Figure 1.--

Russian film making is dominated by the Soviet Union (1918-92). The Soviet film industry was dominated by Russia, but the Soviet Union was a multi-mational empire in whivh many non-Russians were involved. It was a heavily censored industry with ideology being at the center of most films until well after Stalin's death. Gradually censorship declined, although was never totally absent. Early Soviet films and Stalinist-era films were to a large degree propaganda vehicles. Thus aristocrats and wealthy people were depicted and evil, often cruel peoples. Few nuiances were permitted here. A Russian reader writes, "In the early era ideology was the main point for the Soivet cinema. Lenin wrote, that "Of all arts the most important for us [i.e. Bolsheviks] -- it is cinema", His point was evidently that in a country with a big proportion of illiterate people, cinema can play the most important role in a propaganda. The arts flourished in the USSR of 20s. Official censorship was considered as "descendance of Tsarist regime". All artistic disciplines flourished: literature, theater, cinema, and so on. But there was another side to the 1920s. s a result of the 1917 Revolution, many people from the working class became ministers, politics, engineers, writers, art directors, artists and so on. Most unprepared for their new responsibilities. There were some really talented people, but most of them were badly educated, almost illiterate, and had enormous ambitions. They claimed, that they were only "right" writers and artists, because their origins were from the working class. All poets, writers etc. whose parents were not poor workers/farmers were seen with suspicion. , There were charges of "class enemies". Soviet films painted wealthy people like fat, cruel, greedy, unfair, cowards, supporters of war and so on. In fact, not only wealth - ANY symbol of the "west-styled" life, for example jazz, considered by Soviet authorities as a threat to "revolutionary ideology". Slogans like "Sevodnya on igraet dzhaz, zavtra Rodinu prodast!" ("Today he plays jazz, tomorrow he will sell his own Motherland") were very widespread. [HBC note: Note the similarity with the NAZIs who also despised jazz.] Censorship in Soviet union existed on all levels - from a writing a screenplay to a final cut. Censorship was often in hands of badly educated self-centered bureaucrats, who's main fear was "What will happen to me if "the Chief" won't like something?". So they cut from movies even absolutely innocent scenes. After the 20th Party Congress and Khrechev's denunciation of Stalin, propaganda in films began to decline, albeit slowly. Communist Party leaders understood that Stalinist-era bombastic propaganda was too primitive and thus ineffective. After Stalin's death and Khrechev's denuciation, attitudes in arts began to change. We suspect that there that the Khrechev thaw hadened again after he was outsted (1964), but our infornation at this time is limited. The general trend was to gradually reduce the ideological content of Soviet Films. Especially by the 1970s and 80s Soviet children (and not only children) movies were totally split up from the ideology.

Chronology

Early-Soviet Period (1920s)

Early Soviet films and Stalinist-era films were to a large degree propaganda vehicles. Thus aristocrats and wealthy people were depicted and evil, often cruel peoples. Few nuiances were permitted here. A Russian reader writes, "In the early era ideology was the main point for the Soivet cinema. Lenin wrote, that "Of all arts the most important for us [i.e. Bolsheviks] -- it is cinema", His point was evidently that in a country with a big proportion of illiterate people, cinema can play the most important role in a propaganda. The economy including the film industry ground to a halt as a result of World war I, the Revolution, and the Civil War. Only after the Civil War ended (1921) did the economy and film making begin to recover. The 1920s was a special, I'd say very special times in the Soviet Union. Many Bolsheviks were very idealistic. They were true believers in Communism and desired to build "a state of absoulute freedom". Many idealistic experiments occurred in the 1920s. When the economy began to collapse from doctrinarine Marxist economics, Lennin rescued it with capitalist reforms--the New Economic Policy (NEP). Free enterprise even with Western companies participating, helped the economy recover. The Bolsheviks retained a monopoly on political power. The era was similar in many ways to what happened in China during the 1970s-- the "Chinese Socialism" of Deng Xiaoping. Many Russian historiand speculate thsat if Stalin had not cased power and canceled these economic policies, the history of Russia and the Soviet Union could have been very different. One of the most interesting area of developmebnts during this era is the arts. The arts flourished in the USSR of 20s. Official censorship was considered as "descendance of Tsarist regime". All artistic disciplines flourished: literature, theater, cinema, and so on. But there was another side to the 1920s. s a result of the 1917 Revolution, many people from the working class became ministers, politics, engineers, writers, art directors, artists and so on. Most unprepared for their new responsibilities. There were some really talented people, but most of them were badly educated, almost illiterate, and had enormous ambitions. They claimed, that they were only "right" writers and artists, because their origins were from the working class. All poets, writers etc. whose parents were not poor workers/farmers were seen with suspicion. , There were charges of "class enemies". As you can see, a measure of talent they replaced with a measure of "right class origins". The main center of such "writers" was the Russian Association of Proletary Writers (RAPP). They dominated Soviet literature and art during the 1920s. They in essence replaced Tsarist censorship with their own Soviet censorship. If a book, movie, or drama was in their opinion "politically or ideologically wrong" they began to persecute the. He was not allowed to publish. Critical articles appeared in publications. Letters to the Soviet secret police (OGPU/NKVD) might be written describing "anti-revolutional deeds". Sometimes Soviet artists would disagree and there would be conflict within the artistic community. This was ended by Stalin who by the late-1920s had complete control of the Russian Communist Party and was seizing control of the Soviet state. Stalin intervened to end what he saw as the "anarchy" in the arts. Stalin acted against both sides of the artistic debate--independant writers and RAPP as well. Stalin did not want uncontrolled fanatics, even if they were "of right origins" and "true communists". Stalin wished to control everything himself.

