Stalinist Cinema and the Production of History

Evgeny Dobrenko is Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at the University of Venice. He is the author, editor, or co-editor of twenty-five books, and has published more than 300 articles and essays on Soviet cultural and intellectual history, literature, film, visual arts, architecture, photography, media and music, Socialist Realism, and critical theory, which between them have been translated into ten languages. His books include the monographs State Laughter: Stalinism, Populism, and Origins of Soviet Culture (OUP, 2022), Late Stalinism: The Aesthetics of Politics (Yale UP, 2020) and Stalinist Cinema and the Production of History: Museum of the Revolution (Edinburgh UP, 2008, as well as the edited volumes The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Russian Literature (with Marina Balina; CUP, 2011), Petrified Utopia: Happiness Soviet Style (with Marina Balina; London: Anthem Press, 2009) and Soviet Culture and Power: A History in Documents, 1917–1953 (with Katerina Clark; Yale UP, 2007, among others.

This is a major study of the place of Soviet film within the Soviet cultural system. Specialists in the history of Russian film and culture will find it an indispensable resource. -- Professor Jeff Brooks, The Johns Hopkins University This is essential reading for all those interested in Soviet film. Dobrenko with his fresh approach and non-standard mix of examples confounds many of the cliches about the subject. -- Professor Katerina Clark, Yale University Professor Dobrenko's absorbing new study of Stalin period cinema shows how films set in the past, from historical epics to versions of literary classics to narratives of the Revolutionary struggle were required to adapt 'history' to the evolving political demands of the present. Witty and nuanced, drawing on a broad range of sources, the book combines unprecedented attention to hitherto neglected films with exciting new insights into classics of Soviet cinema. -- Professor Julian Graffy, University College London Each chapter provides attentive discussions of three or four films, weaving a convincing argument through powerful examples! Anglophone academics will find this book a useful gateway to Russian language sources on film and Stalinist art! Dobrenko has set an example of interpretive practice with this detailed, painstaking exploration of the interface between ideology and cinema. -- Maria Antonia Velez-Serna, University of Glasgow Kelvingrove Review The key to this book's success is precisely the way in which the author manages to combine and weave the many threads in his argument into a satisfying whole... In sum, this is a rigorous and engrossing work that brings a profound understanding to the films of the Stalinist era and will initiate debates on major films that, to date, have been largely ignored in cinematic history. -- Jamie Miller, University of Toronto Modern Language Review This is a major study of the place of Soviet film within the Soviet cultural system. Specialists in the history of Russian film and culture will find it an indispensable resource. This is essential reading for all those interested in Soviet film. Dobrenko with his fresh approach and non-standard mix of examples confounds many of the cliches about the subject. Professor Dobrenko's absorbing new study of Stalin period cinema shows how films set in the past, from historical epics to versions of literary classics to narratives of the Revolutionary struggle were required to adapt 'history' to the evolving political demands of the present. Witty and nuanced, drawing on a broad range of sources, the book combines unprecedented attention to hitherto neglected films with exciting new insights into classics of Soviet cinema. Each chapter provides attentive discussions of three or four films, weaving a convincing argument through powerful examples! Anglophone academics will find this book a useful gateway to Russian language sources on film and Stalinist art! Dobrenko has set an example of interpretive practice with this detailed, painstaking exploration of the interface between ideology and cinema. The key to this book's success is precisely the way in which the author manages to combine and weave the many threads in his argument into a satisfying whole... In sum, this is a rigorous and engrossing work that brings a profound understanding to the films of the Stalinist era and will initiate debates on major films that, to date, have been largely ignored in cinematic history.

• Introduction: History Degree Zero1. The Dialectics of the Popular Monarchy2. History with Biography3. Russian Classics in its Revolutionary Development4. (Autobio/Bio/Hagio)graphy: Peshkov - Gorky - Donskoi5. Three Mothers: Pudovkin - Donskoi - Panfilov6. Shots from Underground: Dialectics of Conspiratorial Imagination