Bronenosets Potemkin/Potyomkin (The Battleship Potemkin)

Abstract

Voted the best film of all time by an international critics’ poll conducted in 1958, Sergei Eisenstein’ s The Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potemkin/Potyomkin, 1926) was produced in the Soviet Union at a time when that country was pioneering a new form of social and economic order: socialism. In the nationalised Soviet film industry the state controlled film production, a situation which highlights the relationship between art and politics during the early years of the Soviet regime. Indeed, many Russian artists, especially those of the left-wing avant-garde movements of the 1910s, hailed the 1917 Revolution and actively supported its cause, some by taking up posts in the political structures, others by putting their art at the service of the new ideals. At this time the state also realised cinema’s potential for agitation of the masses and for political propaganda. It is within this context that an analysis of The Battleship Potemkin must be located.