Note on Coverage
This page features selected resources and films produced during the Soviet period in Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Russia. For more specific resources on individual CEE countries, please see additional pages on this guide.
Soviet Film Resources
Before the Fall: Soviet Cinema in the Gorbachev Years by ISBN: 1401033822Date: 2002-08-01The book examines the fascinating world of Soviet cinema during the years of glasnost and perestroika--the 1980s. It shows how the reforms that shook the foundation of the Bolshevik state and affected economic and social structures have been reflected in the film industry. Perestroika now appears not as the dawn of a new era in Soviet cinema, but as the last stage of development before the fall caused by the realities of the market economy.
The BFI Companion to Eastern European and Russian Cinema by ISBN: 9780851707532Date: 2000-03-28This work maps the rich, varied cinema of Eastern Europe, Russia and the former USSR. Over 200 entries cover a variety of topics spanning a century of endeavour and turbulent history from Czech animation to Soviet montage. It includes entries on actors and directors and key figures like Eisenstein.
The Cinema of Russia and the Former Soviet Union by ISBN: 1904764983Date: 2007-04-24This volume explores the cinema of the former Soviet Union and contemporary Russia, ranging from the pre-Revolutionary period to the present day. It offers an insight into the development of Soviet film, from 'the most important of all arts' as a propaganda tool to a means of entertainment in the Stalin era, from the rise of its 'dissident' art-house cinema in the 1960s through the glasnost era with its broken taboos to recent Russian blockbusters. Films have been chosen to represent both the classics of Russian and Soviet cinema as well as those films that had a more localised success and remain to date part of Russia's cultural reference system.
Cinema and Soviet Society: From the Revolution to the Death of Stalin by ISBN: 1860645682Date: 2000-12-15In this revised, updated paperback edition of his classic text, Peter Kenez explores the roots of Soviet cinema in the film heritage of pre-Revolutionary Russia, tracing the changes in content, style, technical means and production capacities generated by the Revolution of 1917; the constraints on form and subject imposed from the 1930s in the name of Socialist Realism; the relative freedom of expression accorded to film-makers during World War Two; and the extraordinary repression during the final years of Stalin era. Based on original research both in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere in the primary sources of Eastern Europe, this is the essential student text on the period which produced the major films of such 'greats' as Eisenstein, Vertov, Kuleshov, Pudovkin and many more.
Early Russian Cinema and Its Cultural Reception by ISBN: 0415071356Date: 1994-12-09In Early Cinema in Russia and its Cultural Reception, Yuri Tsivian examines the development of cinematic form and culture in Russia, from its late nineteenth-century beginnings as a fairground attraction to the early post-Revolutionary years. Tsivian traces the changing perceptions of cinema and its social transition from a modernist invention to a national art form. He explores reactions to the earliest films, from actors, novelists, poets, writers, and journalists. His richly detailed study of the physical elements of cinematic performance includes the architecture and illumination of the cinema foyer, the speed of projection and film acoustics.
Film and Television Genres of the Late Soviet Era by ISBN: 9781441177292Date: 2016-12-01Most histories of Soviet cinema portray the 1970s as a period of stagnation with the gradual decline of the film industry. This book, however, examines Soviet film and television of the era as mature industries articulating diverse cultural values via new genre models. During the 1970s, Soviet cinema and television developed a parallel system of genres where television texts celebrated conservative consensus while films manifested symptoms of ideological and social crises. The book examines the genres of state-sponsored epic films, police procedural, comedy and melodrama, and outlines how television gradually emerged as the major form of Russo-Soviet popular culture.
Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema by 
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ISBN: 1442268425Date: 2016-07-10This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema contains a chronology, an introduction, and a bibliography. The dictionary section has over 600 cross-referenced entries on directors, performers, cinematographers, composers, designers, producers, and studios.
Kino: A History of Russian and Soviet Film by - This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 0691003467Date: 1983-08-21This history of the turbulent destiny of Kino ("film" in Russian) documents the artistic development of the Russian and Soviet cinema and traces its growth from 1896 to the death of Sergei Eisenstein in 1948. The new Postscript surveys the directions taken by Soviet cinema since the end of World War II. Beginning with the Lumiere filming of the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II, Jay Leyda links Russia's pre-Revolutionary past with its Communist present through the observation of a major cultural phenomenon: the evolution of the Soviet film as an artistic and political instrument.
The Power of Pictures: Early Soviet Photography and Early Soviet Film by ISBN: 0300207689Date: 2015-09-29Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, photography, film, and posters played an essential role in the campaign to disseminate modernity and Communist ideology. Covering the period from the Revolution to the beginning of World War II, The Power of Pictures considers Soviet avant-garde photography and film in the context of political history and culture.
