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On the Topics and Style of Soviet Animated Films

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On the Topics and Style of Soviet Animated Films BALTIC SCREEN MEDIA REVIEW 2016 / VOLUME 4 / ARTICLE Article On the Topics and Style of Soviet Animated Films ÜLO PIKKOV, Estonian Academy of Arts; email: [email protected] 16 DOI: 10.1515/bsmr-2017-0002 BALTIC SCREEN MEDIA REVIEW 2016 / VOLUME 4 / ARTICLE ABSTRACT This article provides a survey of Soviet animation and analyses the thematic and stylistic course of its develop- ment. Soviet animated film emerged and materialised in synch with the fluctuations of the region’s political climate and was directly shaped by it. A number of trends and currents of Soviet animation also pertain to other Eastern European countries. After all, Eastern Europe constituted an integrated cultural space that functioned as a single market for the films produced across it by filmmakers who interacted in a professional regional network of film education, events, festivals, publications etc. Initially experimental, post-revolutionary Russian ani- mation soon fell under the sway of the Socialist Realist discourse, along with the rest of Soviet art, and quickly crystallised as a didactic genre for children. Disney’s para- digm became its major source of inspiration both in terms of visual style and thematic scope, despite the fact that Soviet Union was regarded as the ideological opposite of the Western way of life and mindset. The Soviet animation industry was spread across different studios and republics that adopted slightly varied production practices and tolerated different degrees of artistic freedom. Studios in the smaller republics, such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in particular, stood out for making films that were more ideologically complicated than those produced in Moscow. 17 BALTIC SCREEN MEDIA REVIEW 2016 / VOLUME 4 / ARTICLE INTRODUCTION When speaking about censorship in Soviet animated film took shape alongside, the Soviet Union, it is important to avoid the and was directly affected by, the specific simplified confrontation between the artist political developments of the region. While and the state – the filmmaking community the focus of this article is on animated film included both loyal servants of the Party in Russia after the October Revolution of and rebels against the regime. 1917, and in Soviet Union as it gradually So far, studies on Eastern European, broadened its geographical span, the same and especially Soviet, animated film have trajectories and trends can be observed in focused mainly on history and anima- other Eastern European (i.e. Eastern Bloc) tion techniques (Bendazzi 2015; Pontieri countries. For, as Dina Iordanova has said, 2012; MacFadyen 2005; Асенин 1986); on renowned authors (Hames 2008; Капков Between 1945 and 1989 ... the 2007; Kitson 2005); and, to a much lesser development of these countries degree, on critiques of ideology and totali- was ... dictated by Soviet policies tarianism (Moritz 1997) or feminist dis- in the spheres of economics and courses (Fadina 2016; Пироженко 2004a, culture. [---] Whatever happened 2004b; Kononenko 2011). In addition, in the Soviet Union, directly influ- several prominent Soviet animation art- enced the cultural climate in the ists have published autobiographical texts countries of the Eastern Bloc, explaining their methods and practices and often events in the USSR (Ходатаев 1936; Брумберг 1979; Иванов-Вано were replicated in the Eastern 1950, 1962; Норштейн 1988; Хржановский Bloc (such as the ‘Thaw’ that fol- 1983). lowed the demystification of the This article attempts to map the cult of Stalin’s personality in the development of Soviet animated film, late 1950s or the stagnation of highlighting some of its characteristic the Brezhnev period). (Iordanova features, especially in terms of topics and 2003: 20–21) visual style. Since the Soviet art scene was strongly impacted by the political climate, At the same time it is also true that the the political shifts provide a basis for this cultural elite of the satellite states often analysis. The discussion is structured into enjoyed a higher degree of artistic freedom, sections based on historical periods and compared to their peers in the Soviet Union. the developments in the field of animation This becomes especially evident in the are considered in juxtaposition with trans- choice of subject matter and topics, as well formations in the socio-political sphere. as the extent to which the animation artists Obviously the scope of the article is rather abided (or rejected) the tenets of Socialist ambitious, especially when it comes its Realism. In addition, the entire Soviet Union temporal and geographical dimension, cannot be measured with the same yard- which is why the following pages are only stick, because animated films were pro- able to scratch the surface of this broad duced in a number of different studios and and multifaceted set of issues; and I fully in various Soviet Socialist Republics, where acknowledge the pressing need for fur- the local circumstances affected both ther in-depth studies. Nevertheless, I hope the industrial practices and regulated the that this survey will not only contribute proverbial length of the leash. The smaller to a fuller understanding of how the top- republics in particular, such as the Baltics, ics and style of Soviet animated film were stood out for work that was sometimes constructed and developed, but will also much more ideologically complicated than improve our understanding of the past and the films produced in Moscow, reflecting the people of this era. either intentional political digression or the recklessness of their authors. 