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Golovneva E., Golovnev I. Shamanism in the Soviet Anti-Religious Cinematography of the 1920s–1930s (film “Igdenbu” (1930) of Amo Bek-Nazarov)

E. Golovneva
St. Petersburg University
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-0709-4615
E-mail: golovneva.elena@gmail.com

I. Golovnev
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0003-4866-7122
E-mail: golovnev.ivan@gmail.com

 

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ABSTRACT. One of the most effective methods of anti-religious propaganda in the USSR in the 1920s–1930s was cinema. The remoted territories of the Union, such as the regions of the Far North or the Far East, due to their natural geographical conditions, the diverse ethnic population, with different level of Sovietization in certain areas, were considered as important areas for antireligious cinematographic work. The article deals with the phenomenon of Soviet anti-religious films of the 1920s-1930s aimed at struggle against shamanism, for the creation of which the film-makers used ethnographic film materials. As a vivid example of this type of cinematography, the feature film “Igdenbu” (1930) about the Nanais (Golds) in the Far East, filmed by the Armenian director A. I. Bek-Nazarov is considered. Based on the study of the director’s diaries, archival data and memories of contemporaries, the authors analize the features of the creation and reception of this film, made in a special style of “artistic documentalism”. It is noted that the “artistic and documentary” film fixation of shamanism presented in “Igdenbu” not only made it ossible to show shamanism in an ironic manner, indicating its dangerous connection with the kulaks, but also recorded valuable documentary evidence related to the religious beliefs of the indigenous peoples of the Far East. It is concluded that the anti-religious film of A. I. Bek-Nazarov is a vivid illustration of a series of techniques that filmmakers used to build on the screen the image of the multinational country of the Soviets in the 1920s and 1930s. The film “Igdenbu” is also a significant visual anthropological document, reflecting the parallel processes that took place in cultural policy, anti-religious propaganda and cinema during the period of socialist reconstruction.

 

KEYWORDS: anti-religious movement in the USSR, anti-religious cinema of the 1920s–1930s, shamanism, cultural revolution, A. I. Bek-Nazarov, the Far East, the Nanais

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2022-3(17)-197-219
УДК 39; 77

 

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