Revolt of the Filmmakers: The Struggle for Artistic Autonomy and the Fall of the Soviet Film Industry by ISBN: 0271019824Date: 2000-06-01One of the many unforeseen consequences of the fall of the Soviet Union has been the sudden collapse of the domestic film industry, probably the most privileged mass cultural medium of the Soviet Union. According to Faraday, who was film correspondent for The Moscow Times during the mid-1990s, the turning point came during the years of perestroika, when Russian filmmakers achieved an unprecedented degree of freedom from managerial control. They immediately used their newfound liberty to dismantle the industry's central administrative structures in the name of artistic autonomy.
Revolutionary Soviet Film Posters by ISBN: 0801816416Date: 1974-08-01Contains 56 posters in black-and-white, and 16 posters in full color; 17 film stills and other illustrations. Includes notes, readings, and index. The index includes brief biographical sketches of the artists.
Russian Cinema by ISBN: 0582437903Date: 2002-10-30Russian Cinema provides a lively and informative exploration of the film genres that developed during Russia's tumultuous history, with discussion of the work of Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Mikhalkov, Paradzhanov, Sokurov and others. The background section assesses the contribution of visual art and music, especially the work of the composers, Shostakovich and Prokofev, to Russian cinema.
The Russian Cinema Reader by - This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9781618112125Date: 2013-11-15Each volume consists of newly commissioned essays, excerpts from English language criticism and translations of Russian language essays on subtitled films which are widely taught in American and British courses on Russian film and culture. The arrangement is chronological: Volume one covers twelve films from the beginning of Russian film through the Stalin era; volume two covers twenty films from the Thaw era to the present.
Soviet Cinema by ISBN: 1848850093Date: 2010-01-15When the Bolsheviks seized power in the Soviet Union during 1917, they were suffering from a substantial political legitimacy deficit. Uneasy political foundations meant that cinema became a key part of the strategy to protect the existence of the USSR. Based on extensive archival research, this book examines the interaction between politics and the Soviet cinema industry during the period between Stalin's rise to power and the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.
Soviet Films of the 1970s and Early 1980s: Conformity and Non-Conformity Amidst Stagnation Decay by ISBN: 0367762048Date: 2021This book explores a new character archetype that permeated Soviet film during what became known as the era of Stagnation, a stark period of loneliness, disappointment, and individual despair. This new type of character was neither negative nor positive, but nevertheless systematically undermined Soviet norms of behaviour, hairstyle, dress, lifestyle, and perspective, in stark contrast to Socialist Realism’s traditional, positive hero who fought for Soviet values and who vanquished the enemies of socialism.
Cinepaternity: Fathers and Sons in Soviet and Post-Soviet Film by ISBN: 9780253354587Date: 2010-03-30This wide-ranging collection investigates the father/son dynamic in post-Stalinist Soviet cinema and its Russian successor. Contributors analyze complex patterns of identification, disavowal, and displacement in films by such diverse directors as Khutsiev, Motyl', Tarkovsky, Balabanov, Sokurov, Todorovskii, Mashkov, and Bekmambetov. Several chapters focus on the difficulties of fulfilling the paternal function, while others show how vertical and horizontal male bonds are repeatedly strained by the pressure of redefining an embattled masculinity in a shifting political landscape.
Drawing the Iron Curtain: Jews and the Golden Age of Animation by ISBN: 9780813577012Date: 2016-05-30In the American imagination, the Soviet Union was a drab cultural wasteland, a place where playful creative work and individualism was heavily regulated and censored. Yet despite state control, some cultural industries flourished in the Soviet era, including animation. Drawing the Iron Curtain tells the story of the golden age of Soviet animation and the Jewish artists who enabled it to thrive. Art historian Maya Balakirsky Katz reveals how the state-run animation studio Soyuzmultfilm brought together Jewish creative personnel from every corner of the Soviet Union and served as an unlikely haven for dissidents who were banned from working in other industries.
Forward Soviet!: History and Non-Fiction Film in the USSR by ISBN: 1860642829Date: 1999-12-31This is an account of Soviet documentary output during the years between the "Great October Socialist Revolution" and the "Great Patriotic War". Graeme Roberts re-views the examples of Soviet, and world, non-fiction cinema, like "The Man With the Movie Camera" and "The Fall of the Romanovs", and uncovers many intriguing films. The text demonstrates how, through looking as the history of Soviet non-fiction film, it becomes possible to gain insight into the agencies that shaped Soviet culture and history under Stalinist regime into and beyond the 1930s.
