Ledya, Chapters V-X

Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film

By: Jay Ledya
Chapters V-X

From February to October 1917: The character of the February Revolution was (obviously) very unlike the revolution in October. The February Revolution left behind not one government, but two. This dual power was reflected in the film industry as in every other Russian industry. The cinema was finally freed from censorship (oh, If only)! The time between February and October was filled with unionized concerns over the conditions of workers in the theaters. During this period, newsreels (in particular the “Free Russia” newsreel) were the diet of Russian cinemagoers. The Revolution was clearly a focus. There was also a steady stream of anti-Romanov films. “Rasputin could not be killed often enough to satisfy film audiences,” either.

Moscow—Odessa—Paris 1917-1920: After the October Revolution, most of the movie people fled south. The Moscow studios were stripped of all portable apparatus in this migration. Many Russian filmmakers bolted from Odessa and the surrounding southern cities after an attack of influenza and the abandonment of Odessa by the Allies. The fled to the main filmmaking capitals: Berlin, Paris, and Hollywood. The success of the next generation of Russians making films in Russia was likely an upset to the Russian film exiles, who imagined that they had taken the Russian cinema with them. 

Peace—Bread—Land 1917-1920: Quietly and systematically, theater chains and film exchanges were being closed down. The filmmaking "industry" in Soviet Russia began at (not zero) about 0.5; the equipment and artists were long gone, but a base was there. That base, in addition to the newly established Soviet created the "agit-train," which allowed short agitka to be shown "nationwide" (and by nationwide, I mean in a few little villages and towns). Imports were stopped so it was basically impossible to get raw film (and wood). There is a heavy focus on the hungry and cold winter of 1919, and the frostbitten artists that worked in terrible conditions for the sake of Polikushka, the only film of note that came out of the period. 

Reconstruction 1921-1923: Words from an Englishman visiting Russia in 1921: "There is no doubt that the Russians would express themselves through the film if they were given a proper opportunity to do so. I do not think the opportunity will be long coming" (155). The NEP provided exactly the opportunity that Huntly Carter envisioned. Lenin's reasoning behind the NEP: "The New Economic Policy demands a fresh development of our economic possibilities" (156). Ledya, at this point, gives Stalin credit for placing cinema on the same level as the other arts. Despite the positive upturn for the industry, the programs of theaters (in 1922) in Moscow included a smaller proportion of Russian films than at any time since Russian film production began. The jump: Full length-films made annually in the USSR: 1921- 11, 1924-157. 

The Youth of An Art 1924-1925: THE COMPANY was founded on June 13, 1924, and was proclaimed, Sovkino. The film that inaugurates the coming period of accomplishment and success in Russian film was Eisenstein's Strike (1925). Nevertheless, two Americans in Moscow during the summer of 1925 remarked that "Russian reels were hard to find in Moscow..." (185). As the Civil War was receding, the individuals who were to establish Soviet film as a powerful medium were brought closer to the recognition of their new responsibility. 

Theory in Practice 1925-1926: The growth of Soviet film in this period is most easily analyzed through looking at Eisenstein's cinematic development between Strike and Potemkin. There are obviously other examples of remarkable growth in young artists, but the leap between the two films is "as great as the leap from theory to full realization" (194).