A campaign of кинофикация (cinefication) was started in the Soviet Union in the 1920s with the aim of making cinema accessible to the public across the country. As a means of Sovietisation of culture, cinefication was introduced in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania immediately after their occupation by the Soviet Union in 1940. Based on extensive archive work and existing published sources, this article addresses the process of cinefication in Soviet Latvia during the Stalinist years (from 1940 to 1953), highlighting some key aspects such as the structural reorganisation of cinema networks according to Soviet regulations, and the production of newsreels and feature films.
1. Декрет СНК о переводе фотографической и кинематографической торговли и промышленности в ведение Народного комиссариата просвещения. – Декреты советской власти, Т. VI: 1 августа–9 декабря 1919 г. Политиздат, Москва, 1973, 74.
2. J. D. Youngblood. Soviet Cinema in the Silent Era, 1918–1935. University of Texas Press, Austin, 1991, 2.
https://doi.org/10.7560/776456
3. V. Lenin. Directives on the film business, 1922. – Seventeen Moments of Soviet History. An Online Archive of Primary Sources,
http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1924-2/socialist-cinema/socialist-cinema-texts/lenin-on-the-most-important-of-the-arts/ (accessed 26/01/2023).
4. All translations from Latvian to English are by Rosario Napolitano; the translations from Russian to English are by Epp Lauk.
5. Throughout the article, we will use the anglicised version of this word, as English language publications generally do.
6. V. Kepley Jr. “Cinefication”: Soviet Film Exhibition in the 1920s. – Film History, 1994, 6, 2, 262–277, here 262.
7. For example: Постановление № 56 СНК СССР «Об образовании общесоюзного объединения по кинофотопромышленности». 13 февраля 1930 г.;
http://docs.historyrussia.org/ru/nodes/5283-postanovlenie-56-snk-sssr-ob-obrazovanii-obschesoyuznogo-obedineniya-po-kinofotopromyshlennosti-13-fevralya-1930-g (accessed 26/01/2023).
https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0028-1125425
8. Словарь иностранных слов русского языка, s.v. кинофикация,
https://biblioclub.ru/index.php?page=dict&dict_id=144 (accessed 26/01/2023).
9. Doc. no 1: Очерк Б. З. Шумяцкого «Сталин о кино ». – Культура и власть от Cталина до Горбачева. Документы. Редакционная коллегия: К. Аймермахер (гл. ред.), В. Ю. Афнанн, Д. Байрау, Б. Бонвеч, Н.Г. Томилина. РОССПЭН, Москва, 2005, 81–92.
10. Ibid., 81.
11. Ibid., 82.
12. V. Kepley Jr. “Cinefication”, 267.
13. Приказ № 158 Союзкино «Об организации в составе Союзкино Управления кинофикации СССР»,
http://docs.historyrussia.org/ru/nodes/5299-prikaz-158-soyuzkino-ob-organizatsii-v-sostave-soyuzkino-upravleniya-kinofikatsii-sssr-1-oktyabrya-1931-g (accessed 26/01/2023).
14. Постановление ЦК ВКП(б) «О советской кинематографии». 8 декабря 1931 г. Весьма секретно.
http://docs.historyrussia.org/ru/nodes/5300-postanovlenie-tsk-vkp-b-o-sovetskoy-kinematografii-8-dekabrya-1931-g-vesma-sekretno (accessed26/01/2023).
15. G. Kirn. Between socialist modernization and cinematic modernism. The revolutionary politics of Aesthetics of Medvedkin’s cinema train. – Marxism and Film Activism: Screening Alternative Worlds. Ed. by E. Mazierska, L. Kristensen. Berghahn Books, Oxford, 2015, 32.
16. Ibid., 30.
17. Ibid., 37.
18. J. Miller. Soviet Cinema: Politics and Persuasion under Stalin. I.B. Tauris, London. 2009, 13–14.
https://doi.org/10.5040/9780755697557
19. P. Rollberg. The A to Z of Russian and Soviet Cinema. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, 2010.
20. I. Novikova. Nation, Gender, and History in Latvian Genre Cinema. – A Companion to Eastern European Cinemas. Ed. by A. Imre. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, 2012, 366–384.