Insiders and Outsiders in Russian Cinema by ISBN: 0253219825Date: 2008-05-14Identifying who was "inside" and who was "outside" the Soviet/Russian body politic has been a matter of intense and violent urgency, especially in the high Stalinist and post-Soviet periods. Employing a range of interpretive methods practiced in Russian/Soviet film studies, Insiders and Outsiders in Russian Cinema highlights the varied ways that Russian and Soviet cinema constructed otherness and foreignness.
Inside Soviet Film Satire by ISBN: 9780521430166Date: 1993-04-30Inside Soviet Film Satire is a lively collection of sixteen original essays by Soviet, American and Canadian scholars and film commentators. It is the first indepth examination of an important genre within the Soviet film tradition. From its origins, humour and satire have been closely linked in Soviet cinema. Films made during the early years of the communist regime depicted characters and situations at a moment when the promise of socialism had yet to be realised. By the final years of totalitarian rule, filmmakers had found ways to create satirical films that powerfully indicted communism itself.
Russian Americans' in Soviet Film by ISBN: 1350200050Date: 2020-09-17"Russian Americans' in Soviet Film analyses the content, reception and underlying influences of over 60 Soviet and American films, the book explores new territory in Soviet cinema and Soviet-American cultural relations. It presents groundbreaking archival research encompassing Soviet audience surveys, Soviet film journals and reviews, memoirs and articles by Soviet filmmakers, and scripts, among other sources. The book reveals that values of optimism, technological skill, efficiency and self-reliance - perceived as quintessentially American - were incorporated into new Soviet ideals through channels of cross-cultural dissemination, resulting in cultural synthesis.
Russian and Soviet Film Adaptations of Literature, 1900-2001 by ISBN: 0415306671Date: 2005-04-19Providing many interesting case studies and bringing together many leading authorities on the subject, this book examines the importance of film adaptations of literature in Russian cinema, especially during the Soviet period when the cinema was accorded a vital role in imposing the authority of the communist regime on the consciousness of the Soviet people.
Russia on Reels by ISBN: 1860643892Date: 1999-12-31Film writers and scholars from Britain, Russia and the United States provide the first - scholarly and enjoyable - account of modern Russian cinema after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The book gives a much needed historical context for recent films, defines common themes and diverse aesthetic concerns and offers individual portraits of three film directors: Sokurov, Muratova, and Astrakhan. The focal point for the discussion of a range of films is the 'Russian idea' and Russian identity and nationhood: how and why filmmakers debunk Soviet myths and the new images and clichés that are being created.
Soviet Cinematography, 1918-1991 by ISBN: 0202304612Date: 1993-12-31With a historical sweep that recent events have made definitive, the authors examine the influence of Soviet ideology on the presentation of social reality in films produced in the Soviet Union between the October Revolution and the final days of glasnost. Within the framework of an introduction that lays out the conceptual terminology used to describe that shifting ideological landscape, the authors analyze both the social groups appearing in the films and the relations of film directors and other film makers to state censorship and ideological control.
Soviet Film Music by ISBN: 3718659107Date: 1997-12-01In the years 1917 to 1991, despite unfavorable prevailing conditions, there were a number of achievements in the music created for the cinema in the Soviet Union. This volume attempts a historical analysis of Soviet film music and its place in world cinema.
Women in Soviet Film by ISBN: 9781138221642Date: 2017-09-21This book illuminates and explores the representation of women in Soviet cinema from the late 1950s, through the 1960s, and into the 1970s, a period when Soviet culture shifted away, to varying degrees, from the well-established conventions of socialist realism. Covering films about working class women, rural and urban women, and women from the intelligentsia, it probes various cinematic genres and approaches to film aesthetics, while it also highlights how Soviet cinema depicted the ambiguity of emerging gender roles, pressing social issues, and evolving relationships between men and women.
- "The 20 Best Russian Directors"Compiled by IMDb.
Alexander Dovzhenko: A Life in Soviet Film by ISBN: 0851709273Date: 2000-09-26Along with Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin, Alexander Dovzhenko became one of the major pioneers of Soviet filmmaking. During his thirty-year career, his films (including Zvenyhora, Arsenal, Earth, and Ivan) won international acclaim and have become influential classics of the silent and early sound eras. Combining images from Ukrainian history and folklore, stark realism, visual poetry, propaganda, and gentle humor, his films celebrated nature and man's relationship to the land.
