COSSACKS OF THE KUBAN

Original French 31 inch x 47 inch Poster for the 1949 Ivan Pyryev Musical Comedy COSSACKS OF THE KUBAN (KUBANSKIE KAZAKI) starring Sergei Lukyanov, Marina Ladynina, Aleksandr Khvylya, Vladlen Davydov, Vladimir Volodin, Ekaterina Savinova, Andrei Petrov and Vladimir Dorofeyev

The Zdhanov eulogy of the joyful Soviet life came to a peak in this film. (Andrei Zhdanov was appointed by Joseph Stalin to direct the Soviet Union’s cultural policy in 1946. His first action (in December 1946) was to censor Russian writers such as Anna Akhmatova and Mikhail Zoshchenko. He formulated what became known as the Zhdanov Doctrine (“The only conflict that is possible in Soviet culture is the conflict between good and best”). This kolkhoz (collective farm) operetta filmed in color and the richest grain country of the Soviet Union, exemplifies the official taste of the period. The plot is familiar from dozens of other films: two collective farms, one better, one worse, competition: a man from the worst kolkhoz falls in love with the woman who is the head of the better one. The characters are reincarnations of the vaudeville and operetta personages presented in the nineteenth century by Russian provincial touring companies.”

The poster is in very good folded condition with slight separation at the right end of the horizontal centre fold and minor wear along the left half of the bottom horizontal fold.