The far east in the films of A. Litvinov: constructing the image of space
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2017.1.214Abstract
This article explores the educational documentary film (Kulturfilm) as a visual construct of a region in the Soviet epoch. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the Soviet film industry was actively engaged in developing particular images, which refashioned the way the audience saw their own territories and those of others. Working around the “sixth part of the world”, filmmakers elaborated a set of lasting visual images, describing the regional diversity of the great multinational state. They also attempted to “popularise” the region among Soviet citizens. Based on the films of Aleksandr Litvinov, who played a prominent role in establishing the expedition film practice in the Soviet Union, the paper considers the construction of visual images of the Soviet Far East. A contextual analysis of the Forest People (1928), Through the Ussuri Area (1928), Terra Incognita (1931) demonstrates that they continuously emphasised the image of the Far East as a cultural frontier, which featured the natural and ethnic regional diversity. The Far East in Litvinov’s films is a peculiar region with borderland status. At the same time, Litvinov’s films on the Far East can be viewed as the first cinematographic representations of the “small peoples” of the Far East under Soviet-inspired changes. The combination of filmmaking with a scholarly approach and literary narratives is central to the understanding of the peculiar character of those early films. Litvinov’s case demonstrates that Kulturfilms in the Soviet Union provide an insight into the conceptual and discourse conquest of the remote regions as well as their full symbolic ‘invention’ and inclusion into the perception of the new empire.
References
Argudyaeva, Yu. V. (2007). V. K. Arsenjev – puteshestvennik i ehtnograf: Russkie Priamurjya i Primorjya v issledovaniyakh V. K. Arsenjeva: materialih, kommentarii. [V. K. Arsenyev – Traveler and Ethnographer: The Russians of the Amur Region and Primorye in Arsenyev’s Research Documents: Materials and Comments]. 272 p. Vladivostok, DVO RAN.
Arsenyev, V. K. (2002). Tropoyj, zavethannoyj Dersu… Sbornik rasskazov. [Following the Path of Dersu… A Collection of Short Stories].103 p.Vladivostok, Daljnevostochnihyj Arsenjevskiyj blagotvoriteljnihyj fond.
Arsenyev, V. K. (2007). Sobranie sochineniyj : v 6 tomakh. Vol. 1. 704 p. Vladivostok, Aljmanakh “Rubezh”.
Bassin, M. (1999). Nationalist Imagination and Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840–1865. Cambridge, Cambridge Univ. Press.
Cosgrove, D. (2008). Geography and Vision: Seeing, Imagining and Representing the World. L., I. B. Tauris.
Deryabin, A. S. (1999). O filjmakh-puteshestviyakh i Aleksandre Litvinove [About Expedition Films and Aleksandr Litvinov]. In Zelenoe spasenie, 11. Almatih, Germes, pp. 14–24.
Direktivih VKP(b) (1931). Direktivih VKP(b) po voprosam prosvetheniya [Instructions of the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks on Education Issues]. 496 p. Moscow, OGIZ.
Erofeev, V. A. (1929). Po “Krihshe mira” s kinoapparatom [On “the Roof of the World” with a Video Camera]. Moscow, Molodaya gvardiya.
Flaherty, R. (1980). Statji. Svideteljstva. Intervjyu [Articles. Testimonies. Interviews]. 224 p. Moscow, Iskusstvo.
Frank, S. (2010). Russkie travelogi serediny 1930kh godov [The Russian Travelogues in the mid – 1930s.]. In Kissel, W. S., Time, G. (Eds.). Beglye vzgliady : Novoeprochtenie russkikh travelogov pervoi treti 20 veka (pp. 180–211). Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie.
Kivelson, V., Neuberger, J. (Eds.) (2010). Picturing Russia : Explorations in Visual Culture. N. Haven, CT, Yale Univ. Press.
Krasheninnikov, S. P. (2013). Opisanie zemli Kamchatki [A Description of Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands]. 480 p. Moscow, Ehksmo.
Lebedev, N. A. (1965). Ocherki istorii kino SSSR. Nemoe kino: 1918–1934 gg. [Essays on the history of the Cinema in the USSR. Silent Screen: 1918–1934]. 373 p. Moscow, Iskusstvo.
Litvinov, A. A. (1955). V Ussuriyjskoyj tayjge : Zapiski kinorezhissera [In the Ussuri Taiga : Notes of a Filmmaker]. In Uraljskiyj sovremennik, 1 (29). Sverdlovsk, Sverdlovskoe oblastnoe gosudarstvennoe izdateljstvo, pp. 116–199.
Litvinov, A. A. (1959). Po sledam Arsenjeva [Following Arsenyev]. 204 p. Vladivostok, Primorskoe knizhnoe izdateljstvo.