Andrei Tarkovsky by ISBN: 9781842433669Date: 2011-08-01Andrei Tarkovsky is the most celebrated Russian filmmaker since Eisenstein and one of the most important directors to have emerged during the 1960s and 1970s. Although he made only seven feature films, each one was a major landmark in cinema, the most well-known being the medieval epic Andrei Rublev.
The Cinema of Alexander Sokurov by ISBN: 9780231167345Date: 2014-02-04One of the last representatives of a brand of serious, high-art cinema, Alexander Sokurov has produced a massive oeuvre exploring issues such as history, power, memory, kinship, death, the human soul, and the responsibility of the artist. Through contextualization and close readings of each of his feature fiction films (broaching many of his documentaries in the process), this volume unearths a vision of Sokurov's films as equally mournful and passionate, intellectual, and sensual, and also identifies in them a powerful, if discursively repressed, queer sensitivity, alongside a pattern of tensions and paradoxes.
The Cinema of Sergei Parajanov by ISBN: 9780299296544Date: 2013-10-30Sergei Parajanov (1924-90) flouted the rules of both filmmaking and society in the Soviet Union and paid a heavy personal price. An ethnic Armenian in the multicultural atmosphere of Tbilisi, Georgia, he was one of the most innovative directors of postwar Soviet cinema. Parajanov succeeded in creating a small but marvellous body of work whose style embraces such diverse influences as folk art, medieval miniature painting, early cinema, Russian and European art films, surrealism, and Armenian, Georgian, and Ukrainian cultural motifs.
Dziga Vertov by ISBN: 1845113764Date: 2007-03-30Pioneer of political documentary and inventor of cinema verite, Dziga Vertov has exerted a decisive influence on directors from Eisenstein to Godard. Yet his reputation long rested upon a lone masterpiece, 'Man with a Movie Camera'. Recently, however Vertov has begun to be recognised as the creator of a body of innovative and distinct films and, as Jeremy Hicks argues, documentary as we know it today is unthinkable without the rediscovery of Vertov. This, the first book in English to cover the whole of Vertov's career, reveals him to be an auteur, allowing readers to combine the familiar and less familiar aspects of his filmmaking and thinking in a cohesive narrative.
Esfir Shub: Pioneer of Documentary Filmmaking by ISBN: 1501376519Date: 2022-01-27Esfir Shub was the only prominent female director of nonfiction film present at the dawning of the Soviet film industry. She was, in fact, the first woman both to write critical texts on cinema and then practically apply these theorisations in her own films. As such, her syncretism of cinema theory and praxis inspired her to ask questions regarding both the nature of nonfiction film, such as the problem of authenticity and reality, and the function of the artist in society; issues which are still relevant in contemporary discussions about the documentary.
Kira Muratova by ISBN: 1850434093Date: 2004-11-26Kira Muratova is a respected and original contemporary film director, yet her earliest works were not welcomed when they were shown just after the end of Brezhnev's 'period of stagnation'. Only in 1987 in one of the first breaths of perestroika were these movies re-released, sending Muratova from talented pariah to celebrity almost overnight. Drawing from interviews with Muratova herself and her friends, unpublished scripts and interviews with audiences, Taubman traces the progress of Muratova's career, looking closely at each of her films including the 1990 masterpiece Asthenic Syndrome.
Nikita Mikhalkov: Between Nostalgia and Nationalism by ISBN: 1860647855Date: 2004-11-26Adored by Russian audiences for his commercially-oriented films, and loathed by the Russian intelligentsia for the same, Nikita Mikhalkov is one of the most successful, ambitious and controversial film-directors in the history of Soviet and Russian cinema. Revealing and discussing the key themes explored in his work, Birgit Beumers follows his career from his 1974 debut At Home Among Strangers, a Stranger at Home; through to the French co-productions: the award-winning Urga and the internationally renowned Oscar-winning Burnt by the Sun, 1994.
"Savage Junctures" Sergei Eisenstein and the Shape of Thinking by ISBN: 1850433305Date: 2003-07-25This text aims to provide fresh insights into Eisenstein's films and writings. It examines the multiple concerns within which his films evolved and Eisenstein's appropriation of all of world culture as his source. Like Eisenstein himself, Anne Nesbet is particularly interested in the possibilities of visual image making and each chapter addresses the problem of his image-based thinking from a different perspective.
Sergei Eisenstein by ISBN: 9781861893673Date: 2008-07-22In Sergei Eisenstein, Mike O'Mahony uses this historical lens to examine the richly diverse films, writings, and artwork of one of the foremost filmmakers of the twentieth century. Drawing on an extensive archive of Eisenstein's published and unpublished writings, O'Mahony situates his oeuvre in the social and political context of the first three decades of Communist rule in the Soviet Union. O'Mahony examines how Eisenstein's projects were generated or constrained by his volatile and complex personality, ongoing political events, and the conflict between his beliefs the Stalinist regime and his beliefs as a Bolshevik artist.
