Cinema in Belarus under the pressure of censorship 1924–41

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article explores a range of archival sources, periodicals and contemporary research in order to investigate the establishment and functioning of film production as well as the system of censorship in Soviet Belarus in the 1920s and 1930s. The sacred places of Soviet ideology are studied, including the Belarusian Communist Party's Central Committee, Glavlit and Glavrepertkom. Intellectual production — books and periodicals, plays and musical pieces, archives and museums — were subjected to total censorship in Soviet Belarus. Cinema is especially relevant as it was a most important medium for educating the masses and thus attracted special attention from the censors.