ABSTRACT
The expansion of socialist realism in post-1945 Central and Eastern Europe came as a result of the Yalta division of the Old Continent and the implementation of new cultural policy in the communist states, closely linked to political demands imposed by the Soviet Union. Among the principal factors behind this process was a belief in the universalism of socialist realist ideology, its pictorial form and worldwide application. As the successive art centers in Soviet-occupied Europe converted to the new artistic faith, socialist realism seemed to have acquired a status of new, global, painterly style, relevant and understood regardless of geography, local cultures, and historic traditions. Among the particular genres used to strengthen the message were the representations of non-European cultures and nations, engaged in the independence wars against colonial powers or proverbial American imperialism.
