Conclusion

The commonalities that we can find between the two regimes and their attitudes to music and art in a broader sense is the exigence by which they wished to appeal to the masses. Under Mao and Stalin, music had to be universal and to appeal to the people. It should reflect the work and behaviour of the true good communist citizen. The aim of communism was, for both countries, universal.

However, on the opposite of the Russian attitude towards music and art which would praise its national glory, the Popular Republic of China chose to denounce and erase its past. Countries that would become communist after Russia were expected to follow Moscow’s orders and directives. Communist parties from capitalist countries acted only under direction of the Soviet. Before China, communism had a strong Russian appeal and connotation. Mao wanted to change this way and aimed at creating a communist world where each country would be working together but would remain independent from one another. This wish translated into the cultural policy of the PRC. While national pride and Russian cultural heritage had to be praised and re-written under Stalin, Chinese might had to be erased forever and a new culture had to emerge from it. These differences on a diplomatic and geopolitical scale had repercussions on the way music and art in general were conceived under the two regimes.