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Beliaeva-Sachuk V., Ivanov D. Around Buryat-Mongolia Kulturfilm: Filming the Soviet-German Expedition to Study Syphilis in Buryatia

V. Beliaeva-Sachuk
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Science
St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0003-4180-5027
E-mail: belyaeva.veronika@gmail.com 

D. Ivanov
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences
St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-0709-4615
E-mail: dmitivanov@gmail.com

 

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ABSTRACT. The article examines the 1928 Sovkino film expedition to Buryatia, which resulted in the documentary film Around Buryat-Mongolia. The film documented the Soviet- German expedition to study syphilis in Buryatia that took place in the summer of the same year. The film was made because of the interest expressed by the government of the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Republic in creating the propaganda kulturfilm and was part of the Cine-Atlas of the USSR project. The film consisted of four parts: the first and almost the entire second part showed the old life of the Buryats and Buddhist Maidari-hural and tsam rituals filmed in the Aninsky, Aginsky, and Egitui dastans. The third part and almost the entire fourth presented the course of the Soviet-German expedition. It showed patients having syphilis and the medical research. At the end of the last part, the viewers can see the new life of the Buryats, which, according to the film director, would help them conquer the disease. The film contained the unique filming of Buryat datsans, and the rituals held there. Additionally, the film traced the expedition’s path, at least for some of its participants. Analyzing the data from the Russian State Documentary Photo and Film Archive (RGAKFD) and of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (MAE RAS), we were able to establish the participation of the Soviet ethnographer K. V. Viatkina in the Soviet-German expedition. Viatkina not only conducted anthropology research during the expedition but also took photographs and probably advised the film crew as a specialist in Buryat culture.

 

KEYWORDS: Cine-Atlas of the USSR, Kapitolina Vasilyevna Viatkina, ethnographic filming of Buryats, Soviet-German expedition to study syphilis in Buryatia

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2024-1(23)-30-54
UDC 791.229.2:39 (571.54)

 

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