Distancing Early Soviet Cinema from Conventional Theatre

Introduction3

Discussion3

Theatre in Early Soviet3

Distancing Cinema from Theatre5

“Propaganda Train” or Agit-poezd6

Soviet Union's Inception7

Conclusion8

Distancing Early Soviet Cinema from Conventional Theatre

Introduction

Promoting cultural evolution of Central Asians was one of the main cultural priorities of Bolsheviks. For this, they created created-republic institution, just after the Russian revolution, such as the drama theatres. The cultural administration became greatly institutionalized and bureaucratic in the 1920s and 1930s. Central Asian cultures got a new direction and were shaped by new cultural forms along with socialist cultural content. The Soviet directors emerged in the result of the Russian revolution. They believed that Russia need to foster cinema in order to distance from conventional theatrical practices. They wanted to use power of cinema as a tool of propaganda and education. They meant to go further than simply entertaining the audience with historical and spectacle romance.

Discussion

Film was relatively a new development in 20th century. It offered an entirely new world of opportunities to the artists. It also provided new opportunities to the political machines of the newly developed Soviet Union (Adams, 2005). It was the chance of spreading new information with the help of propagandist efforts. Hence, cinema diverted from the conventional theatrical practice and became a channel to deliver information both in a subjective, artistic form and an objective manner.

Theatre in Early Soviet

Bolsheviks made it their priority to create the republic-level institution which would promote the cultural evolution of Central Asians. For this, they established state drama theatres. New theatres were founded to promote the development in dance, drama, and opera. The politicization of arts also involved rewarding artists who accepted the proletarian spirit and embraced the state ideology (Adams, 2005). New theatrical genres were initiated, such as ballet and opera. New kinds of theatrical organizations and schools were also opened.

Professional dance and musical troupes institutionalized folk culture. This growing cultural activity should not only be looked only as Central Asian cultural renaissance as the culture was being transformed with its development. In areas, which were under the influence of Soviet, such as Magnolia; communist culture also manipulated the European-style theatre development in the 1920s. European theatrical genres, between mid 1930s and the early 1940s, started incorporating local folklore and literary traditions (Gillespie, 2000). Theatre goers could watch both local and Russian language performances. During that time, each of the Central Asian republics performed their first national operas and ballets.

The earliest national opera was the Kazakh Kyz-Jibek (1934) and the earliest national ballet was the Uzbek Pakhta (1933). Also during this period a number of local-language musical theatres were opened in Central Asia, enjoying more success during the subsequent decades than theatres employing European musical genres. Mongolia's State Drama Theatre was established in 1931 and during the 1930s performed the same sorts of revolutionary dramas as could be found in the theatres of Russia. During the 1930s, these cultural changes took a much more repressive direction than they had during the experimental 1920s. The state began not just to reward those who ...