Beyond Censorship: Goskino USSR and the Management of Soviet Film, 1963–1985

Abstract

This article, based on a close study of archival documents and other primary materials, argues for a move away, in the context of late Soviet cinema history, from the investigation of 'censorship’ (which suggests attention to the end of the process of filmmaking) to a broader study of the process of film production. It places particular emphasis upon the policies and practices of the State Film Committee, Goskino. Unlike their colleagues in literary censorship, Goskino's employees were public figures. Their names and their personalities were known to filmmakers, many of whom had studied with them (or indeed taught them) at VGIK. Goskino's practices of film management were more flexible than the 'interventions’ of Glavlit's employees. However, this also made its employees vulnerable: they could not cite codified regulations as a defence for their decisions. Added to this, management of film was made problematic by inter-bureaucracy conflict (between ministerial and Party 'power verticals’, but also the interests of particular ministries, sometimes expressed after the fact), and by the wavering overall objectives of Goskino, in particular the contradictions between the objectives of ideological regulation, the art house standards that were central to assessment at international film festivals, and the emphasis on financial criteria that emerged during and after the mid-1970s.