Final answer:
After 1917, Russian progressive artists used constructivism to influence the masses. Propagandistic posters and other media were utilized to promote Bolshevik ideology and transform society, although there was some initial artistic debate before the homogenization of themes under Stalin.
Step-by-step explanation:
After 1917, progressive artists in Russia influenced the masses by using constructivism, an artistic movement that merged art, ideology, and technology in utilitarian objects such as propagandistic posters, theatre, and stage sets for political rallies. The constructivist movement held the belief that art should be used for social purposes, rejecting the idea of autonomous art, while suprematism, another movement of the era, focused on abstract art using geometric shapes. Following the October Revolution, artists were urged by Lenin and the Bolshevik leadership to support the new regime through their work, effectively becoming part of the propaganda machine. This led to a saturation of Soviet society with Bolshevik symbols and imagery, designed to initiate dramatic transformations in society and align its values with those of the ruling party.
The political posters, in particular, were a vital part of this as they encouraged the Soviet people to unite under common goals and facilitated the promotion of a new type of atheistic, and egalitarian society. However, this use of art as a propaganda tool was not entirely uncontested; there were intense discussions and some dissenting views among the artists. But by the late 1930s, Stalin's regime centralized the production of propaganda materials, and socialist realism became the dominant method, leading to a homogenization of themes across artistic fields.