The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

The article provides insight into the specifics of the content of Russian art pedagogy in 1920s–1930s, as exemplified in the theory and practice of teaching various subjects related to the introduction to art. It is shown how the ideological approach gained momentum in this area leading to such consequences as shortening the training time for art teachers and decreasing the number of specialised schools, and most importantly, simplifying the forms and content of artworks, which were analysed primarily in terms of their ‘usefulness’. Examples are given of how some psychologists and art teachers (first of all, L. S. Vygotsky and A. V. Bakushinsky) were able, at least in part, to keep their focus on the depth of the aesthetic content of artworks and on their individual perception. It is argued that the well-known theorist of Christian pedagogy V. V. Zenkovsky, though recognising the strength and positive significance of the aesthetic impact on students but opposing the religious and moral movements of the soul, underestimated the importance of beauty in bearing witness to spiritual values. It is concluded that within the Marxist conceptual approach it was the deepening of the aesthetic component in art pedagogy that turned out to be a form of preserving its spiritual content.