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Soviet propaganda coming to U.S.

Jove releases DVD of animated films

Nov 8, 2006 Dominic von Riedemann

Eighty-nine years after the Bolshevik Revolution (and 16 years after the U.S.S.R. collapsed), Jove is releasing a 4-DVD box set of Soviet propaganda cartoons.

(Source: www.toonzone.net)

Eighty-nine years after the Bolshevik October Revolution (and 16 years after its collapse), Films by Jove is releasing a 4-DVD set called Animated Soviet Propaganda. The set is based on 4 dozen rarely seen shorts produced by Soviet government agency Soyuzdetmultfilm from 1924 to 1984. Films by Jove acquired the rights to these shorts in 1992 and has since then digitally restored approximately 50 hours of film.

Since these animated movies were intended to win the hearts and minds of the Russian people, all of them have a strong anti-American, anti-German, anti-British, anti-Japanese, anti-Capitalist, anti-Imperialist, and pro-Communist slant. Many of them also feature anti-Semitic and other racist images. There is approximately two hours of documentary and six hours of animated films.

The DVD is divided into 4 sections:

- American Imperialists

- Fascist Barbarians

- Capitalist Sharks

- Onward to the Shining Soviet Future: Communism

The box set "includes interviews with the directors of the animated films which are still alive, and commentary by a leading Soviet film scholar."

“This is a groundbreaking collection for both the unique insight it provides into the Soviet propaganda machine that was operating all those years,"said Joan Borsten, series producer and President of Films by Jove, "as well as the opportunity to appreciate truly beautiful, although sometimes disturbing, films by brilliant and creative undiscovered filmmakers.”

“(Vladimir Ilyich) Lenin considered cinema the most important art for promoting the Bolshevik party line," says Borsten. "The stereotypes of capitalists and imperialists, developed by animation collectives in the mid 1920s, were still being used in the 70s and 80s.”

Soyuzdetmultfilm's story after 1989 is a brutal one. Skulyabin staged an illegal takeover of the company and used armed thugs to keep the animators in line and government officials from reasserting control. Skulyabin even went so far as to have the legal director of Soyuzdetmultfilm asaulted in a back alley. Corrupt administrators sold off the rights to many movies without even telling shareholders and employees.

As the website www.russiananimation.com claims, "As this year marks the 89th anniversary of the Great Soviet Socialist Revolution, the series will sell for $89! Truly, without that event none of animation or the accompanying documentaries would have been produced. Not that we would not trade our product for that Experiment upon the Soviet people to never have happened."

The copyright of the article Soviet propaganda coming to U.S. in Animated Films is owned by Dominic von Riedemann. Permission to republish Soviet propaganda coming to U.S. in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.