the bad usually being the capitalist landowners. One wartime poster urged young soviets to "Defend the freedom, the nation, and the honor fought for by farmers."Lenin era Bolshevik propaganda also utilized film and theater. The Soviet state gained control of the film industry immediately following the revolution, however it took a decade or so for the new authorities to impose their strict supervision over it. The Bolsheviks banned opposition in the press and eliminated free speech, then set it’s sights to control cinematography(Shlapentokh 39) The major theme of the revolution era films was the liberation of the masses. Again, keeping it simple and direct was the focus of the early soviets. The idea was to convince people that an ideal society will come after the proletariat revolution. In the early Soviet movies, the individual worker hero took a backseat to the workers in general. These movies were simplified and depersonalized. They were very basic tales of the Soviets’ Portrayal of good and evil. The idea was to appeal to the masses. This idea is shown in The Dream of Taras, a film by Lev Kuleshov. This film tells the story of a Soviet soldier who breaks the military discipline by getting drunk and falling asleep. He dreams of being a soldier in the tsarist army. In his dream Taras, visits a prostitute and is caught by a general. The soldier is sentenced to death and at the last minute awakes to discover that it was all a dream. This film implied that Soviet soldiers should fight for the regime, and do whatever they can to prevent a return to the evil capitalist rule.(Shlapentokh 41)Lenin often made an effort to win the support of intellectuals foreign and domestic. These supporters, whom shared Lenin’s socialist views, helped establish the illusion that the Soviet Union was a democratic society with total equality. Among these supporters was an American news journalist named John Reed. Reed published,...
