The only art method officially recognized in the USSR, designed to depict the vital ideals of a socialist society.

For the first time, the definition of socialist realism was given in 1934 at the First Congress of Soviet Writers: «Socialist realism, which is the main method of Soviet fiction and literary criticism, requires an artist to provide a truthful, historically concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development. Moreover, the veracity and historical concreteness of the medical image must be combined with the requirements of artistic alteration and education in the spirit of socialism».

This definition of socialist realism continued until the mid-80s.