Typical

Once socialist realism was established, the Central Committee encouraged foreign visitors. In the twenties, Soviet Russia had used foreign correspondents to spread the anti-capitalist, anti-bourgeois ideology, but now these visits allowed the authors to understand and write according to party guidelines.

Stalin molded reality. Socialist realism was to reflect his vision, because it did not depict what is, but rather what ought to be. And not just any "what ought to be" but specifically the "ought to be" envisioned by Stalin. He was the creative force, greater than any artist in front of an easel. The writer was accorded the possibility of participating in his creative vision.

The typical was not that which was encountered everywhere, bur rather that which most persuasively indicated a social force, manifested the party spirit. Stalin had said that what was most important to the dialectical method was not that which is stable and beginning therefore to die, but that which is emerging and developing. The typical would therefore present emerging party objectives. And where else could those objectives originate but Stalin. Writers were thus invited to spend time with him in order to 'divine' the party orientation.

This also explains why favorites could suddenly be cast aside when he changed his mind and thus no longer agreed with the vision they had presented earlier when it did seem to agree with his. Artists could not create outside the purview of his vision since he was the creative force and they simply depicted the reality he proclaimed. Therein lies the realism of socialist realism.

The typical allowed foreign visitors to write according to party guidelines and thus assist the revolution. Deviance was considered a denial of the Party credo. The typical was an important political and aesthetic concern since properly depicting it was an absolute indicator of belief, and often a matter of life or death for the Russian artists.