“Center” and “Periphery”: Shaping the Cinematic New Soviet Woman

Abstract

Women’s emancipation was a pivotal component of the Bolshevik agenda. However, constructing a New Soviet Woman was a laborious task, because traditional feminine traits and beauty standards were at odds with the Party’s requirement towards the citizens to build the socialist state. As the Bolsheviks used cinema to enlighten the illiterate masses, cinema, ideology and politics were closely intertwined. Films of this period hold a key to the following questions: what were the defining traits of a New Soviet woman? How was she required to act in critical situations? How she was supposed to do dress and look? This article will address the aforementioned questions through an analysis of three Russian films and one Georgian depicting an urban working class. The imbalance originates from the fact that, while Moscow generated films portraying contemporary life during the 1920s, the Georgian studio started production of films from the modern era only near the end of that decade. The films were chosen based on their exploration of women’s challenging issues concerning sexual freedom, marriage, motherhood, and abortion. These films are Katka the Apple-seller, directed by Fridrich Ermler’s Katka the Reinette Apple Seller (1926), Bed and Sofa directed by Abram Room (1926), House on Trubnaya street by Boris Barnet (1928) and Saba directed by Mikheil Chiaureli (1929). Analysis also incorporates the center-periphery dichotomy, framing the center as more modernized and the periphery as less developed. Situating the findings in a wider framework, the paper challenges the division into “center” and “periphery” in the context of women’s emancipation.

Keywords

• emancipation
• femininity
• sexuality
• motherhood
• androgyny

Supporting Institution

This article was written as a part of the research project (OUGSP-2019-052) carried out at the School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford, supported by Rustaveli National Science Foundation (SRNSF).

“Center” and “Periphery”: Shaping the Cinematic New Soviet Woman ["Merkez" ve "Çeper": Sinematik Yeni Sovyet Kadınını Şekillendirmek

Abstract

Kadınların özgürleşmesi Bolşevik gündeminin önemli bir bileşeniydi. Ancak, Yeni Sovyet Kadını'nı inşa etmek zahmetli bir işti çünkü geleneksel kadınsı özellikler ve güzellik standartları, Parti'nin sosyalist devleti inşa etmek için vatandaşlara yönelik gereklilikleriyle çelişiyordu. Bolşevikler okuma yazma bilmeyen kitleleri aydınlatmak için sinemayı kullandıkça, sinema, ideoloji ve siyaset iç içe geçmiştir. Bu döneme ait filmler şu sorular için bir anahtar niteliğindedir: Yeni Sovyet kadınının belirleyici özellikleri nelerdi? Kritik durumlarda nasıl davranması gerekiyordu? Nasıl giyinmesi ve görünmesi gerekiyordu? Bu makale, kentli bir işçi sınıfını tasvir eden üç Rus ve bir Gürcü filminin analizi yoluyla yukarıda bahsedilen soruları ele alacaktır. Dengesizlik, Moskova'nın 1920'lerde çağdaş yaşamı tasvir eden filmler üretirken, Gürcü stüdyosunun modern döneme ait filmlerin üretimine ancak o on yılın sonlarına doğru başlamasından kaynaklanmaktadır. Filmler, kadınların cinsel özgürlük, evlilik, annelik ve kürtaj gibi zorlu meselelerini irdelemelerine göre seçilmiştir. Bu filmler Fridrich Ermler'in yönettiği Elma Satıcısı Katka (1926), Abram Room'un yönettiği Yatak ve Kanepe (1926), Boris Barnet'in yönettiği Trubnaya Sokağındaki Ev (1928) ve Mikheil Chiaureli'nin yönettiği Saba'dır (1929). Analiz aynı zamanda merkez-çevre ikilemini de içermekte, merkezi daha modernleşmiş, çevreyi ise daha az gelişmiş olarak çerçevelemektedir. Bulguları daha geniş bir çerçeveye yerleştiren makale, kadınların özgürleşmesi bağlamında “merkez” ve “çevre” ayrımına meydan okumaktadır.

Keywords

• özgürleşme
• kadınlık
• cinsellik
• annelik
• androjenlik.