Stalinist Era (1930-56)

Soviet films painted wealthy people like fat, cruel, greedy, unfair, cowards, supporters of war and so on. In fact, not only wealth - ANY symbol of the "west-styled" life, for example jazz, considered by Soviet authorities as a threat to "revolutionary ideology". Slogans like "Sevodnya on igraet dzhaz, zavtra Rodinu prodast!" ("Today he plays jazz, tomorrow he will sell his own Motherland") were very widespread. [HBC note: Note the similarity with the NAZIs who also despised jazz.] Censorship in Soviet union existed on all levels - from a writing a screenplay to a final cut. Censorship was often in hands of badly educated self-centered bureaucrats, who's main fear was "What will happen to me if "the Chief" won't like something?". So they cut from movies even absolutely innocent scenes. And if to remind Stalin's times - one time NKVD arrested and executed a mechanic of the cinema theatre, when during the movie demonstration a film suddenly stopped (apparatus jammed). But one of the spectators was Stalin, that's all. Those today who criticize Soviet people for compling with the system should understand that critics during the Stalinist era were committing suicide. What strategies did Soviet film-makers use to evade the violent censorship during the Stalinist era? First, they hid their criticism in a comedy genre. In United States, as you know, comedy is a "light" genre full of praffalls, slapstick, funny characters and corny jokes. Comedies and comedians never were a really respected segment of Hollywood. For example Bob Hope and other major comics never won Academy Awards (Oscars). Commedies do not appear on the lists of great movies. U.S. cinema blockbusters like "Save Private Ryan" or monumental dramas like "Gone With the Wind" won the Oscars. In the Soviet Union. comedies became the most popular genre for movie goers. That was primarily because in a comedy genres people seen real events and real criticism of those events. May be it sounds like a paradox, but in the USSR comedies could be considered as a most serious movies. If in Stalin's times somebody tried to critcise a Soviet system and it's omnipresent bureaucrats, he'd be doomed to die or to rot away somewhere far in the North. But when such a "Soviet bureaucrat" - badly educated, cowardly and so on - was depicted in a comedy "Volga-Volga" in 1938, it was well appreciated even by authorities. That comedy was one of the beloved movies of Stalin, although main antagonist, bureaucrat Byvalov, was depicted there even in a suit very close to usual suit of Stalin. Stalinist-era films were made with heavy ideological content (1930s-50s).

Late-Soviet Era (1956-91)

After the 20th Party Congress and Khrechev's denunciation of Stalin, propaganda in films began to decline, albeit slowly. Communist Party leaders understood that Stalinist-era bombastic propaganda was too primitive and thus ineffective. After Stalin's death and Khrechev's denuciation, attitudes in arts began to change. We suspect that there that the Khrechev thaw hadened again after he was outsted (1964), but our infornation at this time is limited. The general trend was to gradually reduce the ideological content of Soviet Films. Especially by the 1970s and 80s Soviet children (and not only children) movies were totally split up from the ideology. Certainly, there were movies about revolution and civil war, where "red" were always "good boys" and "white" - "bad boys", but even such films became a usual adventure films, so beloved with all children in all countries, with pursuits, fights, secrets and so on (like cowboys and indinans movies in America). And movies about present-day life, like "Adventures of a small Daddy", were totally free from ideology. HBC is unsure that propaganda entirely disappeared from late-Soviet era films, but there were certainly films made wihout ideological content and the ideological content was certainly more nuanced. A factor here was the growing influence of non-Russians and film stufios in the various republics, especially in the Baltics.

Republic Studios

In the Soviet Union there were at least 15 national movie studios, i.e. at least one per each Soviet respublic (Belarusfilm, Moldovafilm, Uzbekfilm, Gruziafilm and so on). Ukraine for example had more than one cinema studio (Ukrtelefilm, Dovjenko stuido, Odessa cinema stusio and so on). The most numerous, surely, were the studios in the Russian Republic which was the largest republic. There were several Russian studios famous throughout the Soviet Union (Mosfilm, Lenfilm, Ural cinema studio, Documental cinema studio and so on.) A Russian reader tells us that these studios and the producers and directors could freely use national languages for their movies. And they often did so. But any director who desired to achieve commercial success needed to make the film in Russian. This way it could be shown throughout the Soviet Union. Making the film in a Language like Lithuanian or Uzbek would significantly limit the audience to which it would appeal. Of course Russian captioning could be added, but suntitles did not have the same appeal a detracted from the dramatic impact. The situation was much as in America where movie goers generally want films to be in English. The nationalities question was a major issue from the early days of the Soviet Union. Any one promoting nationalist sentiments would draw the attention of the NKVD/KGB and could be very dangerous. They certainly would not be allowed to male movies. Many of these republic studios were established or allowed to make feature films only after World War II. They had to be very careful not to give the impression that they pushing a nationalist agenda. Today these studios are the foundation of the national film industries in each of the indepoendent former-Soviet republics.

Created: 3:26 AM 4/10/2009
Last updated: 3:26 AM 4/10/2009