Totalitarism Without Pain Teaching Communism and Fascism With Film

Society for History Education
Totalitarianism without Pain: Teaching Communism and Fascism with Film

Author(s): Martha J. Feldmann
Source: The History Teacher, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Nov., 1995), pp. 51-61
Published by: Society for History Education
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Totalitarianism without Pain:
Teaching Communism and Fascism with Film
Martha J. Feldmann
University of Memphis
IN SECTIONS OF A FRESHMAN-LEVEL COURSE, World Civiliza-

tions Since 1500, I teach twentieth-century political ideology and history
with Battleship Potemkin and Triumph of the Will. Each is a pre-eminent
example of the motion picture art form of the twentieth century, and,
because of objectives, subject matter, and attendant controversies, a
significant document of the real-life drama of its time. Using these films,
in addition to lecture and assigned readings, heightens the contrast be-
tween forms of totalitarianism and makes the concepts more interesting
and memorable to students. Both films are too long for my fifty-five-
minute class period, but portions of each can illustrate artistic and politi-
cal trends of the 1920s and 1930s and provide further visual images to
stimulate student thinking.
Both films are available on videocassette; they can be found in univer-
sity and public libraries and are available for purchase. Students like to
watch videos and respond positively to the material in this format.
The Films
Seeing Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin can be considered

essential to a well-rounded university education even at a time when fe
The History Teacher Volume 29 Number 1 November 1995 ? Society for History Educatio
52 Martha J. Feldmann
can agree on anythin

panel of film historian
and certainly few fil
in cinematic techniq
tive was mutilated an
identical to Eisenstei
both document and a
version, I prefer to
writer calls its "abs
difficulty paying at
emotionally overwro
helpful in the classr
local video rentals, m
seeing it again and in
differently, and using
is certainly clearer an
available.
Why the Battleship Potemkin? As a piece of film art, it is renowned for
its concrete elements of ship, sea, town, steps from town to dock, as well
as the sailors, people, and soldiers, and for its balanced structure with, as
Eisenstein wrote, "the age-honored structure of tragedy" in five distinct
sections or acts:
I. Men and Maggots
II. Drama on the Quarterdeck
III. The Dead Cries Out
IV. The Odessa Steps
V. Meeting the Squadron.2
Its innovative techniques include filming in mist to heighten emoti
the mourning sequence (an accidental discovery due to unexpected we
conditions) and editing together still shots of stone lions to achieve
appearance of one rising. Its remarkable images include the us
eyeglasses to unify and symbolize vision, the deeply humane and riv
close-up shots of the faces of the individuals who make up the ma
and, above all, the brilliant drama of the brutality on the steps and
exuberance of the triumph of the sailors and the people.
Eisenstein's study of aspects of non-Western culture influenced
film technique. The abstractness of Japanese, in which two charac
together produce a separate idea, which he learned while memoriz
Japanese in order to obtain a military staff job in Moscow at the end of
civil war, he valued for giving him a new way of thinking and he
him to master pictographic thinking and mastering "the nature of
tage" and comprehending "the most recondite in the methods of a
Totalitarianism without Pain 53
The south African Bushman, Eisenstein discovered, spoke