Litvinov, A. A. (1963). V krayu ognedihshathikh gor [In the Land of Fire-Spitting Mountains]. 212 p. Sverdlovsk, Sverdlovskoe knizhnoe izdateljstvo.
Litvinov, A. A. (1982). Puteshestviya s kinokameroyj [Travelling with a Video Camera]. 54 p. Moscow, Vsesoyuznoe byuro propagandih kinoiskusstva.
Litvinov, A. A. (S. n). Pervyie shagi [The First Steps]. Manuscript. SOKM. F. 15. Op. 2. D. 37. 4o. 3 L.
Magidov, V. M. (1998). Kinodokumentih po vizualjnoyj antropologii Rossii [Cinema Documents on the Visual Anthropology of Russia]. In Materialjnaya baza sferih kuljturih, 2, pp. 11–23. Moscow, RGB.
Malkova, V. K., Tishkov, V. A. (2009). Kuljtura i prostranstvo, 1. Obrazih rossiyjskikh respublik v Internete [Culture and Space, 1. Images of the Russian Republics on the Internet]. 147 p. Moscow, Institut Antropologii I Etnographii.
Martin, T. (2001). The Affirmative Action Empire : Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939. Ithaca, NY, Cornell Univ. Press.
Mitin, I. (2006). Mifogeografiya kak podkhod k izucheniyu mnozhestvennihkh realjnosteyj mesta [Mythogeography as an Approach to the Investigation of Multiple Realities of a Place]. In Gumanitarnaya geografiya : Nauchnihyj i kuljturno-prosvetiteljskiyj aljmanakh, 3, pp. 64–82. Moscow, Institut naslediya.
Paasi, A. (2003). Place and Region : Regional Identity in Question. In Progress in Human Geography. Vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 475–485.
Papazian, E. A. (2009). Manufacturing Truth : The Documentary Moment in Early Soviet Culture. DeKalb, Northern Illinois Univ. Press.
Polyanovsky, M. L. (1929). Za sovetskimi “Nanukami” i “Changami” [Following the Soviet “Nanooks” and “Changies”]. In Kino, Apr. 10.
Razlogov, K. E. (2010). Iskusstvo ehkrana: ot sinematografa do Interneta [The Art of the Screen: From Cinematography to the Internet]. 287 p. Moscow, ROSSPEhN.
Remnev, A. V. (2000). Regionaljnihe parametrih imperskoyj “geografii vlasti” (Sibirj i Daljniyj Vostok) [The Regional Parameters of the Imperial “Geography of Power” (Siberia and the Far East)]. In AbImperio, 3–4, pp. 343–358.
Remnev, A. V. (2010). Imperiya rasshiryaetsya na vostok: “toponimicheskiyj nacionalizm” v simvolicheskom prostranstve Aziatskoyj Rossii XIX – nachala XX veka [The Empire Broadens to the East: The “Toponymic Nationalism” in the Symbolic Space of Russia of the East between the 19th – Early Centuries]. In Nowak, A. (Ed.). Ofiary imperium. Imperia jako ofiary. 44 spojrzenia (pp. 153–168). Warsaw.
Rieber, A. (2005). The Comparative Ecology of Complex Frontiers. In Miller, A., Rieber, A. J. (Eds.). Imperial Rule (pp. 177–208). Budapest, Central Europ. Univ. Press.
Rony, F. T. (1996). Third Eye: Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle. Durham : Duke Univ. Press, 1996. 320 p.
Sarkisova O. (2015). Taming the Frontier: Aleksandr Litvinov’s Expedition Films and Representations of Indigenous Minorities in the Far East. In Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, Vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 2–23.
Schlegel, H.-J. (2002). Nemeckie impuljsih dlya sovetskikh kuljturfiljmov 20-kh godov [German Impulses for the Soviet Kulturfilm of the 1920s]. In Kinovedcheskie zapiski, 58. Moscow, Ehyjzenshteyjn-centr. pp. 368–380.
Sergeev, M. (1931). Novihe filmih o Kamchatke [New Films about Kamchatka]. In Kino, 18 sept.
Shneiderov, V. A. (1973). Moi kinoputeshestviya [My Cinema Travels]. 96 p. Moscow, Byuro propagandih sovetskogo kinoiskusstva.
Slezkine, Yu. (1994). Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North. Ithaca, NY, Cornell Univ. Press.
Sunderland, W. (2007). Imperial Space : Territorial Space and Practice in the Eighteenth Century. In Burbank J., Hagen M., Remnev A. (Eds.). Russian Empire: Space, People, Power, 1700–1930. Bloomington.
