.

* The Criminal Youth: orphans or abandoned children who formed street gangs and engaged in petty theft, robbery, and worse. Often addicted to opiates, as they staved off hunger and became widely available after the looting of the country's drugstores during the Civil War. [[note]] When a serious effort was made to crack down on criminal activity during the Great Purge of 1935, the state was so burdened with housing irredeemably screwed-up teens and children (with life sentences) that they lowered the minimum age requirement for the death penalty to 12. [[/note]]

* The Criminal Youth: orphans or abandoned children who formed street gangs and engaged in petty theft, robbery, and worse. Often addicted to opiates, as they staved off hunger and became widely available after the looting of the country's drugstores during the Civil War. [[note]] When a serious effort was made to crack down on criminal activity during the Great Purge of 1935, the state was so burdened with housing irredeemably screwed-up teens and children (with life sentences) that they lowered the minimum age for the death penalty. [[/note]]

* The Criminal Youth: orphans or abandoned children who formed street gangs and engaged in petty theft, robbery, and worse. Often addicted to opiates, as they staved off hunger and became widely available after the looting of the country's drugstores during the Civil War. [[note]] When a serious effort was made to crack down on criminal activity during the Great Purge of 1935, the state was so burdened with housing [[CompleteMonster irredeemably screwed-up teens and children]] (with life sentences) that they lowered the minimum age for the death penalty. [[/note]]

* The Criminal Youth: orphans or abandoned children who formed street gangs and engaged in petty theft, robbery, and worse. Often addicted to opiates, as they staved off hunger and became widely available after the looting of the country's drugstores during the Civil War. The minimum age for the death penalty was lowered so the state wouldn't be burdened with keeping so many serious offenders in prison for life.

This era, along with the NEP, came to an end in 1928-1929, when [[JosefStalin Stalin]] defeated all his political opponents, emerged as the undisputed leader of the Party, and started rapid industrialization and collectivization projects. The interest in satirical literature also waned with the advent of the Stalinist thirties, replaced with the advent of SocialistRealism, as the new powers were more interested in fiction embellishing their imaginary successes than exposing their real flaws.

** Artistic freedom was particularly well-explored in the arts grouped together as "design," with the new [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VKhUTEMAS VKhUTEMAS]] developing some interesting new ways to create art and architecture with modern materials, cross-pollinating with the more famous Bauhaus in WeimarGermany.