“YOU CAN LEAVE NOW – THE FILM IS DAMAGED”: CINEMAS IN LENINGRAD AFTER WORLD WAR II

Abstract

This paper focuses on the problem of restoring and developing the film distribution and exhibition
system in Leningrad in the first years after the end of World War II. The purpose of the article is to study
cinema-going as the most popular form of Soviet citizens’ leisure. Such topics as availability and comfort
of watching films, activities of film distribution management, and attitude of Leningrad citizens to cinema
are considered. The study turned to such sources as records management documentation, statistical
data, and reminiscences of film distribution staff and cinema-goers. There are very few special works
on the history of Soviet people’s leisure and, in particular, the organization of film service. Dissertations
on film production and distribution in the USSR were not written until recent years. New approaches to
and research concepts of the history of film distribution are being developed in modern historiography.
Individual works on film production, distribution and exhibition, as well as on the relationship between
the film service system and the viewer are being published. This study is based on the materials of two
archives: St. Petersburg Central State Archives and St. Petersburg Central State Archives of Literature
and Art. It should be noted that records management documentation is the most informative type of
written sources, as it contains comprehensive data on the functioning of the film service and distribution
system at various levels, from the relationship between the state authorities and film organizations
to the work of film distribution offices and individual cinemas with viewers. The main stratum of this
type of sources is the documentation of the Leningrad City Council of People’s Deputies, the Chief
Directorate for Cinema Development and Film Distribution of the State Committee for Cinematography,
the Leningrad Regional Lenkinoprokat Office, and the Directorate for Cinema Development of the
Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council of People’s Deputies. This paper is the first attempt
in scientific literature to study the organization of mass leisure activities in the Soviet Union after the end
of World War II, the effectiveness of film distribution in Leningrad, and the role of cinematography in the
lives of citizens.