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American Femininity in Soviet Films during the Early Cold War (1946—1955)
Discussed Movies
The Russian Question (Mikhail Romm, 1947) is an adaptation of Konstantin Si¬
monov play of the same name. The film depicts New York in 1946: MacPherson
and Gould, owners of reactionary right-wing newspapers, send their correspond¬
ent Harry Smith to the Soviet Union. His task is to write a scaremongering report
about “Soviet expansionist intentions” in order to further a campaign of anti-Soviet
propaganda. However, having returned from the USSR, Smith writes the ‘truth
about the Russians. His bosses fly into a rage. Harry is deprived of everything: job,
money, home, and his wife Jessie deserts him. But Smith keeps on fighting against
media tycoons and their bosses on Wall Street and becomes a mouthpiece for the
opinions of progressive Americans.
Meeting on the Elbe (Grigori Aleksandrov, 1949) is set in the immediate post¬
war period and describes relations between the population of an imaginary Ger¬
man town, Altenstadt, and Soviet and American troops. Major Nikita Kuzmin and
Major James Hill meet each other on the Elbe in April 1945 and become friends.
Later they are made commandants of the Soviet and American sectors of the town
respectively. The Nazis, with the help of an American journalist, Janet Sherwood,
hatch a plot in the Soviet sector. Hill tries to fulfil his duty to his Soviet allies and
fight against the Nazis hand in hand with Kuzmin. The conspiracy is unveiled, but
Sherwood turns out to be an emissary of the CIA. Because of his prevention of
her efforts Hill is fired from the American army and awaits summoning before the
House Committee on Un-American Activities.
Farewell, America! (Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 1950) describes American diplo¬
mats’ activity in Moscow in the late 1940s. One of them, Anna Bedford, an idealis¬
tic American girl, discovers that practically the entire staff at the embassy is engaged
in espionage and slandering the Soviet state. Speaking at a discussion of the script
at an artistic council, Dovzhenko announced his intention as “to represent Ameri¬
cans as our opposites” (Trybmach 2002).
The Silver Dust (Abram Room, 1953) is an adaptation of a Soviet Estonian play¬
writer August Jakobson’s play The Jackals. It shows life in an American city where
the Steal family lives. Professor Steal invents a radioactive silver dust, a weapon
of mass destruction, and tries to test it on six African Americans who were falsely
accused of the attempted rape of a white woman. His stepchildren, Ann and Alan,
together with other American champions of peace ruin this plan and fight against
the invention. In 1953 The New York Times called this film “probably the most
venomous anti-American movie in the history of the film industry” (quoted in
Caute 2005: 158).
The Cinematic Cold War from a Gender Studies Perspective
The post-war confrontation between the USSR and America became a unique
event in world history largely due to the important role of culture, convincingly
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