Natalja Poljakowa The Distribution, Censorship and Reception of German films in Soviet Russia of the 1920s School of Modern Languages, Literatures & Cultures Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 2 Declaration I declare that this dissertation was composed by myself, the work contained herein is my own except where explicitly stated otherwise in the text and that this work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification except as specified. Natalja Poljakowa 3 Abstract Despite the huge amount of research on European cinema of the 1920s, little attention has been paid to the influence of cross-cultural encounters on the trajectory of national film histories. This study argues that Soviet film was shaped by the reception of German film to an extent that existing scholarship has not acknowledged. It focuses on the impact of German and Austrian films on the revival of the Soviet film industry in the period of the New Economic Policy. German films helped to fill in the gaps in Soviet film distribution, as until the mid- 1920s Soviet Russia was not able to revive its own film production and entirely relied on foreign film imports. However, all imported films were thoroughly examined, classified and, in most of cases, ‘adjusted’ to the Soviet ideology through re-editing. This thesis explores previously ignored aspects of the film exchange between the Weimar Republic and Soviet Russia: the process of selection and purchase, the censorship control over content, the reception of the films in little-known periodicals and film brochures and, finally, the influence of the imported productions on the Soviet audience. The thesis attempts for the first time to describe the mechanisms and the process of film censorship in Soviet Russia of the 1920s, with particular attention to censorship policy towards foreign cinema. Describing the German productions that reached Soviet film theatres after 1922, the thesis explores the attitude to foreign cinema in the context of the ideologically-uncompromising Soviet censorship, with the focus on the conflict between the inviolability of an author’s conception and the ideological necessity of film re-editing. The thesis offers an analysis of the cultural dialogue between the Weimar Republic and Soviet Russia on the basis of the rare archival material and the surviving copies of the re-edited German films in the Russian State Film Archive. 4 Acknowledgements First of all I would like to thank my supervisor Dr Jon Hughes for his patience and academic support, for hours of insightful conversations about film and literature, and, most of all, for watching this long Russian-German drama with me. I am grateful to Royal Holloway, University of London for providing the funding which allowed me to undertake my research. I am very grateful to James Lewis for his first aid English language support, for being ready to answer my midnight mayday calls and for his incredible sense of humour that kept me alive when it was almost impossible. I would like to especially thank film historians, archivists and friends from the Russian State Film Archive (Gosfilmofond), and in particular Petr Bagrov, Evgeny Margolit, and Anna Malguina - for beautiful nitrate films, poetry, Gérard and burning passion to cinema. Special mention goes to my colleagues in the Austrian Film Museum: Adelheid Heftberger and Oliver Henley who gave me a very warm welcome in the months of my internship, and the head of the archival collections Paolo Caneppele who made me fall in love with amateur films. I would like to extend thanks to many people, in many countries, who so generously contributed to the work presented in this thesis. To all the Viennese for repeatedly breaking my heart and gluing it back again. To my precious friends in Berlin, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Bologna, Udine, Pordenone and Syktyvkar who gave me shelter during my research travels and helped with friendly support and much needed distraction. The film festivals Le Cinema Muto in Pordenone where it all started and Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna where it all continued. My London family – ScooterCaffe, – for proving that negroni-making can actually fund a PhD. Natasha and Ariadne Arendt for a magic cup of Crimean tea and a bit of witchcraft when I needed to keep on working. Louisa Jones, Ewan Bleach and Dakota Jim for jazzing it all up in the 1920s style. My closest friends - ‘Brainy Barmaid’ Georgina Richards Pringle, Joni Mimu and Emma Wilson - for inspiration, poverty, films, tears, despair, displacement, Chantal Akerman, talks, and friendship that has no boundaries. Words cannot express how grateful I am to my family, and to my dear grandfather Franz Schweizer, who passed away when I was still working on my thesis. And, above all, I want to thank Mitya, without whose love, care, patience and faith in me nothing would be possible. 5 Table of Contents Table of Contents ....................................................................................... 5 Note on Transliteration and Translation ................................................. 8 Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................ 9 1. German-Soviet relationships in film in the 1920s.......................................... 9 2. In the distorting mirror: Re-establishing connections between Weimar Germany and Soviet Russia ............................................................................. 11 3. The problem of demarcating periods ........................................................... 14 4. The structure of the thesis and general remarks ........................................... 19 6. What are the films? Notes on the research material ..................................... 27 Chapter 2: Between the imaginary and the authentic: Political, social and cultural implications of German-Soviet relations in film ............. 30 1. ‘Distribution is a de facto organiser of all film industry’: The importance of the reconstruction of foreign film distribution in post-revolutionary Russia ... 31 2. Searching for balance: German and Soviet strategies of support for domestic production ........................................................................................................ 35 3. Chronology of the development and institutionalisation of the Soviet film industry ............................................................................................................. 37 4. The development and distribution activity of private Soviet film companies. ........................................................................................................ 49 5. The problem of the first German films in the Soviet market ....................... 59 6. Filmland Friedrichstrasse: Soviet film dealers in Berlin.............................. 66 7. Between reality and stereotypes: Russians in the Weimar Republic and the genre of Russenfilme........................................................................................ 74 Chapter 3: ‘Béla Forgets the Scissors’: Developing the Mechanisms of Film Censorship ....................................................................................... 88 6 1. ‘A good school for a filmmaker’: Opening remarks .................................... 88 2. The origins of the Soviet film censorship system ........................................ 95 3. Sources and methodology ............................................................................ 98 4. The development of censorship policy: Imposing restrictions on film distribution under the NEP ............................................................................. 100 5. Glavrepertkom and centralization of censorship control ........................... 108 6. ‘Scissors of revolution’: The work of the Soviet re-editors on German film ................................................................................................................. 115 Chapter 4: Maintaining ‘Unified Repertoire Policy’: Soviet Censorship Criteria as Instruments for Ideological Control ................................. 132 1. Censorship criteria applied to German films ............................................. 132 a) ‘Works of pornographic character’ ........................................................ 135 b) ‘Bul’varshchina’ .................................................................................... 150 c) ‘Religious propaganda’ .......................................................................... 161 d) ‘Mysticism’ ............................................................................................ 165 e) ‘Meshchanstvo’. ..................................................................................... 172 f) Other criteria ........................................................................................... 177 2. German films that received positive reviews. ............................................ 182 Chapter 5: ‘In Caligari’s Circle’: Soviet Reception of German Films .................................................................................................................. 187 1. From censorship to exhibition: Introductory notes .................................... 187 2. Soviet film periodicals and the first imported German films ..................... 189 3. ‘Art is never apolitical’: Ideological controversy ...................................... 198 4. German film: Pro et contra ........................................................................