Vsevolod Pudovkin: Classic Films of the Soviet Avant-Garde by ISBN: 1860644554Date: 2001-01-25Vsevelod Pudovkin: Classic Works of the Soviet Avant-Garde is the first book on Pudovkin for more than twenty-five years. It covers his career from his apprenticeship with Gardin and Kuleshov in the early '20s to his sound films of the early '30s. It discusses films on which Pudovkin worked as director, as collaborator and in which he appeared, from the famous troika, The Mother, The End of St Petersburg and Storm over Asia to the lesser known The Mechanics of the Brain and The Living Corpse. Pudovkin's art is placed in the context of his contribution to the cultural and political fervour of Soviet Russia after the Revolution, and especially the theoretical disputes with his contemporary Eisenstein.
- Battleship Potemkin (dir. Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
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- Bed and Sofa (dir. Abram Room, 1927).
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- Old and New (dir. Sergei Eisenstein, 1929)
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- Man with a Movie Camera (dir. Dziga Vertov, 1929).
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- The Cranes are Flying (dir. Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957)
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- I Am Twenty Years Old (dir. Marlen Khutsiev, 1965)
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- ¡Que viva Mexico! (dir. Sergei Eisenstein, 1977)
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- The Ascent (dir. Larisa Shepitko, 1977)
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- Stalker (Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
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- Come and See (dir. Elem Klimov, 1985)
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Additional Resources on Selected Major Soviet Films:
Burnt by the Sun by ISBN: 1860643965Date: 2001-01-12Nikita Mikhalkov's film about the Stalin period has received wide attention inside and outside Russia, being shown at Cannes, winning an Oscar, and reaching cinemas worldwide. Mikhalkov is a fine and controversial director, and this "KINOfile" is a valuable introduction to his work. It investigates the production, context, and critical reception of the film, the people who made it, and provides an analysis of the film itself and its place in Russian and world cinema.
The Commissar: Aleksandr Askoldov by ISBN: 9781783207060Date: 2016-11-15Filmed in1966 and '67, but kept from release for twenty years, The Commissar is unquestionably one of the most important and compelling films of the Soviet era. Based on a short story by Vasily Grossman, it tells of a female Red Army commissar who is forced to stay with a Jewish family near the frontlines of the battle between the Red and White Armies as she waits to give birth.
The Cranes Are Flying by ISBN: 9781860645044Date: 2003-06-27The first indisputable masterpiece of post-Stalin cinema, The Cranes Are Flying, directed by Mikhail Kalatozov tells a story of love, betrayal, and renewal against the background of World War II. Josephine Woll's beautifully written account of this film reviews its presentation of war, its redefinition of Soviet ideas of heroism, its enigmatic central protagonist, Veronika and her paradoxical decision to marry one man while never ceasing to love another. Woll also details its reception in the Soviet Union and the West, where it was widely distributed and acclaimed.
In Excess: Sergei Eisenstein's Mexico by ISBN: 9780226734149Date: 2009-04-15During the 1920s and '30s, Mexico attracted an international roster of artists and intellectuals were drawn to the heady tumult engendered by battling cultural ideologies in an emerging center for the avant-garde. Against the backdrop of this cosmopolitan milieu, In Excess reconstructs the years that the renowned Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein spent in the country to work on his controversial film ¡Que Viva Mexico! Illuminating the inextricability of Eisenstein's oeuvre from the global cultures of modernity and film, Masha Salazkina situates this unfinished project within the twin contexts of postrevolutionary Mexico and the ideas of such contemporaneous thinkers as Walter Benjamin.
The Man with the Movie Camera by ISBN: 1860643949Date: 2001-03-21The "KINO Russian Cinema" series has been expanding to provide students and general readers with readable companion handbooks to important and interesting films of Russian cinema from its beginnings to contemporary times. This volume investigates the production, context and reception of the film "The Man with the Movie Camera" directed by Dziya Ventov, the people who made it, and the film itself, including its place in Russian and World cinema.
Tolstoy on Screen by ISBN: 9780810130210Date: 2014-12-30Scholarship on screen adaptation has proliferated in recent years, but it has remained largely focused on English- and Romance-language authors. Tolstoy on Screen aims to correct this imbalance with a comprehensive examination of film and television adaptations of Tolstoy's fiction. Spanning the silent era to the present day, these essays consider well-known as well as neglected works in light of contemporary adaptation and media theory.
