CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Khassenkhanova, Galiya |
|---|---|
| Title | Resident Perspective: The Evacuation of Soviet Film Studios to Kazakhstan, 1941-1944 |
| Summary | This thesis deals with one of the hardest periods in Soviet cinematography, the evacuation during World War II. Moscow and Leningrad studios, the two major film producing engines in the entire Union, were evacuated to Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan. Together with the local studio they formed a new one, Central Joint Film Studio (TsOKS), the aim of which was to keep producing films and support the war cause by lifting up the spirits. The evacuation has been researched before a considerable number of times, but majority of them were concerned mostly with the perspective of the evacuees or of the center. This thesis provides an insight into what the locals thought and felt about the incoming people, their relationships and work together. The researched is based on archival research I conducted in Alma-Ata. The documents are different kinds of reports, complaints and meeting minutes that give a hint about the feeling Kazakh SSR authorities and Kazakhs working in the studio had. The evacuation presented a unique opportunity for Kazakhstan to develop their own national cinema and produce films that all other republics would see. The authorities saw hope in the middle of the War and were ready to provide anything they could to the studio and the great renowned filmmakers that were coming with it, such as Eisenstein. While some of the evacuees were eager to help the war cause and to help Kazakh cinema, some were not as fast to change their habits. If changing to war mode of working was more important and more people understood it, working on Kazakh themed films seemed less so. Local films were often delayed on different stages of production and the number of those films was extremely small. In addition to that, some of the studio workers were operating on a bargaining basis, they required more supplies from the authorities (food, fuel, cars, other materials) in exchange for working on Kazakh films. After a while, Kazakh authorities, Kazakh studio workers and other supplies providing agencies started to grow tired of such attitude, and either started writing more complaints or simply stopped the support. |
| Supervisor | Shaw, Charles David |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/khassenkhanova_galiy.pdf |
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