Sergei Tret’iakov : the aesthetics of political documentalism and productivism : introduction

Sergei Tret’iakov appears a unique figure in Russian intercultural scene of the early Soviet epoch. He was actively engaged in a number of ground-breaking creative projects many of which are analyzed and explained in the current essay sub specie common notions of modernism, documentalism, productionalism, and political aesthetics in general. The unique synthetic nature of Tret’iakov’s socialist modernism could be described in a variety of ways, notably via his active participation in several characteristic Avant-Garde projects such as LEF or his preoccupation with the theoretical sides of the cultural production of his time (this discursive cluster includes his veshch’-theory which is discussed at length in the introductory article)