Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

Chapter 14
From the Cradle to the Grave:
Cosmonaut Nostalgia in Soviet and
post-soviet Film
Cathleen S. Lewis
“the earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot
stay in the cradle forever.”
—tsiolkovskii
“Of all the arts, for us the most important is cinema.”
—Lenin
INtrOduCtION
Soviet flm has featured space travel since its beginning. the frst Soviet
cinematic blockbuster drew on a contemporary science fction novel about
a pair of travelers to Mars. Since that time point, the popular images of human
spacefight and flms in russia and the Soviet union have had a long, intertwined
history that spanned a century. Over that period, the image of the cosmonaut
changed along with political sensibilities. prior to the revolution, the literary
image of the cosmonaut began to take form when russian writers began to
explore the possibility of fying into space through the means of science fction.
as revolution approached, these writings took on ideological overtones,
combining the ideas of spacefight with concepts of utopia and revolution. after
the Bolshevik revolution, the government undertook the reconstruction of the
russian flm industry that had fourished during the years prior to the revolution.
about the same time, recognizing the propaganda potential of the media, Lenin
declared it a priority in the economic reconstruction of the country that
followed the civil war. Over the next decade, a handful of movies treated the
idea of space travel, each one conforming increasingly closely to predominant
ideological mores about the demeanor and messages of space travelers should
carry on their missions. the most popular media in the Soviet union and the
most popular and celebrated event in Soviet history combined to create a
national memory and understanding of spacefight.
In a conversation with Soviet Commissar of enlightenment anatolii
Lunacharsky in the years immediately after the 1917 revolution, Lenin said,