pictographically, describing a series of actions that mirrored a director's
shooting script and produced a narrative.4 The close-up shots in the steps
scene of a frightened woman, followed by her broken glasses, followed
by her bloody contorted face exemplify these influences.5 Certainly the
diffusion of cultures throughout history is a commonplace, but it is a
major global occurrence in modem times and students can often use
reminders of the influence of non-Western cultures on the West. The
Asian and African influences on Eisenstein's art provide a powerful
example of this tendency. Important as concerns of technique are to an
understanding of the film's artistic importance and powerful effect, they
must nevertheless be treated only cursorily because of time constraints
and the need to focus on the film as a statement of ideology and a
potential tool of propagandists, but the interaction of cultures is too
important a concept to be ignored altogether in this instance.
The film is a cinematic rendering of a historical event, the June 1905
mutiny that began on the Russian battleship Potemkin, spread to include a
squadron of the Black Sea fleet, and was supported in the city of Odessa
as part of the general strike calling for an end to the Russo-Japanese war
and the establishment of constitutional government. The Bolshevik gov-
ernment commissioned the film from Sergei Eisenstein, then a novice
film-maker who had been a Bolshevik soldier in the civil war. The film is
a paean to Bolshevism and to the brotherhood of the common man that
Bolshevism claimed to represent. Based on history, it takes artistic li-
cense, and students should be told that the maggoty meat came from a
survivor's tale, the steps sequence is a conflation of several incidents in
1905, and that eventually the tsar's executioners hanged Sailor
Matyushenko.6
Potemkin demonstrates important characteristics of Marxism and Leninism.
The 1905 events produce the liberal stage of revolution that sets the stage for
the eventual proletarian victory, as prophesied by Marx. The class struggle
pits the townspeople and the sailors against oppressors pictured as ships'
officers, representatives of the Church and the bourgeoisie, and the Cos-
sacks. Cadres of Bolshevik organizers are necessary, as Lenin said they
would be, to focus discontent and produce revolutionary action. Individuals
lack importance-indeed, the apparent protagonist, "Bolshevik Sailor
Vakulinchuk," who leads the mutiny, dies less than half-way through the
film--and the real hero is collective: the people. The "Russian-ness" of the
film is of less importance than the generalized triumph of the oppressed over
the oppressors; what happens in Russia is clearly a beginning to a great
international movement when the response to the call "Join Us!" will be
followed by the exclamation "Brothers!"
The revolutionary
early history indicat
tional support for it
of applause." Soon, h
inaccurate and too i
peasants, took a toll,
where it played to s
tion at home was
political censorship
thousands outside R
including Mary Pick
it.7 The Stalinist gov
1950, possibly in hom
it is likely that gov
mired in the West t
Triumph of the Wi
ship Potemkin. Whil
in film history or t
time or another, be
pieces of documenta
from the film in ma
the film as an entity,
it up to and beyond
English in 1992.
Few students have
statement of fascism
shots of clouds, crow
Germans and their de
photographing lovely
ably in physical and h
form, are intensely n
over time. Nuremberg
Yet Nuremberg is
editorial focus is on
god from the clouds
fixion." The people h
bers. The leader is
groups, cheering, w
ematography and so
Nazi party--eagle, sw
Song"-merge with H
Germany united in
the glorious and heroic natio

some need to defend goals o
this end can be inferred fr
expansion into someone else
Triumph of the Will was in
documentary."" Its effect c
editing. In glorifying both th
supports Nazi ideology, but
over unsentimental reason in
shown, Hitler was in the au
considerable success in its in
but met criticism from individual Nazis who did not like their own
appearance in the film and more generally from those who said it was too
artistic to be good propaganda. Ironically, despite Goebbels's publicly
proclaimed approbation, the Nazi propaganda machine seldom used Tri-
umph of the Will.9 Nevertheless, its value as a propaganda tool for
building support and affecting behavior is seldom challenged.
Presentation
Illustrating twentieth-century totalitarianism with Battleship Potemkin

and Triumph of the Will requires three and one-half fifty-five-minute
class periods. The first day is basic lecture, the second is introduction and
Potemkin, the third is introduction and Triumph of the Will, and on the
fourth about half the class period is given over to reviewing the concepts
and discussing the films before turning to result of the conflict of ideolo-
gies the films represent: World War II. The same unit could easily be
adapted to longer class periods, which might even be preferable in
allowing Potemkin to be shown in its entirety and to see more of Triumph
of the Will, developing its powerful sense of progression.
The preparatory lecture presents totalitarianism, communism, and
fascism/Nazism. In presenting totalitarianism, I stress totality of control,
through organization and technology, of the government, economy, and
the culture; the lack of individual civil rights; the suicidal nature of
resistance; and the concept of permanent revolution with a perpetual
enemy as defined by the leadership, made up mostly of men who would
have been excluded from power in earlier regimes. Connecting most
strongly to the films is the concept of the regime's rule as a mass
movement, but one in which the necessary support is gained through both
terror and propaganda that can be supplied in part through film.
The first totalitarian state to appear and therefore to be covered in class
is the Soviet Union, beginning under Lenin but fully developing under
Stalin after 1928. Th

basic points: interna
of production owned
sentation of modern
and beliefs, hostile
fascism/Nazism incl
state embodied in le
heavily regulated by
opposed to modernit
From these outline
control and illiberal
democratic principl
proletariat contraste
the heroic people con
the mass, the modem
create a new human
the rejection of mode
defined mystically t
the two totalitarian
the contrasts in the
presentations of tot
different points of
well with the films.
The next class day
film's name and that
original production in
Germans (illustratin
and the 1950 date of t
board the sections o
significant moments
the baby carriage, a
of liberalism, I place
revolution and roma
heroic romanticism
film.11
In earlier classes of this introductory course, I have traced very simply
the evolution of Marxism with its historical inevitability, to Leninism
with the requirement of professional revolutionaries to shape the people's
response and engineer the revolution, to Stalinism with its maintenance
of an international patina on the concept of socialism in one country. This
evolution is important to an understanding of the film since its 1925
production date comes between the death of Lenin and Stalin's achieve-
ment of full control. The film

