Western Cinema in the USSR

The Distribution and Reception of Trophy Films after WWII
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-21596-7
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Routledge Contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe Series

Trophy films seized from the German film archive at the end of the Second World War were widely screened in Soviet cinemas. This monograph is the first dedicated study of these films, investigating their history in the USSR through three main perspectives: seizure and translocation, economic exploitation and reception.

Drawing on extensive archival research, this book examines the mechanisms governing Soviet film distribution and exhibition, including planning, taxation and the everyday logistics of print circulation. It introduces previously unanalysed quantitative data on audience statistics and box-office figures to reassess the popularity of Western cinema in the USSR during the first post-war decade. Using diaries and memoirs, it explores how Soviet audiences interpreted, appropriated, and reworked Western films, tracing these practices diachronically from immediate post-war screenings to late Soviet and post-Soviet remembrance. This book demonstrates how heterogeneous experiences were gradually consolidated into a coherent narrative of ‘trophy cinema’.

Western Cinema in the USSR is valuable for scholars and students specialising in Russian and Eurasian studies, film history and reception studies, German studies, cultural diplomacy, Cold War history, and memory studies.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Tanis, Kristina

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Historische & Regionale Volkskunde

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction Part 1: Translocation 1. Translocation of film collections 2. Third Reich Cinema in the USSR 3. Hollywood, Legality and Diplomacy in the Early Cold War Part 2: Exploitation 4. Soviet Film Distribution and Exhibition 5. Were They Popular?: Towards Film Statistics Part 3: Reception 6. Soviet Reception of Western films 7. Trophy films in late Soviet and post-Soviet memory 8. Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Kristina Tanis is an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at the Higher School of Economics (HSE University) in Moscow, Russia.