Sokyrko A. The activities of the associations of artists of the USSR (1920s - early 1930's): the socio-political context.

The thesis research is devoted to the analysis of the activity of the associations of artists of the Ukrainian SSR in the 1920s - early 1930s in the context of socio-political processes that influenced the development of culture in general and fine arts in particular. After the Soviet power was finally set up, the Bolshevik Party treated fine art, primarily as a means of propaganda and agitation. The policy of korenization and Ukrainization objectively contributed to the development of culture. However, since the end of the 1920's, in the context of the rollback of the NEP and the gradual abandoning of Ukrainianization, the tendency of active party intervention in the creative process became dominant. The renewal of artistic personnel by creation new or reforming existing arts colleges became a separate area of state policy. In the 1920's, Odesa Art Institute, Kharkiv Art College and Kyiv Art Institute functionated in the Ukrainian SSR. On the basis of traditional ceramic production, Mezhyhirsky Art and Ceramics College was founded. Their curricula and structure was reorganized according to the new requirements of the time. In particular, a lot of attention was paid to the productive activity of students who, along with their teachers, traveled to the industrial regions of the country, combining artistic process with the tasks set by the authorities. In addition, teachers and students were among the largest Ukrainian artists' associations. In the context of a relatively liberal cultural policy in the 1920s and early 1930s, various artistic associations functioned in the Ukrainian SSR; the largest of them were the K. K. Kostandi Art Society, the Association of the Revolutionary Art of Ukraine, the Association of Painters of the Red Ukraine, Association of Contemporary Ukrainian Artists and Association of Young Artists of Ukraine. All the associations declared the goal of creating a new Soviet art, understandable for population masses and at the same time conformed to the ideological concepts of a new Soviet reality. Apart from them, only the K. K. Kostandi Society was functioning. That is why it was the first among the associations to be dissolved.