tion of 1905. The Revolution
the aristocratic order, such
predictions of Marx. Lenin's
control of the Russian Socia
interprets the 1905 Revoluti
Although Stalin was to shif
try," Potemkin, while set in
ness and retains the sense of the internationalism of Marx and Lenin.
Potemkin's view is truly modern. The mass movement it depicts rejects
the old class system, with its oppression graphically portrayed in the
massacre on the steps and centuries of suffering subsumed within a close-
up of maggot-ridden meat for the common sailors' soup. It rejects reli-
gion in the form of Russian Orthodoxy, with the priest who admonishes
the mutineers to "Remember the Lord!" being pushed down the hatch by
Vakulinchuk who orders, "Away you canting Pharisee!" It views the
people as cooperative brothers and sisters, with women having a public
voice and participation in the struggle. One film critic writes of Eisenstein's
films generally that "Ideology is not plastered onto the film....Cinema
becomes instructive through its language of images and images only."12
Potemkin is ideologically pure without appearing to parrot a stiflingly
correct party line.
On Potemkin day, the introduction is limited to ten minutes with much
of the information being outlined on the board before the beginning of
class and some of it in commentary during the film. It is essential to allow
forty-five minutes for the film, which, in its entirety, runs about sixty-five
minutes. The tape is set about two minutes, thirty-eight seconds (2:38)
into the film where the title describes "The Heavy Slumber after the
Watch." We see Vakulinchuk call for an uprising and witness the protest
over the soup meat, ending with the close-up of maggoty meat and the
title "We've had enough of rotten meat." At this point (6:35), I stop the
tape and advance to the title "All Hands on Deck" (13:25), explaining to
the class that in the segment we are skipping, tension has been growing
and the sailors have refused to eat the soup. Then the tape runs without
stopping to Vakulinchuk's call to arms, the mutiny, and its leader's death
("Bolshevik Sailor Vakulinchuk was the first officers' victim") to the
laying out of his body on the Odessa pier, through the revolutionary
speeches, ending at "The Morrow is Ours" (39:10). As the tape fast-
forwards to 44:40, I tell the class that this segment shows the unity of the
townspeople and the crew. I stop fast-forwarding at the title "Suddenly,"
which introduces the scene of the massacre on the Odessa steps. The tape
then runs to the title that reads, "The revolutionary battleship got ready to
encounter the admira

time to the title "Ful
conclusion as the squa
the jubilation of the
correlate the signal
counters vary consid
cut some of the section
town to battleship, tha
to a bit under 45 min
integrity of the film.
The next class is devo
the title, the name of
and 1935, for the film
the leader and that th
cally supporting the st
the leader to be Germa
people in a great will
Mein Kampf about Hi
Germany's proper leb
cause these troublesom
to a unified struggle.
I do not bother to giv
too little of this long
begins with the film
Nuremberg, the subs
During both films, I fe
the neo-pagan demig
from the clouds to sa
force of modem tech
itself on the German
people. This section t
fast-forward through
the sleeping city, picki
soldiers and workers
traditional elements a
men, as they cavort a
and playing at games
Throughout Triumph
tape first to allow th
sion, the vast numbers
are several places to
Service rally, with it
different regions of German

the tribute to the war dead
(approximately at 65:00)-but
powerful images in order t
sequence, which is fifteen m
This scene of the closing s
bearers into the hall, Hitler'
titles. Many students exper
bearers enter the hall, bec
documentaries. Hitler mesm
through the speech. Rudol
home the theme of the film
fascism: "The Party is Hitler
marching soldiers merge wi
and the class period come to
not universally but generally
Discussion
When we meet again, the board is empty and I seat myself in a student
desk, an action which seems to promote more responsibility for participa
tion among class members. I ask them which film they prefer. Usually it
is Triumph of the Will. We discuss the reasons, some of which are prior
knowledge of and interest in Hitler and his historical period as well as the
film's more up-to-date "feel." Someone will usually point to the central-
ity of the hero, and we can work around to that theme in their own culture.
They have difficulty identifying with the classes-cum-masses. When I
ask them about ideology, they can quickly tick off the major concepts
made clear and memorable to not-terribly-committed students through
the power of visual art.
We discuss women in the films as well. Women appear to be more
modem in Potemkin, where they participate forcefully in the Odessa
strike, but women are more traditional in Triumph of the Will where they
appear as cheerleaders and mothers of little Nazis. I contrast these Ger-
man women with Leni Riefenstahl, a woman making her way in th
vibrant and open artistic climate of Berlin in pre-Nazi Germany, who
used Hitler's patronage to advance her career, and certainly advanced
cinematic art, but whose success with ideologically odious themes ulti-
mately blighted her artistic accomplishments and destroyed her career.
When asked about the specific potential for indoctrination, students
respond with comments on the clarity of the ideological statements.
These films espouse an obvious party line, which, to be part of the mass
movement, the hist

