![]() Like other industries, the film production and distribution systems took years to build up a substantial output that could serve the aims of the new government.ĭuring World War I, there were a number of private production companies operating in Moscow and Petersburg. They put on theatrical skits or showed movies on an outdoor screen for local crowds."Following the Russian Revolution in October 1917, the new Soviet government faced the difficult task of controlling all sectors of life. Painted with slogans and caricatures, they carried propaganda leaflets, printing presses, and small filmmaking setups. Trains, trucks, and steamboats (6.8) visited the countryside. Many of the far-flung areas had no movie theaters, and the Soviet government innovated the use of agit-vehicles. During the civil war, a major concern was to get films out to troops and villagers in the countryside. The film reached theaters only in late 1922. When the Russ company set out in 1919 to adapt Tolstoy's Polikushka, lack of food, heat, and positive film stock created incredible difficulties. Conditions remained bleak, however, especially for the few private firms still producing films. Workers of All Lands, Unite! (1919), for example, showed scenes from the history of the struggle of workers across the ages, linked by quotes from Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto (6.7). Sixty-three were made in 1919, but most were short newsreels and agitki, brief propaganda films with simple pro-Soviet messages. Only six films were produced under state auspices in 1918. ![]() The remaining producers and dealers promptly hid what little raw film remained, and a severe shortage developed. Because the companies that had fled after the revolution had taken whatever they could with them, the USSR badly needed production equipment and raw stock Another problem arose in June 1918, when a decree required that all raw stock held by private firms be registered with the government. Eventually all learn to live together in harmony Despite these tentative signs of progress, however, Soviet production received two serious blows during 1918. In Cohabitation, a well-to-do professor and a poor janitor work at the same school when the janitor and his daughter are assigned to live in the professor's large home, the latter's wife objects. A few Soviets, or local workers' governing bodies, set up their own production units, making propaganda films promoting the new society Under Soviet rule, large houses that had previously belonged to rich families were divided to provide dwellings for poorer families. Instead, a new regulatory body, the People's Commissariat of Education (generally known as Narkompros), was assigned to oversee the cinema During the first half of 1918, Narkompros struggled to gain control over film production, distribution, and exhibition. The Bolsheviks, however, were not yet powerful enough for this step. Given that the Communists favored state ownership of all companies, existing film firms waited nervously to see what would happen The logical first step for the new Marxist regime would have been for the government to acquire, or nationalize, the film industry. This compromise did not satisfy the radical Bolshevik party, which favored a Marxist revolution to bring the worker and peasant classes to power The Bolshevik Revolution in October created a far greater disruption in Russian life in general. In its place, a reformist provisional government was set up. The first, in February, eliminated the Tsar's aristocratic rule. ![]() ![]() Russia underwent two revolutions during 1917. ![]()
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