Terskoy, A. N. (1930). Ehtnograficheskaya filjma [The Ethnographic Film].187 p. Moscow, Teakinopechatj.
Vertov, D. (1966). Statji, dnevniki, zamihslih [Articles, Diaries, Ideas]. 320 p. Moscow, Iskusstvo.
Wood, A. (2011). Russia’s Frozen Frontier: A History of Siberia and the Russian Far East 1581–1991. L., A&C Black.
Zamyatin, D. N. (2006). Kuljtura i prostranstvo : Modelirovanie geograficheskikh obrazov [Culture and Space : Modelling of Geographical Images]. 488 p. Moscow, Znak.
Zguridi, A. M. (1983). Ehkran. Nauka. Zhiznj [Screen. Science. Life.].166 p. Moscow, Iskusstvo.
Arsenyev, V. K. (2002). Tropoyj, zavethannoyj Dersu… Sbornik rasskazov. [Following the Path of Dersu… A Collection of Short Stories].103 p.Vladivostok, Daljnevostochnihyj Arsenjevskiyj blagotvoriteljnihyj fond.
Arsenyev, V. K. (2007). Sobranie sochineniyj : v 6 tomakh. Vol. 1. 704 p. Vladivostok, Aljmanakh “Rubezh”.
Bassin, M. (1999). Nationalist Imagination and Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840–1865. Cambridge, Cambridge Univ. Press.
Cosgrove, D. (2008). Geography and Vision: Seeing, Imagining and Representing the World. L., I. B. Tauris.
Deryabin, A. S. (1999). O filjmakh-puteshestviyakh i Aleksandre Litvinove [About Expedition Films and Aleksandr Litvinov]. In Zelenoe spasenie, 11. Almatih, Germes, pp. 14–24.
Direktivih VKP(b) (1931). Direktivih VKP(b) po voprosam prosvetheniya [Instructions of the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks on Education Issues]. 496 p. Moscow, OGIZ.
Erofeev, V. A. (1929). Po “Krihshe mira” s kinoapparatom [On “the Roof of the World” with a Video Camera]. Moscow, Molodaya gvardiya.
Flaherty, R. (1980). Statji. Svideteljstva. Intervjyu [Articles. Testimonies. Interviews]. 224 p. Moscow, Iskusstvo.
Frank, S. (2010). Russkie travelogi serediny 1930kh godov [The Russian Travelogues in the mid – 1930s.]. In Kissel, W. S., Time, G. (Eds.). Beglye vzgliady : Novoeprochtenie russkikh travelogov pervoi treti 20 veka (pp. 180–211). Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie.
Kivelson, V., Neuberger, J. (Eds.) (2010). Picturing Russia : Explorations in Visual Culture. N. Haven, CT, Yale Univ. Press.
Krasheninnikov, S. P. (2013). Opisanie zemli Kamchatki [A Description of Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands]. 480 p. Moscow, Ehksmo.
Lebedev, N. A. (1965). Ocherki istorii kino SSSR. Nemoe kino: 1918–1934 gg. [Essays on the history of the Cinema in the USSR. Silent Screen: 1918–1934]. 373 p. Moscow, Iskusstvo.
Litvinov, A. A. (1955). V Ussuriyjskoyj tayjge : Zapiski kinorezhissera [In the Ussuri Taiga : Notes of a Filmmaker]. In Uraljskiyj sovremennik, 1 (29). Sverdlovsk, Sverdlovskoe oblastnoe gosudarstvennoe izdateljstvo, pp. 116–199.
Litvinov, A. A. (1959). Po sledam Arsenjeva [Following Arsenyev]. 204 p. Vladivostok, Primorskoe knizhnoe izdateljstvo.
Litvinov, A. A. (1963). V krayu ognedihshathikh gor [In the Land of Fire-Spitting Mountains]. 212 p. Sverdlovsk, Sverdlovskoe knizhnoe izdateljstvo.
Litvinov, A. A. (1982). Puteshestviya s kinokameroyj [Travelling with a Video Camera]. 54 p. Moscow, Vsesoyuznoe byuro propagandih kinoiskusstva.
Litvinov, A. A. (S. n). Pervyie shagi [The First Steps]. Manuscript. SOKM. F. 15. Op. 2. D. 37. 4o. 3 L.
Magidov, V. M. (1998). Kinodokumentih po vizualjnoyj antropologii Rossii [Cinema Documents on the Visual Anthropology of Russia]. In Materialjnaya baza sferih kuljturih, 2, pp. 11–23. Moscow, RGB.
Malkova, V. K., Tishkov, V. A. (2009). Kuljtura i prostranstvo, 1. Obrazih rossiyjskikh respublik v Internete [Culture and Space, 1. Images of the Russian Republics on the Internet]. 147 p. Moscow, Institut Antropologii I Etnographii.