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118294376.ch19
21. V. Davoliute, L. Kaminskaitė-Jančorienė. Sovietisation and the Cinema in the Western Borderlands: Insurgency, Narrative, and Identity in the Lithuanian Film Marytė (1947). – Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, 2016, 64, 3, 391–408.
https://doi.org/10.25162/jgo-2016-0012
22. L. Kaminskaitė-Jančorienė. Moving pictures for Peasants: The Kinofikatsia of Rural Lithuania in the Stalinist Era (1944–1953). – Jahrbruch für Geschichte des ländlichen Raumes, 2018, 18, 49–63.
23. И. Чернева. «Советизация» рижских киностудий: дилеммы кадровой политики в сфере киноискусства (1944–1949). – Пережить войну. Киноиндустрия в СССР, 1939–1949 годы. РОССПЕН, Москва, 2018, 148–178.
24. I. Pērkone. “Zvejnieka dēls”, Latviešu spēlfilma. – Nacionālā Enciklopēdija,
https://enciklopedija.lv/skirklis/122081. Published on 18/05/2021, accessed 26/01/2023.
The movie Zvejnieka dēls was also screened in Kaunas on 4 March 1940 at the Daina cinema (according to the Valdības Vēstnesis newspaper, 53, 05/03/1940) and in Tallinn on 13 April 1940 at the Helios cinema (according to the Kurzemes Vārds newspaper, 83, 14/04/1940).
25. Latvijas Valsts Arīvs (LVA). 16 June 1948, 270-2-5790, 1.
26. I. Pērkone. A Brief Look at Latvian Film History. – Selection of Articles on Latvian Film: History and Present Trends. National Film Centre Latvia and Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007–2013. Riga, 2012, 4.
https://docplayer.net/6452996-Selection-of-articles-on-latvian-film-history-and-present-trends.html (accessed 26/01/2023).
See also: I. Pērkone. Latvijas pirmās filmas. First Latvian Films. Mansards, Rīga, 2016.
27. Selection of Articles on Latvian Film.
28. I. Strupule. Amateur Filmmaking in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic: Family, Nation and Art (1955–1991). PhD thesis, University College London, 2021.
29. M. Grudule. Kino demostrēšanas specifika Madonas rajonā no 1940. līdz 1975. gadam (Specifics of Film Demonstration in the Region of Madona from 1940 to 1975). Master’s thesis, Latvian Culture Academy, Riga, 2014.
30. D. Apele. Kino loma Padomju propaganda un Staliņa laika kinoteātru ēku apskats. – Māksla un mūzika kultūras diskursā: V starptautiskās zinātniski praktiskās konferences materiāli. Rēzeknes Tehnoloģiju akadēmija, Rēzekne, 2016, 99–107.
31. The most recent: M. Glumane, L. Petrāne. Zīmola stāsts: Kinoteātra Splendid Palace vēsture. – Diena Bizness, 16/01/2019,
https://www.db.lv/zinas/zimola-stasts-kinoteatra-splendid-palace-vesture-483161 (accessed 26/01/2023)
is about the history of the Splendid Palace cinema in Riga which was considered the most significant piece of architecture in the Baltic States of its time.
32. I. Pērkone. A Brief Look at Latvian Film History. – KinoKultura, 2012, 13, Special Issue: Latvian Cinema, http://www.kinokultura.com/specials/13/perkone-history.shtml (accessed 26/01/2023).
33. T. Agarin. Demographic and Cultural Policies of the Soviet Union in Lithuania from 1944 to 1956. A Post-colonial Perspective. – The Sovietization of the Baltic States, 1940–1956. Ed. by O. Mertelsmann. Kleio ajalookirjanduse sihtasutus, Tartu, 2003, 114.
34. E. Annus. The problem of Soviet colonialism in the Baltics. – Journal of Baltic Studies, 2012, 41, 1, 21–45. For the topic of Soviet colonialism in Eastern Europe in the context of film, see also Postcolonial Approaches to Eastern European Cinema: Portraying Neighbours on Screen. Ed. by E. Mazierska, L. Kristensen, E. Näripea. I.B. Tauris, London, 2014.
