PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

When Grigori Aleksandrov had returned from Hollywood in 1932 Stalin asked him to produce a film comedy in order to entertain the Soviet people. And, indeed, people wanted to enjoy life and laugh after the terrible years of the collectivisation of agriculture. As early as 1934 Aleksandrov's "Happy Guys" came into the movies. The film, which initially was classified by most of the critics as bourgeois kitsch, was approved "from above" and soon the "March of the Happy Guys" became one of the most popular songs in Russia. Two years later the "Happy Guys" was followed by the film musical "Circus" and in 1937 by "Volga-Volga". Within a few years the Hollywood film comedy was successfully integrated into the new cultural context. It underwent a rapid process of hybridisation - the Hollywood music mingled with Russian folk songs and Soviet pathos, eccentric devices were toned down, and the feminine traits of the genre were reshaped in accordance with the Soviet mother archetype. The film musical was celebrated as an expression of the love of the Soviet Motherland (Rodina) and Ljubov' Orlova became Russia's most popular movie star.