[throwaway74354]

wiki article on the subject isn't bad.

1) Formalism was called Bourgeois Formalism by the state critics. Elitist art, opposite of what would become Socialist Realism.

2) If you click the names at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_formalism , some of the biographies will lead you to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootless_cosmopolitan . Being a Jew in the USSR was an additional risk.

3) Slightly later in history, but typical use of formalism-as-a-prejorative : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhdanov_Doctrine

tldr: young authoritarian states need enemies. Both internal and external. Repression of any form of dissent is a way to unite (or scare into submission) the masses. See also: "degenerative art" in Germany. Also being apolitical is a political statement.

There's a good timeline of the 20s in Russian: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%8C%D0%B1...