RUSS 401
National in Form, Socialist in Content: The History of Soviet Republics Through Cinema Fall 2022
Division I
This is not the current course catalog

The USSR consisted of fifteen republics whose cultural production was meant to be “national in form and socialist in content.” This course examines the cultural history of the multinational Soviet state by focusing on the history of film production in the regions beyond Moscow. How did Soviet nationality policy change over time? What kind of films did such policy yield and how should they be interpreted? What was the dynamic between the center and periphery? And finally, what are the implications of this shared history today? These are some key questions that we will discuss in this course. To do so we will read historical documents and scholarly materials on Soviet nationality policies and film production. We also will watch and analyze films produced in the republics. The course is conducted in Russian.