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Golovnev I., Golovneva E. “Cinema-Atlas of the USSR” and the representation of the North in cinema-documents of the 1920-1930s

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

E. Golovneva
St. Petersburg State University 
St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-0709-4615
E-mail: golovneva.elena@gmail.com

 

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АННОТАЦИЯ. The article discusses the history of the implementation of the project “Cinema Atlas of the USSR” in general, and its representation in film materials about the Northern territory, in particular. The cultural and ideological foundations of the project are highlighted, which are considered Marxist teachings, the ideas of avant-garde art (emphasis on dynamism and mass character, emphasis on experiment, socialist aspiration) and trends in ethnology/ethnography. The characteristic ideologemes involved in the design of films of the cinema-atlas (“cultural revolution”, “construction of communism”, “creative socialist reconstruction”) are indicated. The evolution of the methodological guidelines of the project “Cinema-Atlas of the USSR” is presented, which assumed the transition from direct newsreels to the format of full-length “culturfilms” that combined the art form with documentary, scientific and propaganda content. It is shown that the North in the 1920–1930s. becomes an important direction for ideological work, and films about the North, shot by L. L. Kapitsa, V. A. Erofeev, G. I. Smirnitsky, V. A. Shneiderov, were created in accordance with the general concept of the “Cinema-Atlas of the USSR”. They represented the historical and ethnographic features of the region, a demonstration of progressive changes in the life of the North under socialism, as well as the history of its socialist construction. It has been established that a chronicle of ethnographic and local history content was used as the source material for a series of films about the North, which was relevant in the framework of ongoing activities for the implementation of national policy. Film directors used different methodologies and implied a variation in approaches to filming and editing when creating a series of films of the cinema atlas (including those in the North) in the vein of creating an ideologically verified film chronicle of the formation of the USSR.

 

КЛЮЧЕВЫЕ СЛОВА: “Cinema-Atlas” of the USSR, North, “cultural revolution”, Soviet ethnography

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2024-1(23)-6-29
UDC 791.229.2:39
 

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