- Early Russian Cinema Online This link opens in a new window This collection of Russian film periodicals from the last tsarist decade includes popular periodicals released by the major Russian film studios. Containing interviews with movie stars and now irretrievably lost screenplays, these journals will prove an invaluable source about the silent movie era and Russia's entertainment industry at the eve of the Revolution. Includes 57 titles.
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- FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals This link opens in a new window Searches film and television articles in the International Index to Film Periodicals (1972-current) and Treasures from the Film Archives, which contains silent film-era listings from archives.
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- Film chronicle Soviet film chronicle
- Integrum Profi Central Press This link opens in a new window INTEGRUM™ Profi is the largest archive of mass-media sources from Russia and the former Soviet Union with a range of analytical tools that help to draw the digital portrait of Russia and the ex-USSR countries. The archive contains Moscow and Russian regional newspapers and magazines, on-line, TV and radio sources as well as media sources from the CIS and some other countries with the archive of some of them back to the late 1980s - early 1990s. All the documents can be automatically translated into English. Today the archive contains 120,000 sources and their number is constantly growing.
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- Kino zhurnal A.R.K. This link opens in a new window Kino-zhurnal A.R.K. [i.e. The Magazine of the Association of Revolutionary Cinematography] is a rare Soviet film magazine, published in Moscow by the Association of Revolutionary Cinematography in mid-1920s. Only eleven issues of this monthly magazine were published under this title (#1-12 for 1925 and #1-2, 1926).
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- Krasnyi Arkhiv Digital Archive This link opens in a new window Krasnyi Arkhiv was published in Moscow from 1922 till June 1941 first by the Central Archives of the USSR and later by the Central Archival Administration. The proclaimed goal of this journal was to reveal the secrets of diplomatic documents hidden in the archives of Tsarist Russia and to regularly publish important archival papers “for the education of the proletariat”.
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- Krokodil Digital Archive This link opens in a new window Searchable and browsable database of digitized issues of Krokodil (1922-2000), Novyĭ krokodil (2001-2004), and Krokodil (2005-2008).
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- LEF Digital Archive (Left Front of the Arts) This link opens in a new window Published in the early 20th Century contains rare works of avant-garde writers, photographers, critics and designers in the turbulent era of the first Soviet art. This archive combines both runs of the journal, LEF (1923 to 1925) and its successor Novyi LEF (1927 to 1928).
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- Moscow News Digital Archive This link opens in a new window The Moscow News Digital Archive contains all obtainable published issues (1930-2014, approx. 60,000 pages), including issues of the newspaper's short-lived sister publication: Moscow Daily News (1932-1938).
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- Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window Articles and reviews from a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, circus, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television, and more. Former database title: International Index to Performing Arts (IIPA) Full Text.
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- Pravda Archive, 1959-1996 Twentieth-Century Global Perspectives This link opens in a new window Articles published by Pravda during the Cold War and the years immediately following, from 1959 to 1996, collected and translated into English by the CIA
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- Pravda Digital Archive 1912-2009 Historical full text of the Soviet/Russian newspaper (most content is in Russian language only).
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- Soviet Cinema Online: Periodicals and Newspapers, 1918-1942 This link opens in a new window The collection includes Soviet film magazines and newspapers from the 1920s and 1930s, reflecting an interesting period in the history of Russian Film. Part I: Journals online, number of titles: 27. Part II: Newspapers online, number of titles: 20.
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- Soviet film. Volumes illustrations (some color), portraits (some color) 29-31 cm. Editions in Russian, French, German, Spanish, and Arabic also issued.
- Studies in Russian and Soviet cinema (Online)
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- FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals This link opens in a new window Searches film and television articles in the International Index to Film Periodicals (1972-current) and Treasures from the Film Archives, which contains silent film-era listings from archives.
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- Integrum Profi Central Press This link opens in a new window INTEGRUM™ Profi is the largest archive of mass-media sources from Russia and the former Soviet Union with a range of analytical tools that help to draw the digital portrait of Russia and the ex-USSR countries. The archive contains Moscow and Russian regional newspapers and magazines, on-line, TV and radio sources as well as media sources from the CIS and some other countries with the archive of some of them back to the late 1980s - early 1990s. All the documents can be automatically translated into English. Today the archive contains 120,000 sources and their number is constantly growing.
