SOCIALIST REALISM, as enforced by the Soviet Union in 1934, was more than just an art movement or a shared sensibility. It was the representation of Soviet identity, and a representation addressing a national audience that was extremely receptive. In fact, the high level of reciprocation that existed between this imagery and its subjects—the tenants of communal apartments—suggests that socialist realism cannot be grasped apart from communal perception. The genre was an integral part of an immense system, something that today is impossible to fit into crates. Technically, socialist