The Artists and BAM: “Come and Draw, Again and Again”

Soviet fine art contains a large number of works with industrial themes, including those devoted to the great construction sites of socialism. The construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) influenced the country’s development not only in economic and social aspects, but also had a direct impact on the cultural background, giving a new impetus to the activity of creative unions and the emergence of works of various types of art. The BAM theme is talentedly reflected in the creative field of Soviet fine arts. The appearance of numerous pictorial, graphic, sculptural, decorative and applied works was facilitated by the travelling format of artists’ work — creative business trips. Artists travelled to BAM construction sites, witnessing and participating in everyday life and holidays. Thanks to their inclusion and immersion in the environment, the masters of fine arts created works of various genres that accurately and vividly reflected the moments of the construction of the railway. Subsequently, the works were presented at various exhibitions. Nowadays, preserved in museum and private collections, they are an invaluable aesthetic and historical contribution to understanding the spirit and character of that era. The study of the activities of the Union of Artists of the USSR (as a whole as a regulator) and its branch represented by the Irkutsk Organisation of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR (as one of the local executors) is essential for understanding the effective mechanism of fulfilling the social order related to the representation of the global events of the 1970s for the Soviet state. The Irkutsk organisation of the RSFSR Union of Artists was territorially connected with the western section of BAM, and the archival documents provide an opportunity to comprehend the peculiarities of the microstructure’s activity in the conditions of the targeted work of the entire Union of Soviet artists on the BAM theme.

1. Shinkovoi A.I. (ed.) Irkutskie khudozhniki o BAMe: vystavka: katalog [Irkutsk Artists About BAM: exhibition: catalogue]. Irkutsk, 1980, 18 p.

2. Minutes of General Meetings and Related Documents, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii — filial Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Irkutskoi oblasti [Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History — Branch of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region], coll. 2802, aids 2, fol. 156, 23 p. (in Russ.).

3. Rabota Pravleniya Soyuza khudozhnikov RSFSR: noyabr’ 1972 — noyabr’ 1976 gg. [The Activity of the Board of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR: November 1972 — November 1976]. Leningrad, Khudozhnik RSFSR Publ., 1976, 126 p.

4. Minutes of the Report-Election and General Meetings and Related Documents, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii — filial Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Irkutskoi oblasti [Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History — Branch of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region], coll. 2802. Op 2, fol. 127, 37 p. (in Russ.).

5. Correspondence with the Boards of the Union of Artists of the USSR and RSFSR on the Main Activities, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii — filial Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Irkutskoi oblasti [Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History — Branch of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region], coll. 2802, aids 2, fol. 141, 90 p. (in Russ.).

6. Zular R.Yu. The Activity of Party Organisations of Irkutsk Region in the Postwar Period of BAM Construction, Zapadnyi uchastok BAMa: proshloe, nastoyashchee i budushchee: ocherki istorii, geografii kul’tury: K 50-letiyu Baikalo-Amurskoi magistrali [The Western Section of BAM: Past, Present and Future: Essays of History, Geography of Culture: To the 50th Anniversary of the Baikal-Amur Mainline]. Irkutsk, 2023, 367 p. (in Russ.).

7. Annual Work Plan for 1975, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii — filial Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Irkutskoi oblasti [Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History — Branch of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region], coll. 2802, aids 2, fol. 148, 6 p. (in Russ.).

8. Minutes of the Report-Election and General Meetings and Related Documents, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii — filial Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Irkutskoi oblasti [Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History — Branch of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region], coll. 2802, aids 2, fol. 146, 59 p. (in Russ.).

9. Correspondence with the Boards of the Unions of Artists of the USSR and RSFSR on the Main Activities, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii — filial Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Irkutskoi oblasti [Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History — Branch of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region], coll. 2802, aids 2, fol. 152, 85 p. (in Russ.).

10. Correspondence with the Boards of the Unions of Artists of the USSR and RSFSR on the Main Activities, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii — filial Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Irkutskoi oblasti [Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History — Branch of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region], coll. 2802, aids 2, fol. 172, 52 p. (in Russ.).

11. Vostochno-Sibirskaya pravda: gazeta [The East Siberian Truth: newspaper]. 1979, July, special issue, 8 p.

12. Correspondence with the Boards of the Unions of Artists of the USSR and RSFSR on the Main Activities, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii — filial Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Irkutskoi oblasti [Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History — Branch of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region], coll. 2802, aids 2, fol. 161, 83 p. (in Russ.).

13. Minutes of the Report-Election and General Meetings and Related Documents, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii — filial Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Irkutskoi oblasti [Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History — Branch of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region], coll. 2802, aids 2, fol. 166, 55 p. (in Russ.).

14. Correspondence with the Boards of the Unions of Artists of the USSR and RSFSR on the Main Activities, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii — filial Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Irkutskoi oblasti [Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History — Branch of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region], coll. 2802, aids 2, fol. 181, 48 p. (in Russ.).

15. Minutes of Board Meetings, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii — filial Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Irkutskoi oblasti [Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History — Branch of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region], coll. 2802, aids 2, fol. 176, 90 p. (in Russ.).

16. Vereshchagina S. Artists About BAM, Vostochno-Sibirskaya Pravda [The East Siberian Truth]. 1978, November 30, no. 274, p. 4. (in Russ.).

17. Minutes of the Report-Election and General Meetings and Related Documents, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii — filial Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Irkutskoi oblasti [Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History — Branch of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region], coll. 2802, aids 2, fol. 184, 76 p. (in Russ.).

18. Khabarova M.V. (ed.) My stroim BAM: Vserossiiskaya khudozhestvennaya vystavka: al’bom [We Are Building BAM: All-Russian Art Exhibition: album]. Leningrad, Khudozhnik RSFSR Publ., 1980, 142 p.

19. Minutes of the Meetings of the Bureau of the Regional Committee of the CPSU from no. 6 to no. 8 for May, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii — filial Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Irkutskoi oblasti [Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History — Branch of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region], coll. 127, aids 106, fol. 21, 105 p. (in Russ.).

20. Soktoeva I.I., Khabarova M.V.(eds.) BAM postroen: po materialam Vserossiiskoi khudozhestvennoi vystavki “Khudozhniki Sovetskoi Rossii — BAMU”: al’bom [BAM Is Built: Based on the Materials of the All-Russian Art Exhibition “Artists of Soviet Russia Painting BAM: album]. Leningrad, Khudozhnik RSFSR Publ., 1987, 120 p.

21. Minutes of General Meetings and Related Documents, Tsentr dokumentatsii noveishei istorii — filial Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Irkutskoi oblasti [Centre for Documentation of Contemporary History — Branch of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region], coll. 2802, aids 2, fol. 121, 38 p. (in Russ.).