than just instructing
of the movement. T
intellectual power. S
the conclusion of Tr
Bolshevism, and the
pull in Potemkin. O
heroic individualism
terrible possibilities
Finally we discuss t
indoctrination and p
sored work of Flore
their respective poli
focus on mass move
that neither one of
ganda and that Pot
Soviet Union. Studen
and that people were
I insert a brief version of Hannah Arendt's distinction between indoctri-
nation, which totalitarian states have mixed with terror to promote correct
behavior and belief, and propaganda, which these governments use to
weaken hostility or build support in foreign policy.13 That explanation
and the history of Potemkin make it appear to be the more successful as
propaganda, both in the years just after its production and the Cold War
reissue of 1950. We try to think of other films with political messages-
the lists from class to class show considerable variety-and we conclude
with a heightened understanding of ideologies, propaganda, and mass
culture, before turning our attention to World War II.
Conclusion
Most students look forward most to class on days when films on

videocassette are scheduled. They expect class to be more restful and
easier at those times. They are half correct. They seldom rest because the
films demand their attention, but in watching the films students easily
reinforce material covered through text and lecture and discover, some-
times to their amazement, that they have mastered course objectives.
Battleship Potemkin and Triumph of the Will, part of the general culture,
have entered the students' cultural consciousness along with significant
historical information. Film can often be a valuable teaching tool, but
these films offer artistic greatness and cultural literacy along with teach-
ing concepts of twentieth-century totalitarianism.
Works Cited
Arendt, Hannah. Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harvest Books of Harcourt

Brace Jovanovich, 1973.
Bama, Yon. Eisenstein. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966.
Barsam, Richard Meran. Filmguide to "Triumph of the Will. " Indiana University Press
Filmguide Series, eds. Harry M. Geduld and Ronald Gottesman. Bloomington and
London: Indiana University Press, 1975.
Eisenstein, Sergei. Notes of a Film Director. New York: Dover Publications, 1970.
Goodwin, James. Eisenstein, Cinema, and History. Urbana and Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1993.
Nolte, Ernst. Three Faces of Fascism: Action Frangaise, Italian Fascism, National
Socialism. Translated by Leila Vennewitz. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
1966.
Notes
1. Yon Barna, Eisenstein (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966), 111.

2. Sergei Eisenstein, Notes of a Film Director (New York: Dover Publications,
1970), 54-55.
3. Eisenstein, 10-11.
4. Barna, 105.
5. Barna, 105, 108.
6. Bama, 96; Eisenstein, 27-29.
7. Barna, 103, 110-111.
8. Richard Meran Barsam, Filmguide to "Triumph of the Will, " Indiana Univer-
sity Press Filmguide Series, eds. Harry M. Geduld and Ronald Gottesman (Bloomingto
and London: Indiana University Press, 1975), 27.
9. Barsam, 26.
10. Ernst Nolte, Three Faces of Fascism: Action Frangaise, Italian Fascism
National Socialism , trans. Leila Vennewitz (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Win
1966), 20-21, 420-21, 452-53.
11. Barna, 104, 111.
12. Edgar Morin, Le cinema, ou l'homme imaginaire (Paris: Minuit, 1958), 154;
quoted in James Goodwin, Eisenstein, Cinema, and History (Urbana and Chicago:
University of Illinois Press, 1993), 78.
13. Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, ed. with added prefaces (New
York: Harvest Books of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973), 342-44.

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Society for History Education

Totalitarianism without Pain: Teaching Communism and Fascism with Film

IN SECTIONS OF A FRESHMAN-LEVEL COURSE, World Civiliza-

Seeing Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin can be considered

can agree on anythin

The south African Bushman, Eisenstein discovered, spoke

the glorious and heroic natio

Illustrating twentieth-century totalitarianism with Battleship Potemkin

Stalin after 1928. Th

ment of full control. The film

encounter the admira

different regions of German

movement, the hist

Most students look forward most to class on days when films on

Arendt, Hannah. Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harvest Books of Harcourt

1. Yon Barna, Eisenstein (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966), 111.

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