Hot take: I’m actually not really a fan of socialist realism because it’s boring and quasi-reactionary. Socialist realism was only codified as “the” art style of the USSR after the Soviet bureaucracy began to reel in the craziness of the post-Revolutionary period in terms of new cultural forms. Constructivism (heavily supported by the Bolsheviks) is far more interesting and boundary pushing than socialist realism, while still upholding and working well with socialist values. If all art was just socialist realism I would be so sad.

I love this sort of style, mostly for the aesthetics, but also to dunk on libs when they claim ‘modern art isn’t real art because it doesnt look realistic’