Nikolai Pogodin

His plays were recognized in Soviet Union theater for their realistic portrayals of common life[1] combined with socialist and communist themes.

[4] In 1936, the government commissioned, under the People's Commissariat of Education, a collection of writers and directors to make films depicting Lenin and also the revolution in an approved format and presentation style.

Pogodin also provided a report on children's literature at the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Union of Soviet Writers in 1946.

[6] Despite working under restrictive creative conditions, Pogodin did support the primary journal for "permitted, formal" dissent at the time, Novyi Mir.

His later works, Poema o topore (A Poem about an Ax, 1930)[9] and Moi Drug (My Friend, 1930)[10] also touched on themes of soviet industrialism and ingenuity.

Kogda lomaiutsya kop'ya (When the Spears Break, 1953) was a comedy; Sonet Petrarki (Petrarch's Sonnet, 1956) "takes the position that there are certain individual matters--personal feelings and affairs of the heart--which are none of the collective's or the Party's business.

The works of Nikolai Pogodin fall under, or closely adhere to, the wider artistic movement known as Socialist realism.

[12][13] Pogodin being a Socialist Realist playwright created his works by taking topics that were prevalent in early Soviet history.

In 1933, Pogodin took part in a carefully organized writers' tour of the White Sea–Baltic Canal that was being constructed with prison labor.

Despite the period of the Great Purge marking a shift for plots focusing on internal and external threats to the Soviet cause or Stalin, Pogodin pushed for writing that averted the simplistic to penetrate "people's traumatized psyches" in order to achieve healing.

[15] Risking the ire of Kremlin and Soviet censors, Pogodin resisted attempts of the government under the guise of Socialist realism to hide the impact of policies on his characters.

"[17] The play was later televised, quickly recognized by the Kremlin and panned by Pravda for insulting the "patriotic movement" of communism.