Introduction

Abstract

The goal of the Stalinist state was to use Soviet cinema as its “mighty weapon of mass propaganda.” Yet during the Stalin years, Soviet cinema saw its output plummet, its filmmakers underemployed, and up to a third of its new films banned. The Introduction outlines this book’s central argument about the failures of Stalinist control over cinema. In contrast to existing explanations, Not According to Plan employs an archival, comparative, and industry-focused approach and shows that it was impossible to build a controlled mass propaganda cinema while working with artisanal production methods, weak control institutions, and an entitled artistic workforce.