The concept of "socialist realism" first appeared in 1932, which is directly related to the fate of "Lapp" (abbreviation of Russian Federation of Proletarian Writers). Lapp, who was active from 1922 to 1932, once put forward the slogan of "no fellow travelers, only allies or enemies", and practiced closed-doorism and exclusivism in organization, and included all "non-proletarian writers" including Gorky, Tolstoy and ehrenburg in another book. In line with this intention of "team building", in theory, "Lapp" also strives to formulate a "creative method" that dominates the overall situation and everyone obeys. In the late 1920s, "Lapp" and its main leaders successively put forward new concepts such as "proletarian realism", "grand, heroic and romantic realism" and applied them to literary theories and criticisms at that time. 1929, availe Bach, fadeev, Ermilov and others put forward the so-called "dialectical materialism creation method". 1930, Fadev wrote an article explaining this "method" and put forward various specific requirements for writers and their creative activities. This "creative method" was once considered as an accurate expression of the "new art program".

Although the intention of "Lapp" to establish a unified literary pattern in organization and theory existed in the 1920s, it was difficult to realize it at once because of the social conditions and literary atmosphere at that time. Russia's * * * (Bolshevik) Central Committee 1925 "On the Party's Policy in Literature" clearly advocates "free competition among all kinds of literature and schools" and "no group, even the most proletarian in ideological content, can allow monopoly". Bukharin also pointed out that "the principle of competition between freedom and anarchism" cannot be rejected in literature. These policies and propositions, to a certain extent, curbed "Lapp"' s attempt to achieve a unified pattern of literature. But in the 1930s, the situation was completely different, and the highly centralized and unified political and economic system required the unification of literature. "Rapp" once felt that his good opportunity had arrived, and he was likely to dominate the literary world and have a bright future. It is precisely because it has made too many enemies that it cannot become a truly prestigious and cohesive organization in the unified pattern, and its "dialectical materialism creation method" cannot become a slogan and banner that unifies all writers' thoughts because of its obvious vulgarity. This objective situation determines that the realization of literary unification must be based on the denial of "Lapp", so1the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the resolution of "rectifying literary and art groups" in April, 932.

This resolution announced the cancellation of all writers' groups, including Lapp, and began to prepare for the establishment of a unified Soviet writers' association; At the same time, it also decided to formulate a "unified ideological principle-creative method" for the literary world. The former editor-in-chief of Izvestia was in charge of these two tasks, and he was appointed as the chairman of the organizing committee of the Soviet Writers' Association. Shortly after the resolution was issued, the leaders of "Lapp" made two suggestions to the Central Committee at a meeting attended by Stalin and Lonski. First, an independent "proletarian literature organization" was established within the writers' association; The second is to regard "dialectical materialism creation method" as the basic creation method of Soviet literature. However, both proposals were rejected. In fact, before this meeting, Stalin had talked to Goranski alone (at the end of April or early May, 1932) and asked him what he thought of the creative method. Lonsky expressed his firm opposition to Lapp's "dialectical materialism creation method" and suggested that the creation method of Soviet literature be called "proletarian socialist realism, or more precisely, * * * production realism". Stalin said to wronski, "You have found the correct way to solve the problem, but the expression of it is not very accurate. What do you think if we call the creative method of Soviet literature and art socialist realism? " Then, Stalin explained the advantages of this formulation. Wronski naturally agreed with Stalin unconditionally. On May 20 of the same year, Gerhard Ronsky announced at the activist meeting of the Moscow Literature Group: "Socialist realism is the basic method of Soviet literature." This historical fact clearly tells us that Stalin himself first named the creative method of Soviet literature "socialist realism".

Gorky did not participate in the whole process. He has been living abroad since the autumn of 192 1. He only went back to China for a few months every year during 1928, 1929, 193 1 year, during which he never expressed his opinions on "the creation method of Soviet literature". But what is certain is that Gorky resolutely opposes the so-called "dialectical materialism creation method" and severely criticizes Rapp's overbearing style and vulgar sociological literary proposition.

Stalin didn't want to keep the title of "founder of socialist realism" for himself, because it was somewhat inappropriate and his words were not fluent. So, 1932, 10/0 On October 26th, Stalin held a literary forum in Gorky's apartment on Little Nikita Street in Moscow. Attending tonight's meeting are five members from the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and 45 writers, poets and critics from the Soviet Union. At the symposium, Stalin said in response to a question raised by a poet: "Artists should describe life truly. If he will truly describe life, it is impossible for him not to notice and reflect on what has led to socialism in life. This will be socialist realism. " This remark is a symbol of Stalin's public advocacy of "socialist realism". If what Stalin said to Lonsky is meaningful for naming creative methods, then the conversation in Gorky apartment during 10 is to convey his personal views to the whole literary world through a large number of famous writers. This is obviously more authoritative than Lonsky's announcement on May 20. At this point, the word "socialist realism" has achieved an unshakable position.

There are two things worth noting during this period: first, although the literary symposium held on 1932, 10/26 was held in Gorky's apartment, Gorky never talked about what creative methods Soviet writers should use all night, let alone the concept of "socialist realism"; Secondly, on October 29th, 10/0, the organizing committee of the Soviet Writers' Association held its first plenary meeting. Gilbertin, secretary of the committee, gave a report on demonstrating "socialist realism", and Gorky left the Soviet Union for Italy on this day.

In the following two years, the Soviet literary circle discussed the problem of creative methods, and more than 300 articles appeared. However, the contents of these papers are limited to discussing the characteristics of "socialist realism" and how this method should treat and deal with a series of internal and external relations of literature. No, it is impossible for anyone to doubt the term "socialist realism" itself, let alone put forward other concepts. By May 1934, when the Organizing Committee of Writers' Association held the third plenary meeting to summarize this discussion, it had made a "complete statement" on "socialist realism" in the theoretical part of the draft articles of association of Soviet Writers' Association, and the definition of "socialist realism" that people often quoted and were familiar with later was completely formed. The first congress of Soviet writers held more than three months later was just a formality and a procedure. The definition of "socialist realism" was formally written into the constitution of the Soviet Writers Association.