Abstract
In the Soviet period, state policy on abortion underwent three significant changes: legalization in 1920, banning in 1936 and re-legalization in 1955. With reproduction and motherhood considered state concerns, the female body, and in particular the pregnant female body, became a key site for the promotion of the authorities’ socio-ideological agendas. Given the Soviet state’s appropriation of cinema as a tool for education and propaganda, these issues were often addressed on screen. This chapter provides a critical overview of the representation of abortion in films made between the early-Soviet 1920s and the Brezhnevite 1980s and assesses the extent to which Soviet cinema reflects, or actively promotes, the bio-political authority of the state. Considering the films in their socio-ideological contexts, the chapter examines their treatment of different types of authority and asks whether Soviet film-makers sought to challenge prevailing socio-ideological stances on abortion, female autonomy and gendered structures of authority.
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- 1.
Gromov , “Mamu sravnivaiut s Rodinoi.”
- 2.
Ibid.
- 3.
The Russian word for Motherland, “rodina,” is a feminine noun (often capitalized) linked to the verb “to give birth” [rozhat´/rodit´].
- 4.
Issoupova , “Motherhood and Russian Women,” 5.
- 5.
Fiction films tell a fictional/fictionalized story in which believable narratives and characters serve to convince the viewer that the world of the film and the events that take place there are real.
- 6.
Attwood , “Rodina-Mat´,” 15–28.
- 7.
Weber distinguished three types of legitimate authority: rational-legal, which depends on the rules and laws of a state or other organization; traditional, which derives legitimacy from long-standing customs and social conventions; and charismatic, which relies on the charisma of individual authority figures. Weber, “The Three Types of Legitimate Rule.”
- 8.
Gross Solomon, “The Demographic Argument,” 60.
- 9.
Ibid., 60–1.
- 10.
Graffy , Bed and Sofa, 19.
- 11.
Ibid.
- 12.
Ibid., 14–5.
- 13.
Ibid., 34.
- 14.
“De facto” (unregistered) marriage [fakticheskii brak] was passed into law in the Soviet Union in January 1927. Ibid., 49–50.
- 15.
Ibid., 65.
- 16.
Ibid., 66.
- 17.
Gross Solomon, “The Demographic Argument,” 61.
- 18.
Ibid., 62.
- 19.
Graffy, Bed and Sofa, 66.
- 20.
Burns , “An NEP Moscow Address,” 74, 78.
- 21.
Mayne , Kino and the Woman Question, 122–3, 125.
- 22.
Graffy, Bed and Sofa, 73.
- 23.
Ibid., 73–4.
- 24.
Ibid., 90–1.
- 25.
Ibid., 62.
- 26.
Youngblood , Movies for the Masses, 145.
- 27.
Avdeev et al., “The History of Abortion,” 41–2, 60.
- 28.
Ibid., 43.
- 29.
Graffy, Bed and Sofa, 101.
- 30.
Ibid., 108.
- 31.
On this film, see Widdis , “Child’s Play,” 327–8.
- 32.
We are grateful to Julian Graffy for providing us with his viewing notes on this film. We also thank him for reading early drafts of this chapter and for making many invaluable suggestions.
- 33.
It is noteworthy that here, as in some later films, a female doctor speaks against abortion. However, while the medical profession is no longer represented as a realm of male authority, as in Bed and Sofa, female medical personnel do not display compassion or understanding; instead, they are often brusquely dismissive, as here.
- 34.
This plot detail is confirmed in Sobolev , Iurii Zheliabuzhskii, 123–4 and in contemporary sources, such as “Lavry Miss Ellen Grei.”
- 35.
Goff, “Physical Culture,” 166.
- 36.
Graffy, “An Unpretentious Picture?” 311.
- 37.
The film’s pro-natalist message is bolstered by the fact that the protagonists work in a toy factory; accordingly, the film is “marked by the ubiquitousness of children” and their doting parents. Ibid., 306–7. See also Widdis, “Child’s Play.”
- 38.
Bridger, “Heroine Mothers,” 105.
- 39.
It seems likely that this intertextuality was intended. Documents recording a discussion of the script at the Mosfil´m studio reveal that the film was assigned to be made in Abram Room’s workshop. “Shirokoekrannogo goria u nas net,” 55.
- 40.
Ibid., 55–6.
- 41.
Graffy, “But Where Is Your Happiness,” 234.
- 42.
Woll , Real Images, 44.
- 43.
Randall , “Abortion,” 18.
- 44.
Ibid.
- 45.
Stishova , “Passions over Commissar,” 62–75.
- 46.
Randall, “Abortion,” 20.
- 47.
Stishova, “Passions over Commissar,” 67.
- 48.
This representation is gradually complicated, for motherhood transforms Vavilova: her “natural” femininity emerges, displacing the “masculine”/ideological persona of Commissar. Finally, however, Vavilova is faced with another choice: remain with her son or re-join her battalion to fight the Whites. For many viewers, her decision to leave the baby was even more contentious than her desire for an abortion. See Berghahn, “Do the Right Thing?” 568–70.
- 49.
Randall, “Abortion,” 21.
- 50.
Klimova , “Soviet Youth Films,” 138.
- 51.
Ibid., 147.
- 52.
Ibid., 145.
- 53.
Noffke, “Abortion Culture,” 29.
- 54.
Bridger , “Heroine Mothers,” 105, 107.
References
Filmography
Askol´dov, Aleksandr. 1967/1988. The Commissar [Komissar].
Egorov, Iurii. 1981. One Day Twenty Years Later [Odnazhdy dvadtsat’ let spustia].
Ermler, Fridrikh. 1928. The Parisian Cobbler [Parizhskii sapozhnik].
Gall, Mark. 1930. I Don’t Want a Child [Ne khochu rebenka].
Gerasimov, Sergei. 1957–58. And Quiet Flows the Don [Tikhii Don].
Ioganson, Eduard. 1934. The Crown Prince of the Republic [Naslednyi prints respubliki].
Liubimov, Pavel. 1966. The Women [Zhenshchiny].
———. 1979. A School Waltz [Shkol´nyi val´s].
Men´shov, Vladimir. 1980. Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears [Moskva slezam ne verit].
Nikiforov, Viacheslav. 1981. Fruza. TV.
Ordynskii, Vasilii. 1956. A Person is Born [Chelovek rodilsia].
Room, Abram. 1927. Bed and Sofa [Tret´ia Meshchanskaia].
Savchenko, Igor´. 1936. A Chance Encounter [Sluchainaia vstrecha].
Zheliabuzhskii, Iurii. 1935. Miss Ellen Grey’s Laurels [Lavry Miss Ellen Grei].
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Carlyle, S., Morley, R. (2020). The Politics of Reproduction: Abortion and Authority in Soviet Cinema. In: Bardazzi, A., Bazzoni, A. (eds) Gender and Authority across Disciplines, Space and Time. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45160-8_12
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