35. O. Mertelsmann. Introduction. – The Sovietization of the Baltic States, 9–14.
36. Ibid., 10.
37. Ibid., 11.
38. The phrase is also reported in: И. Сталин. Полное собрание сочинений. Т. 6: Произведения 1924. Политиздат, Москва, 1947, 217. Available at:
https://ruslit.traumlibrary.net/book/stalin-pss18-06/stalin-pss18-06.html (accessed 26/01/2023).
See also: The Politics of Soviet Cinema. Ed. by R. Taylor. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979, 64.
39. I. Pērkone. A Brief Look at Latvian Film History, 3.
40. Latvenergo. Enerģētikas muzejs,
https://energetikasmantojums.lv/en/eduards-kraucs-1898-1977/ (accessed 26/01/2023).
Eduards Kraucs participated in filming at least 20 out of 25 newsreels in the Padomju Latvija (Soviet Latvia) series in the first year of the Soviet occupation, and continued as cameraman between 1942 and 1944 for the German authorities’ newsreel Ostland Woche. In 1944 Eduards Kraucs and his family fled Latvia and ended up at Hochfeld refugee camp, Augsburg, Germany. In 1950, Kraucs moved to Minneapolis in the United States with his wife. He died in Colorado Springs in 1977.
41. Jemeljanovs was of Russian descent, born near St Petersburg in 1881. Although he came from a poverty-stricken family he managed to open a cinema in St Petersburg. The 1917 Bolshevik revolution prevented him from realising his business plans. He left Russia with his future wife Mari, a girl of Estonian descent, and they settled in Estonia, where their daughter was born. Around 1920 they moved to Riga and became Latvian citizens. Vasilijs Jemeļjanovs was deported to a labour camp in Smolensk in 1941 where he died in 1949, while his family was deported to the Tomsk region. (Glumane and Petrāne 2019)
42. https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22923095469#&gid=1&pid=3 (accessed 26/01/2023).
43. M. Glumane, L. Petrāne. Zīmola stāsts.
44. Splendid Palace home page
https://www.splendidpalace.lv/en/about-us/about-cinema (accessed 26/01/2023).
45. I. Pērkone, Z. Balčus, A. Surkova, B. Vītola. Inscenējumu Realitāte, Latvijas Aktierkino Vēsture. Apgāds Mansards, Riga, 2011, 463–468.
46. Latvian State Archives of Audio-visual Documents.
http://www.redzidzirdilatviju.lv/lv/ (accessed 26/01/2023).
The archive’s list is most probably not complete. The number of Ed. Krautcs Filma newsreels (550) reported by Enerģētikas muzejs of Latvenergo seems closer to the truth, as during 1929–1940, at least one newsreel per week was produced.
47. In Estonia, Kinokroonika Eesti Stuudio (Newsreel Studio of Estonia) was founded by nationalising Eesti Kultuurfilm (Estonian Culture Film) established in 1931, which after several changes of name and structure has operated as Tallinnfilm since 1963. Only the Lithuanian Film Chronicle Studio in Kaunas was really established by the Soviets in 1940. See P. Rollberg. The A to Z of Russian and Soviet Cinema, 410.
48. The Studio had different names over the years: Riga Feature Film Studio (1940–1948); Riga Feature Film and Newsreel Studio (1948–1958). For the sake of brevity and clarity RFFS is used throughout the article.
49. Golender was born to a Jewish family in Vitebsk in Belarus and arrived in Latvia in 1930 as an illegal worker. From 1931 to 1940 he was incarcerated for being a member of the Communist Party. During World War II, Golender served in the Red Army in the 201st/43rd Guards Division, where Jews made up about 17% of personnel (5,000 Jewish soldiers) in December 1941. He was wounded, and decorated.
https://timenote.info/ee/person/view?id=33747&l=en;
https://www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/in-the-fight-yet-on-the-margins-latvian-jewish-red-army-soldiers (accessed 26/01/2023).
50. Efim Teodorovich Golender’s memorandum, 28 February 1950. Latvijas Valsts Arhīvs (Latvian State archive, hereafter LVA) Riga. PA-15500-1-1758, 16.
