Soviet Propaganda Film Collection

Fonds

After the ‘House of Soviet Science and Culture’ was closed down following the change of regimes in 1990, this rare collection of films became orphan. Thanks to the efforts of Anna Geréb, film historian of Russian and Soviet cinema, this rich sample of propaganda and educational films was spared from destruction and was archived at the Open Society Archives.

Educational films, mostly with Hungarian dubbing, about the natural and cultural treasures and economic achievements of the Soviet Union.

The video collection contains 109 films: popular science, industry, agricultural, army, nature, music, youth and sport films, and also some newsreels. The majority of them were produced in the Soviet Union (98 titles); others were made in Hungary (5), Romania (3), Belgium (1), Bulgaria (1) and Czechoslovakia (1). They were shot on 16mm celluloid film, and released between 1944 and 1987, predominantly in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of the films are dubbed into Hungarian (87). The 16 mm celluloid film prints were stored and occasionally screened for targeted audiences at special screenings in Hungary. One of these venues was the ‘House of Soviet Science and Culture’ in Budapest. This explains the vast variety of topics that the collection covers, from Soviet cartoons to guerrilla tactics in Palestine; from the construction of the Baikal-Amur railway line, or the building socialism in Afghanistan to the sanatoriums in Crimea.

Not Expected

Not Restricted

Third party rights are to be cleared.

The original materials are on 16 mm celluloid film. The collection was digitized solely for access purposes. The digital films were published in a low resolution format for educational and research purposes only.

Processed by Oksana Sarkisova, Zsuzsa Zadori, and Darius Krolikowski.