Gerasimov’s celebration of a very abundant harvest is propaganda. Soviet farms were not producing well, and the nation suffered chronic harvest shortages. Stalin’s propaganda program deemed otherwise, and the artists and writers were instructed to portray a land of plenty and prosperity according to the rules of Social Realism. Gerasimov’s farmers are happy and well-fed happy. The official line is that life is a picnic. Not.
See Aleksandr Gerasimov. Collective Farm Harvest Festival (1937), oil on canvas. Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow; http://soviethistory.org/images/Large/1954/gerasimovfeast.jpg