Abstract
The Cold War was fought on many fronts, including the ideological one. The cultural front was a distinct part of this ideological front. Most arguments against Soviet culture hinged on ‘freedom of expression’, ‘dogmatic socialist realism’ and ‘censorship’. The history of Soviet cinema proved that despite the impediments the state created, filmmakers found ways of making films and getting their views across. Socialist realism as a canon to be followed existed, but that did not stop many different styles of filmmaking from flourishing. The Soviet socialist system had set up culture industries that did not run on profit. Instead, they were controlled by ideology. Nonetheless, several genres existed with their own distinctive Soviet styles and characteristics. The Soviet cinema industry was a vast network of multicultural, heterogeneous cinemas, with multiple and varied styles. Whatever the bureaucratic/state/party control exercised over filmmakers and the industries, directors and their crew, nonetheless, produced works that were reflective, that were critical and innovative. The greats of Soviet cinema contributed to world cinema and to the enrichment of the language of cinema worldwide. This chapter highlights the expression of creative freedom in Soviet times through the medium of cinema.
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Notes
- 1.
Cited in Samoe Vazhnoe iz. Vsekh Iskusstv, Lenin Kino (1963) (The Most Important of All Arts, Lenin about Cinema) Moscow: Iskusstvo, p. 124.
- 2.
Important films of this period include: Sergei and Georgy Vasilev’s Chapayev (1934), Alexander Dovzhenko’s Aerograd (1935), Grigory Alexandrov’s Circus (1936), Mikhail Room and Dmitry Vasiliev’s Lenin in October (1937), Vsevolod Pudovkin and Mikhail Doller’s Minin and Pozharsky (1938), Dovzhenko’s Schors (1939), Lev Kuleshov’s The Siberians (1940), Sergei Gerasimov’s Young Guard (1948) and Dovzhenko’s Michurin (1948).
- 3.
This competitiveness with Hollywood was an old one. Bulgakowa points out: “The distributors, theatre owners, film critics and officials wondered how this revolutionary film could compete with Hollywood. In the cinemas Potemkin was measured against Robin Hood starring Douglas Fairbanks. Film papers and magazines printed attendance figures as a duel between the USSR and the USA. During the first week Potemkin drew an audience of 29,458, but Robin Hood attracted only 21,282 viewers. In another theatre 39,405 people went to see Potemkin and only 33,960 bought tickets for Robin Hood.” Sergei Eisenstein: A Biography, Berlin: Bulgakowa, Potemkin Press, 2001, pp. 61–62.
- 4.
Original source: Kremlevskii kinoteatr, 1928–1953 (series: Kul’tura i vlast’ ot Stalina do Gorbachev dokumenty, Moscow: Rosspen, 2005) pp. 766–767. Retrieved from January 26, 2018, from http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1943-2/the-cult-of-leadership/the-cult-of-leadership-texts/central-committee-resolution-on-ivan-the-terrible/
- 5.
Vozhd I kultura: Perepiska Stalina s Deytelyami Literatyry i Iskusstvo, [The Leader and Culture: Stalin’s Correspondence with Writers and Artists] (2008). Moscow: Chelovek, p. 216.
- 6.
“Producer Eisenstein betrayed ignorance of historical facts in the second series of Ivan the Terrible, depicting Ivan’s progressive army, the oprichniki, as a gang of degenerates reminiscent of the American Ku Klux Klan. Ivan the Terrible, a man of strong will and character, is shown as a spineless weakling, as a Hamlet type.” Retrieved January 26, 2018, from http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1943-2/the-cult-of-leadership/the-cult-of-leadership-texts/central-committee-resolution-on-ivan-the-terrible/.
- 7.
Khudozhestvennoe Prostranstvo v Otechestvennykh Igrovykh Filmakh XX Veka, Kino Obrazovaniye, [Aesthetics of Space in Domestic Feature Films of the XX Century, Film Education, (2012), Moscow: Starklait, pp. 95–96.
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Doraiswamy, R. (2021). Looking Back at Soviet Cinema. In: Chenoy, A.M., Upadhyay, A. (eds) Hundred Years of the Russian Revolution. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4785-4_10
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