So let’s say I wanted to become a painter in the USSR how would I achieve that. I know that you could go to school for say engineering and then get assigned a job when you got out of school so did it work the same way for artistic endeavors? Or would you first get assigned a job and then in your free time pursue the artistic endeavor. Basically, were you an artist first, or where you say a steelworker who was an artist second until you got enough of a base to pursue being an artist full time?
If you had talent as a child/youth you could get to a musical high school/academy (depend on availibity and geography ofc). Otherwise you would have to go ameteur first, but in socialist coutry it was way easier going to professional (because of the mass support that culture got on every level of administration) and the “showbusiness” was way less corrupted than in capitalist coutries so money meant much less and actual talent much more.