LE3 .A278 2009

2009

Perrins, Robert John

Acadia University

Bachelor of Arts

Honours

History

History & Classics

Cinema played a formative role in the creation and legitimization of the state in the early Soviet period. Amidst the chaos of the Russian Civil War, Lenin signed the official nationalization decree of the film industry and declared the cinema the most important artistic tool in the socialist construction of the new order. Bolshevik revolutionaries inadvertently created the conditions for the ‘golden age’ of Soviet cinema. It was aboard the Civil War agitpoezds (film trains) that the future pioneers of Soviet filmmaking, most notably Sergei Eisenstein, Lev Kuleshov, Vsevolod Pudovkin, and Dziga Vertov, gained filmmaking experience and first-hand exposure to Bolshevik politics. Furthermore, the implementation of Lenin’s New Economic Policy granted a degree of artistic and intellectual independence that facilitated cinematic innovation and debate. Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, revolutionary filmmakers effectively instilled the Soviet national myth within and beyond the USSR until Stalin’s consolidation of power altered the relationship between the cinematic community and the state. Under Lenin, films assisted the establishment of a socialist political structure, whereas Stalin used the cinema to create and maintain his personality cult. Although the Great Turn in cinema may appear to have been a betrayal of Leninism, Stalin’s actions, in fact, made Lenin’s directives a reality. This project examines the Soviet film industry from the Russian Civil War to the All-Union Creative Conference of Workers in 1935. It argues that during this period, revolutionary filmmakers had a profound effect on the socio-political development of the Soviet Union and that an examination of the relationship between the Soviet leadership and the cinematic community can be used to illuminate the nature of the state. Both Soviet and cinematic historiography are incorporated as well as an abundance of primary sources, including films, government documents, newspapers, speeches, and private letters.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:616