In 1936, the new Stalinist constitution gave all Soviet citizens the right to vote. The first elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR took place on 12 December 1937. The press noted: "The election turned into a national holiday. Practically all residents of the country of voting age participated in the election". Alexander Volkov dramatised one of the fragments of the "national holiday" in a rural area. People, all dressed up, joyfully and excitedly rush to enter the polling station, and solemnly and sedately exit; an accordion player plays on the steps out front; the building is decorated with welcoming wall banners, posters, ribbons, and garlands with fluttering flags. The image grows to the scale of a public celebration in which new and old traditions, naïve enthusiasm and the thirst for a celebration are intertwined.

Volkov Alexander

VOLKOV, Alexander Vasilievich (1916, Moscow - 1978, Moscow)
Painter. Studied at the art studio of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (1935–1937), continued his studies at the Moscow Institute of Fine Arts (1937–1942). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1943). Actively worked in genre painting, combining it with scenes from everyday life and landscapes (1950s). From the 1960s to the end of his life, he was interested mostly in landscapes and finding solutions for formal tasks in the genre. Artistic director of the Academic Dacha House of Creativity (late 1940s early1 950s),instructor at the Vasily Surikov Institute of Art in Moscow (from 1962).