Engineers of the human soul (Russian: Инженеры человеческих душ) - a concept of culture promoted by Joseph Stalin. (help· info) is the form usually used in English for the Russian name of Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin (Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), born with the Georgian name Ioseb Jugashvili (Georgian: ოისებ ჯუღაშილი, Russian: Иосиф Джугашвили); (18 December [O.S. 6 December] 1878[1] – 5 March 1953). ...

The phrase was originally coined by Yury Olesha and then used by Joseph Stalin, firstly during his meeting with the Soviet writers in preparation for the first Congress of the Union of Soviet Writers: Yury K. Olesha Yuri Olesha (Russian: , February 19, 1899 – May 10, 1960) was a Russian novelist. ... (help· info) is the form usually used in English for the Russian name of Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin (Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), born with the Georgian name Ioseb Jugashvili (Georgian: ოისებ ჯუღაშილი, Russian: Иосиф Джугашвили); (18 December [O.S. 6 December] 1878[1] – 5 March 1953). ...

The production of souls is more important than the production of tanks.... And therefore I raise my glass to you, writers, the engineers of the human soul. (Joseph Stalin, Speech at home of Maxim Gorky, 26 October 1932)

Stalin undoubtedly saw it as something to be proud of. It was taken up by Andrei Zhdanov and developed into the idea of 'Socialist realism' Gorkys autographed portrait Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov (In Russian Алексей Максимович Пешков) (March 28; March 16 Old Style, 1868–June 14, 1936), better known as Maxim Gorky (Максим Горький), was a Soviet/Russian author, a founder of the socialist realism literary method and a political activist. ... Andrei Zhdanov Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov (Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Жда́нов) (February 26 [O.S. February 14] 1896–August 31, 1948) was a Soviet politician. ... Roses for Stalin, Boris Vladimirski, 1949 Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style of realistic art which has as its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism. ...

The phrase is nowdaays mostly used in a negative sense, rejecting this and many other sorts of control. It gets applied also to the cutlural controls of Nazis, and also to some US culture.

Mao Zedong used same concept, though perhaps not the phrase itself (help· info) (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976; Mao Tse-tung in Wade-Giles) was the chairman of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China from 1943 and the chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from 1945 until his death in 1976. ...

"Works of literature and art, as ideological forms, are products of the reflection in the human brain of the life of a given society. Revolutionary literature and art are the products of the reflection of the life of the people in the brains of revolutionary writers and artists. (Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art, 1942)

Deng Xiaoping spoke approvingly of 'engineers of the human soul' in the post-Mao era, while also condemning the 'Gang of Four'. Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (help· info) (Simplified Chinese: 邓小平; Traditional Chinese: 鄧小平; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Teng Hsiao-ping; August 22, 1904–February 19, 1997) was a leader in the Communist Party of China (CPC). ... The Gang of Four on trial The Gang of Four (Simplified: 四人帮; Traditional: 四人幫; Hanyu Pinyin: ) was a group of Communist Party leaders in the Peoples Republic of China who were arrested and removed from their positions in 1976, following the death of Mao Zedong, and were blamed for the events...

See also

• Andrei Zhdanov
• Socialist realism

Andrei Zhdanov Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov (Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Жда́нов) (February 26 [O.S. February 14] 1896–August 31, 1948) was a Soviet politician. ... Roses for Stalin, Boris Vladimirski, 1949 Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style of realistic art which has as its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism. ...

External links

• Quotation source
• As applied to Soviet cinema
• Deng's 1979 speech
• Later use by Zhdanov
• Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art