51. About the organisation of film production in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, 14 November 1940. Latvijas Valsts Arhīvs (Latvian State Archive, LVA), Riga. 270-1-300, 3.
52. In May 1942, the Nazis arrested Jekste, accusing him of being a communist because of his position of director of the RFFS and Latvian Radio during the 1940–1941 Soviet period. Jekste spent 12 months first in Riga Central Prison, then in Salaspils camp and Saurieši stone quarries. After being released, he joined the Latvian Legion and became a war correspondent in the 19th Latvian Division. In April 1945, Jekste escaped to Germany. In the early 1950s, Jekste moved to Newfoundland, Canada, where he founded Atlantic Films and Electronics Inc. Jekste’s documentary My Latvia (1954) was translated into twenty-two languages and more than 5,000 copies were distributed worldwide. See: Alberts Jekste
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rSC-D60sq4 (accessed 26/01/2023).
53. Decision n. 725 of the Latvian People’s Commissariat for Education, on support for local portable film projectors in rural areas, 24 December 1940, LVA, 270-1-16, 79.
54. Decision n. 723 of Latvian People’s Commissariat for Education on the policy of improving the cinema network in the city of Riga and improving audience attendance, 24 December 1940, LVA, 270-1-16, 71.
55. Decision n. 724 of Latvian People’s Commissariat for Education on ticket prices, 20 December 1940, LVA, 270-1-16, 72.
56. G. Krūmiņš. Tautsaimniecība un monetārās norises Latvijā 2. Pasaules kara gados. – Latvijas Bankai XC. Jēlgavas tipografija, Jēlgava, 2012, 91.
57. B. Vītola. Kinorepertuārs padomju laikā. – Inscenējumu Realitāte, Latvijas Aktierkino Vēsture. Apgāds Mansards, Riga, 2011, 278–279.
58. Voldemars Pūce (1906–1981) was a Latvian actor, theatre conductor, screenwriter and film director. He was an assistant director of the popular feature film Lāčplēsis, the director of two documentaries, and conducted the Latvian Drama Ensemble 1935–1944. In 1943–1944 (under German occupation); he was the Director of Rigas Filma, which produced German propaganda films. At the end of the war, Pūce fled to Germany, but returned to Latvia in 1947. He was arrested and imprisoned by the Soviet authorities in 1948, during the shooting of the film Rainis, for which he was the second director. In February 1949, he was convicted of ‘treason’ (i.e. producing antisemitic and antibolshevist films during the German occupation) and sentenced to 25 years in a camp in Vorkutlag. During the second deportation, on March 25, 1949, his wife and newborn child were also deported to the Far East as a ‘convicted nationalist’s family’. After Stalin’s death Pūce was able to return to Latvia and worked for the rest of his life in the theatre and film industry. Sources:
https://www.literatura.lv/personas/voldemars-puce (accessed 26/01/2023)
and Latviju Enciklopedija, 557.
59. R. Forster. German Film Politics in the Occupied Eastern Territories, 1941–45. In: Winkel, R. V., Welch, D. (eds) Cinema and the Swastika.2011, Palgrave Macmillan, 318–333. See also: German Films Dot Net – Posters.
https://germanfilms.net/ostland-film-g-m-b-h/ (accessed 26.01.2023).
https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230289321_24
60. I. Tcherneva. Beyond the surface of “Atrocity Image”: Fabrication and circulation of the Nazi film Red Mist (1942–1954). Journal of Genocide Research, 2019, 21, 2, 136.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2019.1601386
61. Nacionālā enciklopēdija: kino Latvijā,
https://enciklopedija.lv/skirklis/30979 (accessed 26.01.2023).
62. The Council of People’s Commissars was the name of the Government of the USSR until 1946.
63. V. Davoliūtė, L. Kaminskaitė-Jančorienė. Sovietization and the Cinema in the Western Borderlands.
64. Report: On condition of health service, education, cinefication, about the work of the Art Department at SM LSSR. 1946-1947. LVA, 270-2-5598, 8.
