"CINEMA ATLAS OF THE USSR": EDUCATIONAL FILM "EASTERN SIBERIA" (1935)

The paper examines the role of educational cinema in the USSR during the 1930s, with a focus on films about the “socialist reconstruction” of remote regions of the Soviet Union. As an example, the film “Eastern Siberia” (1935) filmed at the “Sibtechfilm” studio, directed by A. I. Gaidul is analyzed, using scripts and other documentation from the State Archives of the Novosibirsk Region. The film is analyzed in terms of its place in the history of regional cinema and its role in the construction of ideas and images in the context of Soviet history. The paper also discusses the historical context of the creation of educational films in the 1930s, the production process at the Novosibirsk studio “Sibtechfilm”, and the biography and methods of the film's director, A. I. Gaidul are considered. The authors also address methodological issues related to educational cinema at the Sibtechfilm studio in the 1930s. It is concluded that the creation of educational geographical films was a significant development in Russian visual anthropology and that the analysis of such films helps to understand the ideological, conceptual, and creative considerations involved in their production and use in the USSR in the 1920s–1930s.

visual anthropology, Soviet cinema, film production, educational cinema in the 1930s, Sibtechfilm, Eastern Siberia (1935), A. I. Gaidul