Animation: A World History

14Soviet Union

Russia

Towards the end of the 1920s, the Soviet production of animated films increased, but the innovative thrust lost momentum. In 1929, the non-Stalinist Anatoli Lunacharsky had to quit his position as People’s Commissar (Minister) for Culture (officially, ‘of Enlightenment’).

In 1934, the important First Congress of Soviet Writers sanctioned a new current of creative effort, which was to be known as ‘socialist realism’. Instead of exploring new territory in the avant-garde, as in the preceding decade, Soviet writers, painters, composers, and filmmakers set themselves to the service of the Communist Party, obeying these rules: that the protagonist be a positive hero (a supporter of the aims of the Party), that the style be comprehensible, ...