Stalinist counter revolution was experienced in all aspects of life, both in the USSR and in the global Communist movement. As part of the project of establishing political hegemony the Stalinist bureacracy sought to develop and enforce particular styles of cultural production. In literature the preferred style was socialist realism. This session will start by discussing debates that occurred in and around the Soviet Writers Congress of 1934 about the nature of proletarian art, modernism and socialist realism and conclude with an investigation of the politics of the Popular Front.