65. Memorandum of the Ministry of Cinema Affairs of the Latvian SSR on the production of movies and cinema facilities working in Soviet Latvia in the period 01/09/1940 to 01/04/1949, 28 March 1949. LVA. 270-2-5790, 10.
66. Nikolai Mitrofanovich Kiva (1903–1985), Director of RSSF in 1945–1947. He was replaced by Igors Čerņaks (Igor Chernyak) who died in 1948. Kiva was the first Director of Sojuzmultfilm, a Russian animation studio in Moscow (founded in 1936). After Čerņaks, Pavels Jankovskis (Pavel Jankovski) took over and served from 1948 to 1964.
67. Document addressed to the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union K. E. Voroshilov, 28 July 1949. LVA. 270-2-5791, 21.
68. Report. On the work of the Primary Party Organisation of Riga Feature Film Studio in the period between the 5 September and 22 November 1945, 21 November 1945. LVA. 7238-1-1, 4/5.
69. P. Kenez. Cinema and Soviet Society: From the Revolution to the Death of Stalin. I.B. Tauris, London, 2001, 173.
https://doi.org/10.5040/9780755604616
70. Memorandum of the Minister of Cinematography of the Latvian SSR on the production of movies and portable movie projectors in use in Soviet Latvia during the 1 November 1940–1 April 1949, 28 March 1949. LVA, 270-2-5790, 12.
71. Ernests Ameriks was born in 1897 in Valmiera. In 1919 Ameriks became a member of the Latvian Communist Party; he was jailed between 1933 and 1940 for activities connected with the October revolution. From 1944 to 1946 he was the Minister of Health Service of the Latvian SSR and after that was appointed Minister of Cinematography (1946–1953). LVA, PA-15500-1-170, 13.
72. Staffing list. Administrative section, Riga Feature Film Studios, Latvian SSR Ministry of Cinema Affairs in 1946, 13 March 1946, LVA, 420-1-6, 19.
73. Staffing List. 17 December 1947. LVA, 695-1-10, 6.
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.4506.695-a
74. Memorandum. Latvian Chronicle Film Studio, on administrative section expenses during the period 1/01 to 30/06 1947. LVA, 420-1-9, 6.
75. Report. Minister of Cinematography of the Latvian SSR about the accomplished work in 1948, 10 January 1949. LVA, 270-2-5791, 7.
76. Document addressed to the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR, Comrade J. Ostrovs, 1st April 1950, LVA, 270-2-5792, 14. In 1950, the cinema network totalled 1146 people (672 Latvian, 314 Russian, 37 Jewish, 17 Belarusian, 10 Ukrainian and 96 of other ethnicities).
77. D. Pollard. The political history of dubbing in films. – The Conversation, 13 July 2021,
https://theconversation.com/the-political-history-of-dubbing-in-films-164136 (accessed 26.01.2023).
78. Document addressed to the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR, Comrade J. Ostrovs, 16 June 1948, LVA, 270-2-5790, 2.
79. Document addressed to the Deputy Director of the Cinema Studio “Soyuzdetfilm”, Comrade Y. Svetozarov, 30 July 1946, LVA, 420-1-5, 28.
80. I. Pērkone. A Brief Look at Latvian Film History, 4.
81. Document addressed to Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR, section culture and public health service, Comrade I. Ivanov, 16 November 1949, LVA, 270-2-5791, 22.
82. Document addressed to the Director of RFFS, Comrade P.A. Jankovskis. Personāla dokumentu valsts arhīvs (State Archives of Personnel Documents, hereafter PDVA), Riga. 1765-7-10, 337.
83. V. Kepley Jr. The First “Perestroika”: Soviet Cinema under the First Five-Year Plan. – Cinema Journal, 1996, 35, 4, 31–53.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1225716
84. C. Knight. Enemy Films on Soviet Screens: Trophy Films during the Early Cold War, 1947–52. – Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, 2017, 18, 1, 125–149. A translated and annotated catalogue of foreign films in Soviet distribution throughout Stalin era (from 1927 to 1953) can be found in: Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, 2016, 10, 2, 123–198 (Catalogue of Foreign Sound Films Released on the Soviet Screen, 1927–1954).
https://doi.org/10.1353/kri.2017.0006
85. C. Knigth. Stalin’s Trophy Films, 1947–52: A Resource. – KinoKultura, 2015, 48,
http://www.kinokultura.com/2015/48-knight.shtml (accessed 26/01/2023).
