Creative freedom or creative understanding of socialist realism

The freedom of the artist can be discussed in two aspects: socio-political and aesthetic. The artist is free in a socio-political sense when his work is not persecuted by the laws of society. This is the basic freedom that the great artists of the past lacked. "Genius," wrote Pencho Slaveykov, "always causes inconvenience. That is his feat." And indeed, it was a feat for the artist to preserve himself, to defend his independence against the attacks of society. Few have endured this struggle. Many artists have experienced the great sorrow of seeing harmful influences spread like poison in their souls, of seeing barely nascent ideas wither away. How much humiliation before the official authorities they have endured, how much cruel sorrow for the neglected pride of the creator. Today, we do not have the conditions that killed Geo Milev or, a little earlier, Yavorov. That is why I will not dwell on this side of the issue.