“Kiev Citizen” Movie by T. Levchuk: Ukrainian Revolution of 1917—1921 in the Ukrainian Soviet Cinematography

Abstract

Cinematography is one of those unique cultural phenomena, whose history has always attracted historians’ interest. In the 20th century, this phenomenon did not only determine the direction of cultural transformations development but also impacted the formation of ideologies and political regimes. Today this topic is especially relevant considering the fact that the propaganda methods, intrinsic of dictatorship systems, namely the Soviet totalitarian regime, are actively used by the antidemocratic Russian power for achieving its political goals. The special interest in the context of the “hybrid warfare” which is currently going on between Russia and Ukraine, causes the construction in the Soviet period cinematography of the image of a “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist” as the instrumental technologies of ideological manipulations used in such movies proved their effectiveness for shaping the outlook of a “new Russian citizen”. Such phenomenon, especially in the 20th century, determined not only the direction of aesthetic transformations of cultural development but also had an impact on the formation of ideologies and strengthening of political regimes. This topic is relevant because the methods of propaganda that were actively used by totalitarian regimes (including the Soviet totalitarian one) are now actively applied by the undemocratic Russian regime to achieve political goals. The construction of the image of the "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist" in the Soviet cinema constitutes special interest in the context of today’s Russia’s "hybrid warfare" against Ukraine. The instrumental technologies of ideological manipulation used in the creation of films have shown their effectiveness in shaping the worldview of the “new Soviet man.” Forms of this type of consciousness still continue to influence the political choices of many citizens of our state. The film “Kiev Citizen”, studied in the article, was created in 1958 by Ukrainian Soviet film director T. Levchuk at Kyiv O. Dovzhenko Studio. This film is a classic example of ideologically biased film production. Using this movie, we can observe technological principles and constructive models of falsification of the 20th–century history of Ukraine by the Soviet regime, in particular the events of the Ukrainian revolution of 1917–1921. In the film “Kiev Citizen”, the events of the Ukrainian revolution of 1917–1921 were falsified in order to illustrate the audience the Soviet version of the history of Ukraine and the events connected with the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks. Soviet propaganda tried to form in this way the audience loyal to the “Soviet empire” type of psychological perception of reality. In particular, the facts related to the Bolsheviks’ attempt to seize power in Kyiv in October 1917, the battles for the Arsenal plant in January 1918, and the conclusion of a peace treaty between the Ukrainian People’s Republic and Germany were falsified.