86. P. Kenez. Cinema and Soviet Society. From the Revolution to the Death of Stalin, 173.
87. A detailed insight into the censorial editing of foreign films for dubbing see: Е. Д. Еременко, З. В. Прошкова. Редактирование зарубежных фильмов в СССР как культурноисторический феномен. – Вестник Санкт-Петербургского государственного института культуры, 2020, 3, 28–34.
88. Ibid., 29.
89. B. Taylor. Ohm Kruger/Uncle Kruger: “The Most Notorious of Nazi Germany’s Anti-British Film Statements” DVD Review by Blaine Taylor.
https://ihffilm.com/ohm-kruger-uncle-kruger-dvd-review-by-blaine-taylor.html. No date (accessed 26.01.2023).
90. Document addressed to the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR, Comrade J. Ostrovs, 16 June 1948, LVA, 270-2-5790, 2, declares that before establishment of Soviet power, no newsreels or documentaries were produced in Latvia.
91. In 1947, it was renamed as Latvijas hronikāli dokumentālo filmu studija (Latvian Newsreel Studio). In 1948, with the decision of the highest administrative level (the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Cinema Affairs of the USSR) the studio was merged with RFFS into Rīgas mākslas un hronikālo filmu studiju (Riga Studio of Feature Films and Newsreels).
92. Actor and cinema operator. After finishing the theatre school in 1935, Vasaraudzis worked as assistant to Michael Checkov during his stay in England. From 1945 to 1947 he also worked as actor at the Dailes theatre and producer at the Leļļu teātris. Literātura un Māksla n.39, 23/09/1988.
93. LNA_KFFDA_F194_1_829. (LNA is used here and elsewhere for the Latvian National Archive /Latvijas Nacionālais Arhīvs).
94. LNA_KFFDA_F194_1_829-1.
95. LNA_KFFDA_F194_1_4414.
96. Documentary movie Saulei pretim (Towards the sun) (Latvijas Nacionālā arhīva, Latvijas Valsts kinofotofonodokumentu arhīva (Latvian National archive, The State Audio-visual Archive of Latvia, hereafter KFFDA), Riga, 1941, KFFDA_F194_1_823.
97. V. Freimane. Padomju Latvijas kino pirmais gads. In: Padomju Latvijas kinomāksla. Eds Latvijas PSR Zinātņu akadēmijas Andreja Ūpisa Valodas un Literatūras institūts. Liesma, Riga, 1989, 22.
98. E. Näripea. A view from the periphery. Spatial discourse of the Soviet Estonian feature film: The 1940s and 1950s. – Via Transversa: Lost Cinema of the Former Eastern Bloc. Ed. by E. Näripea, A. Trossek. Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, 2008, 195.
99. LNA_KFFDA_F194_1_842.
100. Padomju Latvija n. 25, 1941, KFFDA, LNA_KFFDA_F194_1_867.
101. Ministry of Soviet Latvian Cinema report on the work of rural portable film projector networks in 1951. December 1950/December 1951.LVA, 270-2-5793, 23.
102. L. Pētersone. Latvian Documentary Cinema: the new generation. – Selection of Articles on Latvian Film: History and Present Trends. National Film Centre Latvia and Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007–2013. Riga, 2012, 25.
103. Viktors Šeļepeņs was born in Leningrad in 1904. In 1924 he was hired as assistant producer at Alma-Ata Studios. In 1948 he was sent to Latvia where he was employed as a first category film producer.
104. Documentary Tautas daiļrades meistari, 1949, LKFFDA, LNA_KFFDA_F8_2_1892.
105. Documentary VEF (Valsts Elektrotehniskā rūpnīca), 1949, LKFFDA, LNA_KFFDA_F8_2_1888.
106. Document addressed to the Director of RFFS, Comrade P. A. Yankovskiy. LKFFDA, 1765-7-10, 337.
107. Documentary Padomju Latvija, 1950, LKFFDA, LNA_KFFDA_F8_2_1519.
108. http://www.latfilma.lv/ (accessed 26/01/2023).
