Production of Gender Subjectivity in Soviet Children’s Cinema of the 1920s – early 1950s

Abstract

by Aliaksandra Ihnatovich

The article addresses the production of gender subjectivity in Soviet children’s cinema (1920s – early 1950s). The author’s analysis of the practices of subjectivation in Soviet cinema is based on the close reading of several films that are well known to Soviet viewers, but practically unknown to the post-Soviet audience (“Protiv voli otcov” (“Against the Will of the Fathers”, 1926), “Putevka v zhizn” (“A Start in Life”, 1931), “Timur i ego comanda” (“Timur and his Squad”, 1940), “Krasnyj galstuk” (“Red Tie”, 1948)). Particular attention is paid to the explication of the historical and political contexts that enables the identification of the influence the discussions on a “new (wo)man and the “sexual issue” had on the formation of Soviet “children’s policy” (educational and cultural).