From the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI)

Soviet cinema became one of the most influential in the world, and its foremost directors are in the pantheon of filmmakers. Although Soviet film production was divided among various studios, the largest and most prestigious during the era of the Great Patriotic War was Mosfilm in Moscow. It was in this premier studio that some of the landmarks in Russian cinema were imagined and produced.

Between 1930 and 1945, these esteemed directors made such films as:

• Grigori Alexandrov--Volga-Volga

• Sergei Eisenstein--Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible (Part One)

• Grigori Roshal--The Oppenheim Family and The Aramanov Affair

• Mihkail Romm--Lenin in 1918, Girl No. 217, and At 6 PM After the War

• Ivan Pyriev--Tractor Drivers and Swineherd and Shepherd

• Vsevolod Pudovkin--A Night in September and Suvorov

• Yuli Raisman--Virgin Soil Upturned and Mashenka

• Vladimir Petrov--Kutuzov, Jubilee, and Guilty though Guiltless

• Igor Savchenko--Ivan Nikulin, Russian Sailor

• Alexander Stolper--Days and Nights

Featuring correspondence, memoranda, scripts and shooting scripts, this chronologically arranged collection is accompanied by a file/document level guide prepared by the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art. Never before available in the West, the Mosfilm archive gives unique insight into the Stalinist concept of "Socialist Realism" in Russia, whereby "artists" would only produce and perform in accordance with socialist thinking, and in turn, become an integral part of the propaganda machine.

An important resource for Slavic and Russian studies, this collection will also be of particular interest to students of cinematic, theater, and film studies and historians and scholars of Russian literature.

Mosfilm, 1938-1945: 12 reels