New Soviet Man

Cinema has long been recognized as the privileged bridge between Soviet ideologues and their mass public. Recent feminist-oriented work has drawn out the symbolic role of women in Soviet culture, but, not surprisingly, men too were expected to play their part. This is a study of masculinity in Stalinist Soviet cinema. A detailed analysis of Stalinist discourse sets the stage for an examination of the imagined relationship between the patriarch Stalin and his "model sons" in the key genre cycles of the era: from the capital to the collective farms, and ultimately to the very borders of the Soviet state. Informed by contemporary and present-day debates over the social and cultural significance of cinema and masculinity, "New Soviet Man" draws on a range of theoretical and comparative material to produce engaging and accessible readings accounting for both the appeal of - and the inherent potential for subversion within - films produced by the Stalinist culture industry.