THE RISE OF PHOTOJOURNALISM IN RUSSIA AND THE SOVIET UNION, 1900-1931 by Christopher Stolarski A dissertation submitted to the Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland September, 2013 © 2013 Christopher Stolarski All rights reserved. ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the origins and development of photojournalism in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union from 1900 to 1931. It analyzes the role of photo-reportage in the illustrated press and examines how publishers, editors, and photographers created a new visual language that shaped public opinion. Tracing the rise of press photography in the Tsarist era, this study argues that photo-reportage offered Russia’s burgeoning middle class an unprecedented venue for publicity; delineates the evolution of photojournalism from a means of public expression to an instrument of political scrutiny; and explores the visual world organized by editors on the magazine page, which reflected and reinforced public values and social norms. This dissertation then shows how, after the Revolution, the Bolsheviks transformed the production of photo-reportage, while still relying on pre- revolutionary models and personnel to create a new Soviet illustrated press. Though offering a wide variety of magazines, Soviet publishers presented a limited range of information and an ideologically uniform image of reality in line with the propaganda aims of the Communist party. This study concludes by demonstrating how Soviet press authorities elevated photo-reportage to an official visual aesthetic. As the country embarked on Stalin’s First Five-Year Plan, this photographic orthodoxy was used to marginalize competing approaches to photography and to invest a pre-revolutionary sense of journalistic authenticity into a staged picture of Soviet reality. Readers: Jeffrey Brooks, Kenneth B. Moss, Daniel P. Todes, Michael David-Fox, Louis Galambos ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to several people for their support during the research for and composition of this dissertation. My advisor Jeffrey Brooks, I thank for his patience, encouragement, and critical input every step of the way. My parents, Jadwiga and Leszek Stolarski, I thank for a lifetime of love and support, which, in the grand scheme of things, made this dissertation possible. My friends at Johns Hopkins University, I thank for making the experience of graduate school both intellectually stimulating and immensely fun, especially in the dark periods. And finally, I thank Katie Reinhart for carrying me over the finish line when my legs began to give out. iii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS v Chapter INTRODUCTION 2 1. THE PRE-HISTORY OF PHOTOJOURNALISM RUSSIA 20 2. THE ILLUSTRATED PRESS IN THE LATE IMPERIAL ERA 48 3. PRE-REVOLUTIONARY PRESS PHOTOGRAPHERS 84 4. THE BREAKOUT OF PHOTO-REPORTAGE, 1904-1907 121 5. PHOTO-REPORTAGE DURING RUSSIA’S GREAT WAR AND REVOLUTION, 1914-1917 174 6. HOW PHOTO-REPORTAGE BECAME SOVIET 225 7. HOW PRESS PHOTOGRAPHERS BECAME SOVIET 282 CONCLUSION 321 BIBLIOGRAPHY 325 iv ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Anonymous, “Former Ministers in the Ministerial Pavilion,” 1917. 1 2. K. K. Bulla, Terror Attack, 1910. 7 3. V. K. Bulla, “Nightmares of the July Days,” 1917. 11 4. I. V. Boldyrev, Members of the Russian Photographic Society, 1878. 28 5. A. Vladskii, Panorama of the Kiev suburb of Podol, 1866. 32 6. Niva: The Illustrated Journal of Literature and Contemporary Life, 1914. 54 7. “The Funeral of General-Field Marshall Count D. A. Miliutin,” Iskry, 1912. 58 8. Cover: Ogonek, “The Latest Excesses of English Suffragettes,” 1914. 60 9. “‘Evgenii Onegin’ on stage at the Marinskii Theatre,” Solntse Rossii, 1913. 62 10. “His Imperial Majesty in Full March Reglia,” Iskry, 1910. 67 11. “Race-track Derby,” Iskry, 1910. 72 12. The pilot Buazen and technological advances in Aeronautics, Niva, 1911. 74 13. Parisian Fashion, January, 1907. 81 14. Photographic calling card (blank) for K. K. Bulla. 86 15. Ia. V. Shteinberg, “February Days in Petrograd,” Niva, 1917. 91 16. V. K. Bulla, Karl Bulla and Lev Tolstoy at Iasnaia Poliana, 1908. 94 17. M. S. Nappel’baum, Timofei Ivanovich Kirpichnikov, Solntse Rossii, 1917. 100 18. A. Mazurin, Village School (A photo-etude), Niva, 1901. 101 19. K. A. Fisher, “A. N. Ostrovskii’s Even a Wise Man Stumbles,” Iskry, 1910. 103 20. Cover: Ogonek, “The Summer Vacation of Lev Tolstoy,” 1909. 104 21. “The photographer V. K. Bulla,” Niva, 1904. 130 v 22. V. A. Taburin, “At War,” Niva, 1905. 134 23. Four views of Port Arthur, Niva, 1904. 139 24. V. K. Bulla, “Our Army in Battle,” Iskry, 1904. 142 25. S. G. Smirnov, “At the Gravestones of Dead Comrades,” Iskry, 1905. 150 26. I. M. Gribov, “Events in Moscow (7 to 19 December 1905),” Iskry, 1906. 154 27. K. K. Bulla, “Uprising in the Baltics,” Iskry, 1906. 158 28. “Members of the State Duma from Moscow,” Iskry, 1906. 