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- JSTOR This link opens in a new window Full text of core scholarly journals from their beginning to approximately five years ago. Disciplines include botany, business, ecology, general science, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, statistics. Browsable by discipline and full-text searchable across all disciplines. UCLA has access to selected JSTOR e-books. jstore, jsotr, jrstor, jsot, Jsror, jsstor, Jstar, j-stor, jstory, jstot, Jstr, jstsor, justor, jsot, jsage, jsot, Jsror, Jsror, jsstor, J star, j-star
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- Kino zhurnal A.R.K. This link opens in a new window Kino-zhurnal A.R.K. [i.e. The Magazine of the Association of Revolutionary Cinematography] is a rare Soviet film magazine, published in Moscow by the Association of Revolutionary Cinematography in mid-1920s. Only eleven issues of this monthly magazine were published under this title (#1-12 for 1925 and #1-2, 1926).
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- Krasnyi Arkhiv Digital Archive This link opens in a new window Krasnyi Arkhiv was published in Moscow from 1922 till June 1941 first by the Central Archives of the USSR and later by the Central Archival Administration. The proclaimed goal of this journal was to reveal the secrets of diplomatic documents hidden in the archives of Tsarist Russia and to regularly publish important archival papers “for the education of the proletariat”.
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- Krokodil Digital Archive This link opens in a new window Searchable and browsable database of digitized issues of Krokodil (1922-2000), Novyĭ krokodil (2001-2004), and Krokodil (2005-2008).
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- LEF Digital Archive (Left Front of the Arts) This link opens in a new window Published in the early 20th Century contains rare works of avant-garde writers, photographers, critics and designers in the turbulent era of the first Soviet art. This archive combines both runs of the journal, LEF (1923 to 1925) and its successor Novyi LEF (1927 to 1928).
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- Moscow News Digital Archive This link opens in a new window The Moscow News Digital Archive contains all obtainable published issues (1930-2014, approx. 60,000 pages), including issues of the newspaper's short-lived sister publication: Moscow Daily News (1932-1938).
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- Oxford Bibliographies Online: Cinema and Media Studies This link opens in a new window Annotated bibliographies for topics in the field of Cinema and Media Studies. Combines encyclopedia-style introductions with expert recommendations of the most important reference works, books, journals, and primary sources on the topic.
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- Pravda Archive, 1959-1996 Twentieth-Century Global Perspectives This link opens in a new window Articles published by Pravda during the Cold War and the years immediately following, from 1959 to 1996, collected and translated into English by the CIA
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- Pravda Digital Archive 1912-2009 Historical full text of the Soviet/Russian newspaper (most content is in Russian language only).
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- Pravda Ukrainy This link opens in a new window Pravda Ukrainy (originally Sovetskaia Ukraina) was a Russian-language Soviet Ukrainian daily and a newspaper of record, serving as the official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. Covers 1938-2014.
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- Socialism on Film: The Cold War and International Propaganda This link opens in a new window This collection of films from the communist world reveals war, history, current affairs, culture and society as seen through the socialist lens. It spans most of the twentieth century and covers countries such as the USSR, Vietnam, China, Korea, much of Eastern Europe, the GDR, Britain and Cuba. Browse sub-collections for more on subjects covered.
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- Soviet Cinema Online: Periodicals and Newspapers, 1918-1942 This link opens in a new window The collection includes Soviet film magazines and newspapers from the 1920s and 1930s, reflecting an interesting period in the history of Russian Film. Part I: Journals online, number of titles: 27. Part II: Newspapers online, number of titles: 20.
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- Soviet History Through Film - UCLA Library Guide Companion guide to the UCLA "Soviet History Through Film" series (2011-2012), sponsored by Center for European and Eurasian Studies, Charles E. Young Research Library, and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.
- Early Russian Cinema Online This link opens in a new window This collection of Russian film periodicals from the last tsarist decade includes popular periodicals released by the major Russian film studios. Containing interviews with movie stars and now irretrievably lost screenplays, these journals will prove an invaluable source about the silent movie era and Russia's entertainment industry at the eve of the Revolution. Includes 57 titles.
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- Arzamas Academy: The History of Cinema - The History of the Country: 1920-2000 The fourth season of the Arzamas lecture hall at the Russian State Library. Features archival material and videos.
- Digital Handbook for Research on Soviet History A bibliographic guide to primary source materials for the study of Soviet history, developed by Harvard University. Includes a database of hundreds of collected primary sources.
- Fontes: Open Access Sources for Ukrainian History From Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute, a database of online, open-access resources for original research on the history of Ukraine. Each included collection features primary sources, including archival documents, books, periodicals, photographs, films, and more, for use in original research.
