Regimentation of the Musical Front

UCLA Honors Departmental Independent Research Thesis 

Joseph Stalin used cultural censorship to motivate the government as a collective to continue enacting his oppressive policies during his reign in the Soviet Union, subsequently demotivating the general population’s resistance to such political actions. The rhetoric in Stalin’s speeches are observed to have a relationship with the features of censored and approved music after the implementation of his first two Five Year Plans (1929-1940). The difference in compositional elements based on government approval following Stalin’s implementation of the first Five-Year Plan was hypothesized to illustrate the use of musical censorship to maintain power. Findings reveal a reduction in elements that emphasized individuality and experimentation and an increase in those associated with militarism (straight rhythms, homophony) and regimentation (decreased interval complexity, syncopation, and dissonance). Both speeches and song lyrics used distancing rhetoric between the rulers and the ruled, elevating the government’s efforts, distinctively elevating Stalin as the head of state, and collectivizing the general population subject to the government’s leadership. The alignment between Stalin’s rhetoric and musical censorship over the course of the first two Five-Year plans illustrates how autocratic regimes manipulate culture to enforce regimentation and expand their control of society.