The Politics of the Soviet Cinema 1917–1929

The book provides an illuminating background of the political history of the Soviet cinema in the twenties.

Richard Taylor (Author)

9780521088558, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 October 2008

232 pages
23 x 16 x 1.3 cm, 0.3 kg

Much has been written about Soviet literature and its political significance in the years following the October Revolution, but little has been written about the cinema in the same context. And yet in 1922 Lenin said, 'Of all the arts, for us the cinema is the most important.' What did he mean? This book looks at the Soviet cinema in its formative period from the political point of view, examining both the attitude of the authorities towards the cinema and the actual use to which the cinema was put. It demonstrates how, even at the height of the 'Golden Era of the Soviet film', the Bolsheviks repeatedly failed to organise the cinema successfully as an effective propaganda weapon. The book provides an illuminating background of the political history of the Soviet cinema in the twenties against which its most famous films can be re-examined.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Note on transliteration
Abbreviations
1. The pre-history of the Soviet cinema
2. The Bolsheviks, propaganda and the cinema
3. Revolution and Civil War
4. The disorganisation of organisation: the early twenties
5. The organisation of disorganisation: the later twenties
6. The Party takes control
7. Theory and film
8. Conclusions
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]