- GreenCine Russian & Soviet Film Primer Film internet archive featuring section on Russian and Soviet Cinema, 1896 - 1953
- Isskustvo kino = "Искусство кино" The Art of Cinema is Europe's oldest film magazine, published since January 1931. It currently comes out every two months. About 50 large texts are published in each issue: reviews of the largest festivals, interviews with the main filmmakers of the world, analysis of cinematographic trends of the past, present and future, scripts, film prose and much more.
- Kinoeye Archive Kinoeye was an online journal of European film published between 2001 and 2004, and prior to that it was a column in Central Europe Review.
- KinoKultura: New Russian Cinema KinoKultura was founded by Birgit Beumers in 2003 as a quarterly online journal, which is ISSN registered and hosted in the UK.
- Len Film Lenfilm is the oldest film studio in Russia, the "cradle" of Russian cinema. It was on the territory of the modern Lenfilm, in the Fourth Pavilion, the former Aquarium Theater, that the first film show in Russia took place.
- Mosfilm Classics Online videos of classic Soviet and Russian films, including English subtitles.
- OLC-SSG-Slavic Studies OLC Slavic Studies Search
- Russian Cinema Council RUSCICO (RUSSIAN CINEMA COUNCIL) is a commercial association of Russian and foreign companies set up to implement a comprehensive program for the restoration, remastering, replication and worldwide distribution of a collection of the best Soviet, Russian and foreign art, documentary, animated films on DVD.
- Russian Film on the Net List of online resources compiled and annotated by Val S. Golovskoy
- Ukraïnica: The Primary Database of Ukrainian Studies Online portal to discover, bookmark, and access resources such as Ukrainian literature, historical documents, witness testimony, films, and other primary sources created originally in the Ukrainian language and currently available in high-quality English-language translations.
- Ukrainian Institute: Films Joint partnership of the Ukrainian Institute and usheru, a digital platform with a catalogue of over 600 Ukrainian film titles and where to watch them legally.
Selected Soviet Films
Battleship Potemkin (dir. Sergei Eisenstein, 1925).
"Odessa — 1905. Enraged with the deplorable conditions on board the armored cruiser Potemkin, the ship's loyal crew contemplates the unthinkable — mutiny. Seizing control of the Potemkin and raising the red flag of revolution, the sailors' revolt becomes the rallying point for a Russian populace ground under the boot heels of the Czar's Cossacks."
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.
Bed and Sofa (dir. Abram Room, 1927).
"Daring for its time — or any time — Bed And Sofa is the story of a love triangle between a woman and two men living together in a one-room basement apartment in 1927 Moscow. When Liuda becomes pregnant and no one knows which man is the father, she must determine her own future."
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.
Man with a Movie Camera (dir. Dziga Vertov, 1929).
"Named the best documentary film of all time by Sight and Sound, it is presented here in its entirety for the first time since its original premiere. Discovered and restored at EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam — with extensive digital treatment by Lobster Films — the 35mm print from which this edition is, in part, sourced is the only known complete version of the film. The Man with the Movie Camera features musical accompaniment by The Alloy Orchestra."
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Alexander Nevsky (dir. Sergei Eisenstein, 1938).
"Sergei Eisenstein's landmark tale of Russia thwarting the German invasion of the 13th century was wildly popular and quite intentional, given the prevailing Nazi geopolitical advancement and destruction at the time."
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The Cranes are Flying (dir. Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957)
"This landmark film by the virtuosic Mikhail Kalatozov was heralded as a revelation in the post-Stalin Soviet Union and the international cinema community alike. It tells the story of Veronica (Tatiana Samoilova) and Boris (Alexei Batalov), a couple who are blissfully in love until World War II tears them apart. With Boris at the front, Veronica must try to ward off spiritual numbness and defend herself from the increasingly forceful advances of her beau’s draft-dodging cousin."
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The Ascent (dir. Larisa Shepitko, 1976)
"Set during World War II's darkest days, THE ASCENT follows the path of two peasant soldiers, cut off from their troop, who trudge through the snowy backwoods of Belarus seeking refuge among villagers."
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Stalker (Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
"A hired guide — the Stalker — leads a writer and a professor into the heart of the Zone, the restricted site of a long-ago disaster, where the three men eventually zero in on the Room, a place rumored to fulfill one’s most deeply held desires."
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"The Glasnost Film Festival is a collection featuring 22 Soviet documentary films produced or released in the beginning of the "Glasnost Era" — 1987-1988. These films definitively document the dramatic cultural and political changes that led to the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991. All were produced originally on 35mm film and are subtitled in English."
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video. View all volumes of the Glasnost Film Festival via this link.