Martin, T. (2001). The Affirmative Action Empire : Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939. Ithaca, NY, Cornell Univ. Press.
Mitin, I. (2006). Mifogeografiya kak podkhod k izucheniyu mnozhestvennihkh realjnosteyj mesta [Mythogeography as an Approach to the Investigation of Multiple Realities of a Place]. In Gumanitarnaya geografiya : Nauchnihyj i kuljturno-prosvetiteljskiyj aljmanakh, 3, pp. 64–82. Moscow, Institut naslediya.
Paasi, A. (2003). Place and Region : Regional Identity in Question. In Progress in Human Geography. Vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 475–485.
Papazian, E. A. (2009). Manufacturing Truth : The Documentary Moment in Early Soviet Culture. DeKalb, Northern Illinois Univ. Press.
Polyanovsky, M. L. (1929). Za sovetskimi “Nanukami” i “Changami” [Following the Soviet “Nanooks” and “Changies”]. In Kino, Apr. 10.
Razlogov, K. E. (2010). Iskusstvo ehkrana: ot sinematografa do Interneta [The Art of the Screen: From Cinematography to the Internet]. 287 p. Moscow, ROSSPEhN.
Remnev, A. V. (2000). Regionaljnihe parametrih imperskoyj “geografii vlasti” (Sibirj i Daljniyj Vostok) [The Regional Parameters of the Imperial “Geography of Power” (Siberia and the Far East)]. In AbImperio, 3–4, pp. 343–358.
Remnev, A. V. (2010). Imperiya rasshiryaetsya na vostok: “toponimicheskiyj nacionalizm” v simvolicheskom prostranstve Aziatskoyj Rossii XIX – nachala XX veka [The Empire Broadens to the East: The “Toponymic Nationalism” in the Symbolic Space of Russia of the East between the 19th – Early Centuries]. In Nowak, A. (Ed.). Ofiary imperium. Imperia jako ofiary. 44 spojrzenia (pp. 153–168). Warsaw.
Rieber, A. (2005). The Comparative Ecology of Complex Frontiers. In Miller, A., Rieber, A. J. (Eds.). Imperial Rule (pp. 177–208). Budapest, Central Europ. Univ. Press.
Rony, F. T. (1996). Third Eye: Race, Cinema, and Ethnographic Spectacle. Durham : Duke Univ. Press, 1996. 320 p.
Sarkisova O. (2015). Taming the Frontier: Aleksandr Litvinov’s Expedition Films and Representations of Indigenous Minorities in the Far East. In Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, Vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 2–23.
Schlegel, H.-J. (2002). Nemeckie impuljsih dlya sovetskikh kuljturfiljmov 20-kh godov [German Impulses for the Soviet Kulturfilm of the 1920s]. In Kinovedcheskie zapiski, 58. Moscow, Ehyjzenshteyjn-centr. pp. 368–380.
Sergeev, M. (1931). Novihe filmih o Kamchatke [New Films about Kamchatka]. In Kino, 18 sept.
Shneiderov, V. A. (1973). Moi kinoputeshestviya [My Cinema Travels]. 96 p. Moscow, Byuro propagandih sovetskogo kinoiskusstva.
Slezkine, Yu. (1994). Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North. Ithaca, NY, Cornell Univ. Press.
Sunderland, W. (2007). Imperial Space : Territorial Space and Practice in the Eighteenth Century. In Burbank J., Hagen M., Remnev A. (Eds.). Russian Empire: Space, People, Power, 1700–1930. Bloomington.
Terskoy, A. N. (1930). Ehtnograficheskaya filjma [The Ethnographic Film].187 p. Moscow, Teakinopechatj.
Vertov, D. (1966). Statji, dnevniki, zamihslih [Articles, Diaries, Ideas]. 320 p. Moscow, Iskusstvo.
Wood, A. (2011). Russia’s Frozen Frontier: A History of Siberia and the Russian Far East 1581–1991. L., A&C Black.
Zamyatin, D. N. (2006). Kuljtura i prostranstvo : Modelirovanie geograficheskikh obrazov [Culture and Space : Modelling of Geographical Images]. 488 p. Moscow, Znak.
Zguridi, A. M. (1983). Ehkran. Nauka. Zhiznj [Screen. Science. Life.].166 p. Moscow, Iskusstvo.
Downloads
Published
2017-04-12
How to Cite
Golovnev, I., & Golovneva, E. (2017). The far east in the films of A. Litvinov: constructing the image of space. Quaestio Rossica, 5(1), 109–124. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2017.1.214
Issue
Section
Problema voluminis