“Center” and “Periphery”: Shaping the Cinematic New Soviet Woman [«Центр» и „периферия“: Формирование кинематографической новой советской женщины]

Abstract

Эмансипация женщин была важнейшим компонентом большевистской программы. Однако создание новой советской женщины было трудоемкой задачей, поскольку традиционные женские черты и стандарты красоты противоречили требованиям партии к гражданам для построения социалистического государства. Поскольку большевики использовали кино для просвещения неграмотных масс, кино, идеология и политика были тесно переплетены. Фильмы этого периода дают ключ к следующим вопросам: каковы были определяющие черты новой советской женщины? Как она должна была вести себя в критических ситуациях? Как она должна была одеваться и выглядеть? В этой статье мы рассмотрим вышеупомянутые вопросы, проанализировав три российских фильма и один грузинский, изображающий городской рабочий класс. Дисбаланс обусловлен тем, что если в Москве фильмы о современной жизни создавались в течение 1920-х годов, то грузинская студия начала производство фильмов о современной эпохе только к концу этого десятилетия. Фильмы были выбраны на основе их исследования сложных женских проблем, касающихся сексуальной свободы, брака, материнства и абортов. Это фильмы «Катька бумажный ранет» Фридриха Эрмлера (1926), «Третья Мещанская» Абрама Роома (1926), «Дом на Трубной» Бориса Барнета (1928) и «Саба» Михаила Чиаурели (1929). Анализ также включает дихотомию «центр-периферия», в соответствии с которой центр считается более модернизированным, а периферия - менее развитой. Помещая полученные результаты в более широкую структуру, статья ставит под сомнение разделение на «центр» и «периферию» в контексте женской эмансипации. Ключевые слова:

Keywords

• эмансипация
• женственность
• сексуальность
• материнство
• андрогинность.

References

1. Apaneli, S.“Mushaoba kalta shoris sopelshi”. Chveni gza, no. 10, 1924, pp. 33-34.
2. Attwood, Lynne. “Women, Cinema and Society”. Red women on silver screen: Soviet Women and Cinema from the Beginning to the End of Communist Era. Edited by Lynne Attwood, Pandora Press, 1993, pp.19-132.
3. Attwood, Lynne and Catrionna Kelly. “Programs for Identity: The ‘New Man’ and the ‘New Woman’”. Constructing Russian Culture in the Age of Revolution: 1881-1940. Edited by Catriona Kelly and David Shepherd, Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 256-290.
4. Attwood, Lynne. Creating the New Soviet Woman: Women’s magazines as engineers of female identity, 1922-53. Palgrave Macmillan, 1999.
5. Barkaia, Maia. ‘“The Country of the Happiest Women’? Ideology and Gender in Soviet Georgia”. Gender in Georgia: Feminist perspectives on culture, nation and history in the South Caucasus. Edited by Maia Barkaia and Alisse Waterston, Berghahn Books, 2018, pp. 33-46.
6. Bartlett, Djurdja. ‘“Stars on Screen and Red Carpet”. A Companion to Russian Cinema. Edited by Birgit Beumers, Wiley Blackwell, 2016, pp. 337-363.
7. Bulgakova, Oksana. “The Hydra of the Soviet Cinema: The Metamorphoses of the Soviet Film Heroine”. Red Women on Silver Screen: Soviet Women and Cinema from the Beginning to the End of Communist Era. Edited by Lynne Attwood, Pandora Press, 1993, pp. 149-174.
8. Cassiday, Julie A. “Alchohol is Our Enemy! Soviet Temperance Melodramas of the 1920s”. Imitations of Life: Two Centuries of Melodrama in Russia. Edited by Louise McReynolds and Joan Neuberger, Duke University Press, 2002, pp. 152-177.

