Rebellion
Socialist Realism, during and after the thaw, had become more rebellious in both its official and unofficial forms. Soviet artists and writers used their works as an avenue for protest. Though Sots Art criticized the state more overtly, Socialist Realism's transformation into the Severe Style portrayed a form of dissent as well, by refusing to conform to the state's prescribed form of art. Literature during this period attacked Stalin's actions more veraciously than even the Sots Arts, as it openly described the deplorable conditions Soviets lived in under the communist regime. An art movement once used by the state as propaganda had become a tool of defying the very state that had created it.