18 BALTIC SCREEN MEDIA REVIEW 2016 / VOLUME 4 / ARTICLE THE POST-REVOLUTIONARY THE STALINIST ERA PERIOD After Lenin’s death in 1924, Joseph Stalin Lucanus Cervus, arguably the earliest sur- rose to the leadership of the Soviet Union viving Russian animated short, was made and his dictatorship lasted until his death by Ladislas Starevich in 1910. Born in Mos- in 1953. cow to a family with Polish roots, Starevich Senka the African (Сенька-африканец, produced several animated films in Tsarist Russia, 1927), the first Soviet animated Russian until he emigrated to France after film for children, was a collaborative effort the October Revolution in 1917 and contin- including Yuri Merkulov, Danil Cherkes and ued his career as animation artist in emi- Ivan Ivanov-Vano. The film is based on a gration. story by Korney Chukovsky, one of the most After the Revolution, the Russian cul- popular Soviet children’s poets. A vivid tural and art scene was exceptionally inno- depiction of a child’s fantasy world, Senka vative and extremely receptive to new ideas. the African became an immediate success The Russian animated films of the day were and was instantly followed by two other first and foremost inspired by modernist screen adaptations of Chukovsky’s poems thought, propaganda posters and carica- – Big Cockroach (Тараканище, Russia) and tures. Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Moidodir (Мойдодыр, Russia; both in 1927). Alexander Dovzhenko and Dziga Vertov 1929 saw the release of Mikhail were the filmmakers whose practices, as Tsekhanovsky’s Mail (Почта, Russia), an well as political and artistic visions, shaped animated adaptation of Samuil Marshak’s the early years of Soviet filmmaking. Vertov Soviet poem, which tells the story of a let- was also the author of the earliest surviving ter addressed to the writer Boris Zhitkov Soviet animated film, Soviet Toys (Советские (Figure 2 and 3). The letter follows the игрушки, Russia, 1924). (Figure 1) Laura writer around the world and finally reaches Pontieri has aptly pointed out that ‘most of him when he returns to Leningrad. Mail the early Soviet animated films came out of sports a highly modern visual and musi- political manifestos and satirical vignettes; cal form shaped by the post-revolutionary they were primarily caricatures and propa- avant-garde mode of expression. Originally ganda works addressed to an adult audi- made as a silent short, Mail became one of ence’ (Pontieri 2012: 6). Ivan Ivanov-Vano, the first Soviet sound animations when a one of the great figures of early Soviet soundtrack was added in 1930. animation, also confirms that satire, politi- In the late 1920s the Soviet anima- cal posters and pamphlets were of utmost tion filmmakers began to invent characters importance for nascent Soviet animation that would continue to appear in a number (Иванов-Вано 1950: 18). of films, thus producing the first animated The post-revolutionary period was also ‘series’, featuring, among many others, such characterised by the implementation of legendary characters as Tip-Top, Bratishkin state control and domination over film pro- and Buzilka. duction. State censorship has a long history The Soviet animated films of the in the Soviet Union and can be traced back 1920s were mostly entertaining but to the pre-revolutionary Russian Empire. always included a ‘political or social mes- However, in 1922 the Soviet authorities set sage’ (Pontieri 2012: 18). In Soviet Russia, up Glavlit (Главное управление по охране animated film functioned primarily as an государственных тайн в печати; Главлит), a ideological tool for shaping the mentality new body for censorship and the protection and behaviour of the masses. For instance, of state secrets, which, together with its Samoyed Boy (Самоедский мальчик, Rus- sub-institutions, operated until the collapse sia, 1928, directed by Nikolai Khodatayev, of the Soviet Union. Olga Khodatayeva, Valentina Brumberg and Zinaida Brumberg) is a good illustration of how this ideological education through 19 BALTIC SCREEN MEDIA REVIEW 2016 / VOLUME 4 / ARTICLE animation worked. In the film, a Samoyed Visual form and style boy comes to Leningrad to go to school Both the content and the form of Stalinist and as a result of his studies realises how animation were strongly impacted by the backward the mindset and worldview of his change of course that took place in Soviet native Nenets people are. The film openly culture after Andrei Zhdanov, the Secretary ridicules the beliefs of this group of indige- of the Central Committee of the Communist nous people.
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