Methodological Aspects of Studying the History of Soviet Cinema in the 1930s
Abstract
The article is devoted to the history of the Russian film studies and
methodology of film history as science using the example of the Introduction
of History of the Soviet Film Art by Nikolai Iezuitov (1899–1941), one of the
founders of the national film studies. Since the manuscript of History of the Soviet
Film Art — the first history of the Soviet cinema — has not yet been published
and introduced into scholarly use, the author pays special attention to archival
sources.
Despite a number of essays and discussions about film history and its
methodology, a fundamental scholarly work on the historiography of the history
of Soviet and Russian cinema has not yet been written. The relevance and novelty
of the article is that it is based on the study of archival manuscripts of Nikolai
Iezuitov. The exploration of early approaches to the study of the history of the
Soviet cinema is important both historically and pedagogically.
One of the most important sources of the concept of film history at an early
stage of the national film studies is Iezuitov's Introduction to History of the Soviet
Film Art. The Introduction is valuable because: 1) it is a rare evidence of reflection
on the foundations of film history as scholarship and its methodology; 2) it is
given by the author of the first history of the Soviet cinema; 3) it is represented
by the author not as a separate “abstract” essay but as a part of the history itself.
The Introduction defines the scholarly tasks and content of film history;
overviews foreign books on the history of cinema; emphasizes specific periods
of Soviet film history; and indicates the principles of work with relevant sources.
Iezuitov’s main principles in relation to film history are established in
connection, firstly, with Soviet history scholarship; and secondly, with the vision
of film history as the history of film art. Thus, film history, according to Iezuitov,
is the unity of Marxist understanding of history and art-historical (stylistic)
analysis of films and the main film movements in Soviet cinema.
Keywords
history of national cinema,
periodization of Soviet film history,
history of film studies,
methodology of film history,
film education,
historiography UDC 791.036(47+57) Sultan I. Usuvaliev Post-Graduate Student,
VGIK Methodological Aspects of Studying the History of Soviet Cinema in the 1930s
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Review
For citations:
Usuvaliev S.I. Methodological Aspects of Studying the History of Soviet Cinema in the 1930s. Vestnik VGIK. 2019;11(3(41)):17-28. (In Russ.)
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