Slavonic and East European Review

Abstract:

The late Stalin era constitutes the most overlooked period of Russian and Soviet cinema history, largely because of its reputation for extreme censorship and resulting artistic stagnation. This article examines the censorship machine that developed in these years, using the memoir of film editor/censor Nelli Morozova in partnership with official resolutions and other archival material to explore what the so-called film famine looked like from within. It provides an overview of how the bureaucracy of film censorship was restructured and examines how it operated in practice, from the everyday absurdities to the small acts of intrepidity that defined what was at that point the most intensive system of film censorship the world had ever seen.