THE BIRTH OF SOVIET CULTURE 

I. RELIGION: Living Church Movement, League of Militant Godless

II. HISTORY: Pokrovskii and the Marxist Approach to History

III. EDUCATION & CULTURE: Lunacharsky as Commissar for Education 
   A. Mass Education and the Crusade against Illiteracy
   B. Proletkult and "Proletarian Culture"

IV. WOMEN & FAMILY
   A. New marriage and divorce laws
   B. Zhenotdel: Inessa Armand & Alexandra Kollontai

V. REVOLUTIONARY POETRY:

   LEFT MARCH (Vladimir Mayakovskii) 

   Deploy in marching ranks!          
   There is no room for verbal tricks.     
   Silence, you orators!                     
   Your turn to speak,                    
   Comrade Rifle                           
   Enough of living by the law            
   Given by Adam and Eve.        
   We will ride the mare of      
   history 'til she drops   
   Left!                         
   Left!                         
   Left! . . .                   

   THE TWELVE (Alexander Blok)

   Black Night, White Snow                                        
   The wind, the wind, it lays you low                            
   The wind, the wind                                             
   Across God's world it blows                                   
   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                              
   Forward as a haughty host they tread                           
   A starved mongrel shambles in the rear                         
   Bearing high the banner bloody red
   That He holds in hands no bullets sear
   Hidden as the flying snow veils veer
   Lightly walking on the wind as though
   He Himself were diamonded snow
   With mist-white roses garlanded
   Jesus Christ is marching at their head

VI. MOVIES: The Golden Age of Soviet Cinema
  A. First Russian Feature Film: "Stenka Razin" (19O5)
  B. Lenin's decree nationalizing the film industry (1919)
    1. The film as a means of mass indoctrination
    2. Lev Kulashev's workshop
  C. Sergei Eisenstein (former engineer and stage producer)
    1. "Strike": "The first genuinely revolutionary film"
       a. The collective masses as the hero
       b. Complex mass scenes edited in rapid rhythm
    2. "Battleship Potemkin" (1925): Commemorates 1905 Revolution
       a. Revolutionary heroism, mass action, and symbolism
       b. The "shooting of the crowd on the Odessa steps" scene
       c. Symbolism: ship doctor's glasses, roaring stone lions
       d. Acclaimed as one of the greatest films of all time
    3. "October" (1927) ["Ten Days that Shook the World"]
       a. Clash and control of images: The July Days scene
       b. The Portrayal of Lenin and the "drawbridge" scene
       c. Symbols: Mensheviks chattering = balalaikas and harps
       d. The historical accuracy of Eisenstein's work
  D. Vsevolod Pudovkin (portrays individual pathos and grief)
    1. "Mother" (based on novel by Maxim Gorky)
       a. Pre-revolutionary working class life: 
          grief, despair, oppression 
       b. May Day demonstration interposed with breakup of ice
       c. Revolution: "Inevitable as Spring, mighty as a flood"
    2. "The End of Saint Petersburg" (1927)
       a. Impoverished workers become the slaves of capitalism
       b. Stock Exchange interposed with trenches at the front