In the Soviet Union, especially during the Cold War, all music produced was generally expected to conform to the ideals of the party.
The music was used as a "literary concept" to emphasize the ideal of the "Soviet man", and opposed folk-negating modernistic/bourgeois art.
[3] During the Cold War, the Red Army Ensemble played songs by composers like Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi, Anatoli Novikov, Matvey Blanter and Boris Mokrousov.
The Red Army Ensemble has won numerous awards (including the prestige of becoming an academic organization), played in over 70 countries, and now has a repertoire of over two thousand works.
[citation needed] They intrinsically belong to the Socialist Realism genre, which supported the Communist Party and sought progressive music that creatively depicted reality in the revolutionary era.
The actions, people, and settings described within the song are intentionally vague so that the overall theme appears generalized to any situation.
[citation needed] The Soviet organization Prokoll [ru] is credited with the creation of the mass song.
The organization was founded in 1925 and established most likely in response to previously failed attempts at creating accessible propaganda music.