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Report by State Administration of Cinematography Head B. Z. Shumiatsky to members of the TsK VKP(b) Politburo on the situation concerning S. M. Eisenstein's production of Bezhin Meadow

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By Shumiatsky, Boris Zakharovich State Administration of Cinematography

Soviet Culture and Power: A History in Documents, 1917-1953

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Document 103

Report by State Administration of Cinematography Head B. Z. Shumiatsky to members of the TsK VKP(b) Politburo on the situation concerning S. M. Eisenstein's production of Bezhin Meadow. TsA FSB RF, d. R-4377, t. 2, ll. 228–228v. Copy. Typewritten.

5 February 1937

To the TsK VKP(v) To Com. I. V. Stalin To Com. V. M. Molotov To Com. A. A. Andreev

S. Eisenstein has been producing a film of kolkhoz life, Bezhin Meadow, for more than a year and a half.

We have already redone this film several times, for the director had given in it frankly mistaken and Formalist interpretations.

However, we have liberal patrons who literally gape at Eisenstein and know only one thing—how to praise every single work of his, even if it is frankly erroneous.

A few days ago, we, the Union's cinema leadership, had occasion to encounter

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at our All-Union production conference a line of organized “defense” for Eisenstein from our principled critics. Representing this line at the conference were the leaders of our Moscow film studio, Mosfilm, who spoke at this conference and outside of it in open defense of Eisenstein's mistakes. A number of other individuals tacitly defended him, too, including some who are not even cinematographers (Angarov, Tamarkin).

Even the specialized arts press did not publish our criticism of the politically evil-smelling works and mistakes of Eisenstein. I'm certain that this was done out of considerations of piety toward him.

But what was our amazement when today we read in the organ of the All-Union Committee on Arts [Affairs], in Sovetskoe iskusstvo [Soviet art] (no. 6/352, 5 February 1937), the apologetic review by Lion Feuchtwanger supposedly about Eisenstein's Bezhin Meadow, although this film is only 60–70 percent shot, has not been edited at all, and in addition according to our existing rules cannot be shown even in separate parts to anyone, especially a foreigner.

In this instance we have a disgraceful attempt to appeal to foreign public opinion regarding our assessments of Soviet films.

This could happen because we have in Moscow a number of individuals who overtly and covertly are conducting a campaign of struggle supposedly in defense of Eisenstein , in this way helping some scoundrel abroad wage this very campaign in defense of Eisenstein against a nonexistent enemy.

Among these individuals there are several writers, several cinematographers, and, as is attested to by the compliant placement of Feuchtwanger's discussion about an as yet nonexistent film on the pages of the organ of the All-Union Committee on Arts [Affairs], several workers from the Arts Committee.

If in this case we were talking only about Mosfilm workers who have taken in this matter an unprincipled line by appealing to Feuchtwanger regarding our assessments of Eisenstein's mistakes, I could resolve this matter by taking organizational measures against our workers.

In this instance, however, we are dealing with a small group of workers from a number of spheres of the arts and several workers from the press, a clique that is taking on a politically dangerous character.

I request that this matter be sorted out at the TsK.

I am attaching a copy of a conversation between an employee of Sovetskoe iskusstvo and Feuchtwanger and my critique of the defense of Eisenstein and clips from his Bezhin Meadow at the Eighth All-Union Cinema Conference.

B. Shumiatsky

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Document Details

Document TitleReport by State Administration of Cinematography Head B. Z. Shumiatsky to members of the TsK VKP(b) Politburo on the situation concerning S. M. Eisenstein's production of Bezhin Meadow

AuthorShumiatsky, Boris Zakharovich; State Administration of; Cinematography

RecipientRussian Communist Party (Bolshevik), Bolshevik Party, Bolshevik Center, Central Committee, RKP(b), Members of the Central Committee of the; Communist Party, Executive Commission of the Bolshevik; Party, Executive Committee of Bolsheviks, Provincial and Regional Party Committees of; the RKP(b), Communist Party of the Soviet Union,; CPSU, All-Union Communist Party, VKP(b), CC and CCC of the VKP(b), Central Control Commission of the; VKP(b), Republic and Territorial (Regional) Control; Commissions, Conference of the Russian Communist; Party, Plenium of the Central Committee VKP(b); (Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party), RK VKP(b), Congress of the Communist Party, Central Committee of the VKP(b) (All-Union; Communist Party (Bolsheviks); Dzhugashvili, Iosif Vissarionovich (Stalin); Skriabin, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich (Molotov); Andreyev, Andrei Andreyevich

RepositoryTsAFSBRF

ID #d.R-4377, t.2, ll.228-228v

DescriptionN/A

Date1937 Feb 5

AOC VolumeSoviet Culture and Power: A History in Documents, 1917-1953

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