9. Gaprindashvili, Lela. “Pioneer Women: ‘Herstories’ of Feminist Movements in Georgia”. Edited by Maia Barkaia and Alisse Waterston, Berghahn Books, 2018, pp. 21-32.
10. Gradskova, Yulia. Soviet Politics of Emancipation of Ethnic Minority Woman. Springer, 2019.
11. Graffy, Julian. Bed and Sofa: The Film Companion. I.B. Tauris, 2009.
12. Grant, Susan. Physical Culture and Sport in Soviet society: Propaganda, Acculturation and Transformation in the 1920s and 1930. Routledge, 2013.
13. Iutkevich, Sergei. “Teenage Artists of the Revolution”. Cinema in Revolution: The Heroic Era of the Soviet Film. Edited by Luda and Jean Schnitzer and Marcel Martin, translated by David Robinson, Hill and Wang, 1973, pp. 11-42.
14. Kenez, Peter. Cinema and Soviet society: From the Revolution to the Death of Stalin. 2nd edition, I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2001.
15. Khvadagiani, Irakli. “Khairazis matriarqi: Pari Khanum-Sofieva”. SOVLAB, 8 March 2017, http://archive.ge/ka/blog/9?fbclid=IwAR27y-ATaSQyl_Px80TOUbQvKdEizNzEnNuDLlNIjMcTOOSib7NpPPFUb6w
16. Khutsishvilisa, Medea. “Kalta shoris mushaoba dushetis mazrashi”. Chveni gza, no. 17-16, 1925, pp. 36-37.
17. Kollontai, Aleksandra. “Theses on Communist Morality in the Sphere of Marital Relation”. Translated by Alix Holt, 1921, Marxists Archives, https://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1921/theses-morality.htm
18. Layton, Susan. Russian Literature and Empire: Conquest of the Caucasus from Pushkin to Tolstoy. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
19. Mikeladze, Kato. “Kartveli kali dghevandel ojakhshi”. Kato Mikeladze: Kartuli peminizmis utshobi istoriebi. Edited by Tamta Melashvili, Heinrich Boll Stftung South Caucasus, 2013, 36-39.
20. Miller, Jamie. Soviet Cinema, Politics and Persuasion under Stalin. I.B. TAURIS, 2010.
21. Naiman, Eric. “Revolutionary Anorexia (NEP as Female Complaint)”. The Slavic and East European Journal, vol. 37, no. 3, 1993, pp. 305-25.
22. Okuashvili, Arakela. Chemi mogonebebi. Tbilisi: Universali, 2017.
23. Rimberg, David J. The Motion Picture in the Soviet Union: 1918-1952: A Sociological Analysis. Arno Press, 1973.
24. Rist, Iurii. “Proshloe i nastoiashee”. Sovetskii ekran, no. 3, 1925, p. 2.
25. Sabedashvili, Tamar. “Peministuri teoriebi da bolshevikuri ideebi kalebisa da samartlis shesakheb”. Genderi, kultura, tanamedroveoba, natsili II. Edited by Lela Gaprindashvili. Tbilisi: Dobera, pp. 110-142.
26. Schrand, Thomas G. “Socialism in One Gender: Masculine Values in the Stalin Revolution”.
27. Russian Masculinities in History and Culture. Edited by Barbara Evans Clements, Rebecca Friedman and Dan Healey, Palgrave, 2002, pp. 194-209.
28. Taylor, Richard. The Politics of the Soviet Cinema 1917-1929. Cambridge University Press, 1979.
29. Tsopurashvili, Salome. “Meet the New Soviet Woman of 1920s: Incompatibility of Strength and Femininity”. Journal of Young Researchers, no. 3, July, 2016, pp. 94-110.
30. Tsopurashvili, Salome. “1920-iani tslebis akhali sabchota kali: molodinebi, realoba, reprezentatsia”. Khma kartveli kalisa, vol. 1, no.1, pp. 1-10.
31. Tsopurashvili, Salome. “Images of ‘The New Woman’ in Soviet Georgian Silent Films”. Gender in Georgia: Feminist perspectives on culture, nation and history in the South Caucasus. Edited by Maia Barkaia and Alisse Waterstone, Berghahn Books, 2018, pp. 155-171.
32. Turovskaia, Maia. “Women’s Cinema in the USSR”. Red women on Silver’s Screen: Soviet Women and Cinema from the Beginning to the End of Communist Era. Edited by Lynne Attwood, London: Pandora Press, 1993, pp. 133-140.
33. Wood, Elizabeth A. The Baba and the Comrade: Gender and Politics in Revolutionary
34. Russia. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1997.
35. Youngblood, D.J. “The Fiction Film as a Source for Soviet Social History: The Third Meschanskaia Street Affair. Film and History, vol. 19, no. 3, 1989, pp. 50-60
36. Youngblood, Denise J. “Cinema as Social Criticism: The early films of Fridrikh Ermler.”
37. The red screen, politics, society, art in Soviet cinema. Edited by Anna Lawton,London: Routledge, 1992, pp. 67-89
38. Youngblood, Denise J. Movies for the Masses: Popular Cinema and Society in the 1920s. Cambridge, 1992.