ABSTRACT
Many of the cream of Russia's intellectuals had emigrated during the Revolution and Civil War. Hundreds of writers, artists and film-makers had retreated southwards with the White armies and embarked at Odessa and other southern ports as the Reds finally gained control. The proletarian work-force had to be promoted as the vanguard of the Revolution who was going to make the Russian economy viable and usher in a new era of socialist ownership of the means of production. In many cases the Revolution and its optimistic ideologies and urgent practical problems seemed to offer the perfect opportunity for evolving new meanings through new artistic forms. The language of film was being explored to see how it might best project new images, new ideas and new ideologies, so the disputes were simultaneously formal and political, and a revolution in politics would require a revolution in form.
