Socialistický realizmus v školskej praxi (na pozadí diela Petra Jilemnického Kompas v nás)
Socialist Realism in Educational Practice (Based on the Work “Our inner compass” by Peter Jilemnický)

Summary/Abstract: To be an emblematic, example work of socialist realism in the era of communist totality in Slovakia was considered a book by Peter Jilemnický Kompas v nás (Our inner compass). This work portrays the Soviet Union as a country where also a slovak working man can find happiness, though ignoring several facts from the time of the totalitarian government of Josif Vissarionovič Stalin.It fails to mention that the bolshevik plan of extensive industrialization collapsed and the promised material wellbeing turned out to be fiction, that there was a catastrophic shortage of basic needs for life and as a consequence of famine the cases of cannibalism spread. Unqualifed and unrestrained stalinist politics accepted no mistakes and therefore “subversive elements” were searched for among innocent people. The book by Jilemnický does not say anything about mass arrests and hundreds of thousands of death sentences within the framework of staged processes. The words like law, justice, democracy and freedom became empty and their users, even if only verbally, became suspicious. It is exactly those years that the stories of protagonists of the book Kompas v nás (Our inner compass) are tied with, acquired – as was expressed by the author – by his personal experience. The view of the situation in the country then considerably deforms attitude of Jilemnický to the ideals of bolshevik revolution. In the scope of the critical reflection it is therefore necessary to think about the question to what extent is the message of such ethics and ideals – highly evaluated by the marxist critics then – up to date nowadays. During the era of totality educational praxis “uncovered” numerous attributes of socialist realism in this book: communist party involvement, folksiness, typification, truthfulness, artistic mastery. It pointed out “a characteristic feature” of socialist realism, namely “multilateral perspective” coming from progressive artistic traditions, revolutionary theory and revolutionary praxis. But the method of socialist realism – as it is stated following a period of time – was never completely put in practice in any case in all its attributes in the literary praxis.Socialist realism was ordered as the only creative method to writers in a period of the Communist totality. Actually, it was a reaction of a conquering indecent proletarian to so-termed difficult incomprehensible literature. A misapprehension of literature became one of barriers for a simple man and a sign of being inferior in the society of the previous period.New socialist literature intended to form so-termed comprehensible arts for people. There originated schematic texts and texts affected by the Marxist doctrine in which a hero from among ordinary people wins in the end together with ideology in the name of which he or she fights. Peter Jilemnický was denoted as a pioneer of socialist realism in Slovakia in the period of the Communist totality. His work Kompas v nás (Our inner compass) was classifed by Marxistically oriented critics as “the highlight” of his works in the period between wars. Educational practice “revealed” several attributes of socialist realism: Communistic partiality, vernacularity, characterization, trueness, artistry.In three couples of novellas – they depict life in the former Soviet Union (author worked there in the production cooperative Interhelpo as a teacher, later among Czech resettlers by the Black Sea) and life in Slovakia between wars – author intends to answer the question of conditions under which a man can be happy and free. Life in Slovakia is marked by legacy of backwardness and poverty together with a problem to “revolutionary” transform thinking of people. In author’s opinion “material poverty goes hand-in-hand with poverty in heads and souls” and a reason of this situation is a sustained capitalistic society deformed by relations in the society and production. A base for an escape from backwardness and poverty may be only a change of a social system, a revolutionary twist similar to the one that took place in the Soviet Union. Author’s compass needle points to this country as an example to follow.Protagonists of the work are simple people suffering and deformed under capitalism. Reasons for shortage affecting the whole country and its people a reader can easy understand and identify. Those who search new possibilities of independent work and new home in the Soviet union met also new relations, new quality of lives, new “soviet” people and find; often at the price of sacrifice, a decent position in the Soviet society. Author selects typical characters that face typical situations. His characters, often shaped by their classes, carry features that represent sharp contrast compared to characters that are not “class-conscious”. Conflicts among them develop the plot that also contains a fight among classes, between socialist morale and morale stained by capitalism. A typical protagonist shapes and especially becomes mature ideologically in this rivalry.The view of the attributes of socialist realism in the work of an author might vary considerably as far as contemporary educational praxis in the realm of critical reflection is concerned. The use of party viewpoint in the work of Jilemnický can be seen as polarized when we talk about values connected with unambiguous analogy of meanings. The author strives to introduce building of communism in the Soviet Union as a phenomenon which is very close to a common man and portrays the communist society as an aim to which humanity moves in the most natural and legitimate way, even for the price of sacrifices and hardships. On the contrary, the situation in Slovakia – according to the author – is marked by poverty and capitalist morality which is in fact abnormal and dangerous for further development of the society. In his book we do not find any indication that the Soviet society then – portrayed by Jilemnický – had very uniformed structure and was in fact politically and morally torn apart through chaos and murdering that was typical for the bolshevik government. The author presents selected achievements as the final victory of goodness reached by the nations of the Soviet Union thanks to their party politics and „the most scientific“ or marxist theory pushed ahead by the Communist Party. Jilemnický was a gifted writer, He tries to persuade his reader about documentary background and realism, writing tangibly, sensuously, with fictious authenticity. On one hand the author confirms his modernist stand but on the other he looks like a campaigner who from time to time presents his ideology with a certain vulgarity. He brings the so-called “art for the price of art” and selected or deformed ideologically unacceptable facts. His penetration into psychology of his characters strictly follows certain limits – doubtful attitude towards politics of the communist parties is out of question, true criticism of the soviet structures of power is not accepted. The characters are influenced by propaganda, speaking only within the framework allowed by ideological norms. In his work we can feel symptoms of schematical rhetoric which was later developed through “the construction” texts of the nineteen-fifties. Looking back after time we can say that the method of socialist realism never reached its complete fulfilment in all postulated and expected attributes. It never happened even in the book thought to be emblematic work representing and inspiring this method in our literature. The decisive criteria for evaluation of works in the fifth decade of the twentieth century became their ideological spectrum and the greatest possible closeness to masses, all of which was done at the expense of typification, truth and genuine artistic mastery. The texts coming from the mentioned period were written under the influence of totalitarian ideology and pressure of totalitarian power. Mainly we speak about production prose and construction poetry marked by the scheme and dogma of marxism – together with Kompas v nás (Our inner compass) we can see them as literary trash and literary curiosity in contemporary educational praxis.

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