164 29. N. N. Ol’shanskii, “Pilgrim with a Deputy,” Iskry, 1906. 166 30. N. N. Ol’shanskii, “The Muslim Fraction in the State Duma,” Iskry, 1907. 169 31. “In the Hungry Village (A sick girl),” Iskry, 1906. 171 32. “P. N. Miliukov,” Sinii zhurnal, 1916. 182 33. “The Heroes and Victims of the Fatherland War,” Ogonek, 1914. 187 34. A. Funk, “Homeless (Refugees on the Road),” Solntse Rossii, 1915. 190 35. K. fon Gan, “His Imperial Majesty Grand Duke Nikolai,” 1914 193 36. “Orators of Four Dumas,” Solntse Rossii, 1916. 197 37. A. I. Savel’ev, “Nation and War,” Iskry, 1914. 203 38. “German Atrocities,” Iskry, 1916. 204 39. K. Bulla, “Rodzianko among members of the Army and Navy,” Niva, 1917. 208 40. K. Bulla, “War and Naval Minister A. F. Kerenskii,” Solntse Rossii, 1917. 213 41. Cover: Solntse Rossii, “A. F. Kerenskii,” 1917. 215 42. “Lenin & Co.,” Iskry, 1917. 220 43. P.A. Otsup, “Smol’nyi, at Lenin’s Cabinet,” Solntse Rossii, 1917. 223 44. Cover: M. S. Nappel’baum, “V. Ulianov,” Plamia, 1918. 237 vi 45. Cover: Krasnaia panorama, “All Power to the Soviets!,” 1923. 240 46. “B. Efimov’s Political Survey, February 1926,” Prozhektor, 1926. 244 47. “Svetlana: Electrical Light Factory,” Krasnaia panorama, 1925. 246 48. “Editorial Board of Sovetskoe foto,” Sovetskoe foto, 1929. 248 49. Cover: A. Shaikhet, “Central Telegraph in Moscow,” Ogonek, 1928. 250 50. P. Novitskii, “Lenin,” Sovetskoe foto, 1928. 263 51. “How not to photograph,” Sovetskoe foto, 1926. 265 52. “S. Fridliand, “Delegates Arrive in Moscow,” Ogonek, 1928. 268 53. “Ten Years Constructing Socialism in the Soviet Union,” Ogonek, 1927. 273 54. A. Shaikhet, “Two Generations, One Class,” Ogonek, 1928. 277 55. “Constructing,” Prozhektor, 1930. 280 56. S. Fridliand, “Photo-reporters at Work,” Sovetskoe foto, 1926. 287 57. “25 years of photojournalism for P. A. Otsup,” Sovetskoe foto, 1926. 293 58. A. Rodchenko, advertisement for Lengiz, 1924. 307 59. “Ours and Abroad,” Sovetskoe foto, 1928 314 60. A. Shaikhet and M. Al’pert, “A Day in the Life…,” Proletarskoe foto, 1931. 316 61. A. Rodchenko, “Pioneer with a Horn,” Proletarskoe foto, 1931. 318 vii 1 INTRODUCTION One of the last photographs of Russia’s Old Regime appeared in the magazine Solntse Rossii in March 1917. It showed five Tsarist ministers working around a large table. 1 [FIGURE 1.] Three ministers, somewhat obscured by a double lamp, lean over a set of documents in the center of the picture. The other two sit alone on opposite sides of the frame, their heads resting in their hands. The image stands out for two reasons: first, it was the only photograph to acknowledge the old political order in an issue dedicated to the February uprising; and second, the editors make reference to the act of photo- reportage in the caption. It reads: “The ex-ministers hide their faces having noticed the photographer trying to capture them on a photographic plate.” The editors of Solntse Rossii thus told a story about members of the Old Regime avoiding the camera’s gaze. This was a story about political power resisting media scrutiny, and it reveals the existence of a visual language, based in a relationship between magazine readers, press photographers, and news events, which equated not posing for pictures with shame and social distancing. By deliberately refusing to be photographed, the ministers opted out of the community of opinion created in the illustrated press. These men were not just hiding from the photographer, they were also hiding from the reading public. * 1 Solntse Rossii, no. 8 (366) (March 1917): 14. 2 This is a history of the origins and development of photojournalism in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. It begins in 1900 when photographs first appeared in magazines on a regular basis, and ends in 1931 when the Soviet state centralized the production of photo-reportage under the photo-agency Soiuzfoto. This history bridges the traditional divide in the scholarly literature between the Tsarist and Soviet regimes, and highlights the cultural and institutional continuities that link the two eras. At the same time, it draws attention to the transformation of photo-reportage, that is, the aesthetic discontinuities and the changing function of the illustrated press after the Revolution. Describing the exploits of photographers and editors, publishers and magazine readers, this is an analysis of the forces that created a new means of social and political communication on the magazine page, one that publicized the achievements of civil society in the Imperial era and reinforced the perspective of the state in the Soviet Union. It chronicles the birth of mass media in Russia, its changing political role in war and revolution, and its wholesale integration into the Soviet propaganda state. In examining these issues, this dissertation pursues three distinct analytical trajectories. First, this dissertation is about the birth of the modern illustrated press in Russia.