From German Movie to Soviet Documentary
Archival Materials about Geheimnis Tibet
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5077/journals/connexe.2017.e87Keywords:
Cultural exchanges, Transfers and seizures, Soviet censorship, Cold War, Soviet propagandaAbstract
This article is devoted to the policy of the distribution of “trophy films” and the mechanisms of Soviet censorship in the context of transfers and seizures captured by the Soviets during World War II. This is the publication of the archival document with comments on the cuts of film Secret Tibet (Geheimnis Tibet, 1943) which was confiscated from Germany by the Red Army in 1945. The original version of the film is about the SS expedition to Tibet, which was undertaken in 1938-1939 under the direction of Ernst Schäfer. Since the film propagandized the Nazi ideology and German imperialism, in 1948 it was modified and distributed on Soviet screens for three years. In the USSR, the film underwent radical changes: it was reduced, a new music was created and voice-over narration have been added. By twisting the facts to reveal “the theocratic regime in Tibet” the film’s content reflected the Soviet ideology and international politics of the USSR. The anti-British propaganda of the Third Reich in the original version was reused by Soviets in the context of the Cold War. Currently, the nitrate negative of modified film is kept in the Gosfilmofond and its reproduction is forbidden because of technical reasons. Nevertheless, there are the documents in RGALI which contain the text of the voice-over narration and the explanatory note about re-editings. Modified film was presented to the public as a Soviet documentary “created on the base of foreign newsreel”.
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