Some Characteristics of the Representation of Stalin’s Image in Soviet Feature Films of the 1930s-1940s

Abstract

The article analyzes a number of films shot in the 1930s and 1940s, in which the process of gradual sacralization of the image of I.V. Stalin on the Soviet screen can be clearly traced. The main attention is paid to the films which can be included in two different groups. The first group is called “Leniniana” (Lenin films) whose function was to establish Stalin as the only true successor of V.I. Lenin and to legalize the political course for absolute power and the policy of “great terror”. The other group of films is “Staliniana” (Stalin films) which reached its peak in the years after the end of the Great Patriotic War. As part of the analysis of these films, the author also touches upon one of the key myths of Soviet historiography about the defense of Tsaritsyn. Performing in several roles in the 1930s from “earthly”, i.e. political (as the only legitimate successor of Lenin), to symbolic (the all-father of the Soviet people) — in the post-war period the figure of Stalin was literally sacralized, acquiring the features of all three divine hypostases: “god the father”, “god the son” and “the god of the holy spirit” (The Fall of Berlin movie). The process of sacralization manifests itself at all levels: in terms of the plot, figuratively and verbally.

Keywords

• stalin myth
• lenin films (leniniana)
• stalin films (staliniana)
• socialist realism
• the socialist realism canon
• stalinist cinema
• “a new moral”
• religious discourse