The course is focused on the analysis of  representations of love, intimacy and  private life in Soviet Cinema  in 1920-1960s. The course  will introduce students to the history of Soviet  cinema as an  aesthetic phenomenon (which elaborated peculiar film language and produced particular type of narratives ) through the lenses of social history and  Gender Studies. The history of Soviet cinema will be discussed in the context of the current debates on the history of emotions (and ‘affective turn’ in social theory), on the one hand, and of recent  developments in the studies of Soviet visual culture, on the other.

The course is organized in cooperation with Aleksanteri Institute's Russian and East European Master's School.

Immediately after its invention, cinema (just as its predecessor—photography) laid a claim to reflecting reality in a “truer” way than other media.  Almost at the same time, an interesting trend emerged: it experimented with creating on screen very peculiar worlds that seemed real but had no counterparts in reality.  This two-sided capacity of cinema brought about the eternal question: to what extent does a cinematic text actually reflect the historical reality it depicts, or is it rather a fictional text that expresses social tendencies contemporary to the time of its production?

This course offers an analysis of selected Russian (and one East European) films with a specific goal to tackle the balance between “the reality” the films referred to and the way they actually depicted it.  Some basic terms and notions of film analysis will be introduced on the way.

The course will also compare the treatment of certain topics and subjects in “Western” and Russian/East-European cultures and specifically in films.  The course will cover films by Balabanov, Eisenstein, Kalatozov, Kuleshov, Vertov, Wajda, and other directors lesser known in the West. 

The course is organized in cooperation with Aleksanteri Institute's Russian and East European Master's School.

The aim of the course is to introduce the students to the structures and practices of everyday life and material culture in the Soviet Union and Russia. In so doing,  the lectures also aim to shed light on some of the most crucial historical and societal developments in Russia from the viewpoint of consumption and consumer culture. The lectures cover an array of different topics tackling questions connected to Soviet and post-Soviet production and distribution of goods, everyday consumption and culture of consumption. This perspective helps to unravel some of the most common clichés connected to Russian economy and culture such as the shadow economy, queues and oligarchs as well as it helps to deepen our understanding about the mechanisms of everyday life in under different regimes.

The course is organized in cooperation with Aleksanteri Institute's Russian and East European Master's School.