The Topographical Aesthetic in Late Stalinist Soviet Documentary Film

The topographical aesthetic served the ideological purpose of fostering postwar patriotism, which was rooted in such foundational myths for the Soviet project as the multi‐ethnic state, the transformation of nature as part of socialist development, and the state‐socialist social welfare system. The genre of films about the Soviet regions remained a mainstay of socialist realist documentary of the late Stalinist period. In his seminal study of film genres, Rick Altman posits that genres are shaped not by individuals, but by institutions such as film production companies, government agencies and the critical establishment. Although studios' output of geographical films was quantitatively significant, creatively most of the films were uninventive. While the geographic films were meant to teach viewers about the USSR, patriotism was undoubtedly one of their raisons d'etre. All of the films made small changes in Soviet documentary practice, but they nevertheless remained largely dependent on representational strategies of the topographical aesthetic.