109. E. Näripea. A view from the periphery, 198. Näripea has depicted the realisation of socialist realist aesthetics in feature films, although her findings apply fully to documentaries as well.
110. The Three Occupations of Latvia, 1940–1991: Soviet and Nazi Take-overs and Their Consequences. Ed. by V. Nollendors, O. Celle, G. Michele, U. Neiburgs, and D. Staško. Occupation Museum Foundation, Riga, 2005.
111. Some numbers from the annotated catalogue of Soviet feature films: 1945–19, 1949–18, 1951–9, 1953–45. Советские художественные фильмы: Аннотированный каталог. Т. 2: Звуковые фильмы (1930–1957 гг.). Искусство, Москва, 1961;
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Малокартинье (accessed 26/01/2023).
112. V. Kepley Jr. The First “Perestroika”: Soviet Cinema under the First Five-Year Plan, 31, 48.
113. A detailed study on the reasons and aspects of малокартинье is given in Ю. Кондаков. Гражданская война в советском кинематографе. Период малокартинья (1943–1953 гг.), 2012.
https://statehistory.ru/3428/Grazhdanskaya-voyna-v-sovetskom-kinematografe—Period-malokartinya—1943-1953-gg/ (accessed 26/01/2023).
114. Ibid.
115. I. Pērkone. A Brief Look at Latvian Film History, 3–4. This amount was achieved only at the beginning of the 1970s. (Ibid.)
116. For more see: Z. Aiano. Nobody wanted to die. Soviet occupation in Baltic film. – eefb: East European Film Bulletin, 69, 2016. Available at:
https://eefb.org/retrospectives/soviet-occupation-in-baltic-film/ (accessed 26/01/2023).
117. E. Näripea. A view from the periphery, 197.
118. I. Pērkone. A Brief Look at Latvian Film History, 4.
119. Ibid.
120. V. Davoliūtė, L. Kaminskaitė-Jančorienė. Sovietization and the Cinema in the Western Borderlands, 403.
121. Elu tsitadellis was the only successful one among the ‘Baltic trilogy’, mainly for the very professional work of the Estonian actors, but also for meeting the standards of socialist realism. The director Herbert Rappoport even received the Stalin State Prize 2nd degree. The then Minister of Cinema Affairs Olga Lauristin said at the premiere: “This film is a huge input in educating Estonian working people by inculcating Soviet ideology, by opposing bourgeois individualism with the great ideas of Soviet patriotism and selfless service of people” (Estonian National Archive, R-1603.1.8).
122. L. Kaminskaitė-Jančorienė. Moving Pictures for Peasants, 62.
123. On the Sovietisation of the figure of Rainis see also V. Zelče. The Sovietization of Rainis and Aspazija: Discourses and rituals in Soviet Latvia in celebration of the two poets. – Journal of Baltic Studies, 2020, 52, 1, 17–42.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01629778.2020.1862265
124. I. Pērkone. A Brief Look at Latvian Film History, 5.
125. E. Näripea. A view from the periphery, 200.
126. I. Pērkone. A Brief Look at Latvian Film History, 5.
127. Resistance emerged in all three Baltic countries. As a consequence, between 1946 and 1953 deportations and guerrilla deaths reached 95,000 in Estonia, 125,000 in Latvia, and 310,000 in Lithuania. Source:
https://www.britannica.com/place/Baltic-states/Soviet-republics#ref418702 (accessed 26/01/2023).
128. A. Aarelaid-Tart. Double mental standards in the Baltic countries: Three generations. – The Baltic Countries under Occupation: Soviet and Nazi Rule 1939–1991. Ed. by A. M. Kõll. Stockholm University, Stockholm, 2003, 213–226. See also: A. Aarelaid-Tart. Cultural Trauma and Life Stories. Kikimora Publications, Helsinki, 2006. According to Aarelaid, the after-war generations were more prone to the Soviet world view. They did not have personal memoirs about inter-war independence, and had no access to the printed matter of that time.
129. The period from the late 1950s to late 1960s, when a general liberalisation of Soviet life took place.
