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Film & Newspaper in Stalin’s Russia. Jane Yip & Daphne Poon. How were films used by the state?. Useful in communicating with the illiterate 1925: Politburo decided not to intervene with art (including films)
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Film & Newspaper in Stalin’s Russia Jane Yip & Daphne Poon
How were films used by the state? • Useful in communicating with the illiterate • 1925: Politburo decided not to intervene with art (including films) • Eisenstein: most outstanding film-maker in the period (made films about the power of people acting together) • 1928: first All-Union Party Congress on film questions – films had to be accessible to the masses, emphasising socialist ideas • Short films shown in subway stations for the poor • Film-makers releasing content against Stalin were purged
How were newspapers used by the state? • Lenin had already liquidated independent press in 1918 • Party controlled press through Union of Journalists (by 1988, 80% of its members were in the party) • Pravda: the party newspaper • USSR in Construction: propaganda journal, 1930-41, published in many languages • Issues were mainly aimed at an international audience, especially left-wing intellectuals and businessmen
What was the role of propaganda and censorship? • “Brainwash” the masses into accepting party’s ideological values – made more subliminal by inserting into films and newspapers • Population to have a positive opinion of the party – to prevent future opposition • To quell existing opposition too – Stalin was paranoid about his power
What was the reaction of the people to the changes? • Mixed reactions – made most people proud to have a strong leader, and apparently flawless system • Propaganda appealed to the illiterate more – less on the educated • Those in the film and newspaper career fields: naturally resentful • Journalists could not publish the material they wanted • Artistic aspect of film was lost to propaganda
What were the effects of the Russian Cultural Revolution? • Cultural Revolution: 1928-31, return to class warfare of Civil War, renunciation of everything that had gone with the loss of the NEP • Bourgeois specialists, Nepman, Kulaks all attacked • Film-makers accused of doing nothing for the masses (films were meant to be straightforward, not sophisticated), including Eisenstein • Newspapers: literary concepts were threatened • Newspaper articles had to provide insight into the “New Soviet Man”, with a running theme of redemption for the visionary perfect socialist future
