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> There was no art, only pro-government communist propaganda

You’re conflating the Stalinist period with the whole history of the USSR.

Before there was Lenin, after there was Khrushchev, both explicitly considered art that is not pro-government communist propaganda as thing that should not exist.

By that standard, you would then need to conclude that all medieval artworks and renaissance artworks were not art but Catholic or royal propaganda.

During the medieval period and the Renaissance you totally could do art that had nothing to do with church and royals. In the Soviet Union you could not.

There is a famous quote of the judge on the Brodsky trial (1964): "Who have appointed you to be a Poet?". Аfter he sad that Soviet Government did no appointed him to be a Poet, he was sent in the gulag for 5 years. That is how "art" worked in the USSR.

The guilds regulated art in cities, and most of it was commissioned by the church or aristocracy. The Soviet Union might have been more severe but, like in the Soviet Union, you would have to do it privately unless you had support of the guilds, aristocracy or church. The comparison still holds.

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