Animation: A World History

4

Soviet Union

Russia1

Since Stalin’s 1932 decree On the Reconstruction of Literary and Art Organizations, the Soviet Union’s political establishment had directly or indirectly steered the country’s arts and sciences. The ending of the Second World War brought Stalin first to the status of a war hero and eventually to that of a winning God, which – apart from the sheer terror that reigned during the 1930s and 1940s – contributed to the total obedience that was given to his word in every field of society, including filmmaking.

After his death,² his ‘lieutenants’ got locked in a three-year power struggle for his succession, from which Nikita Khrushchev emerged, ultimately winning the Kremlin from political hardliners like Georgy Malenkov and Vyacheslav ...