Design, Creativity, and Technology: The Khudozhnik in Russian Cinema of the Silent Era

This article draws on archival sources, filmmakers' memoirs, and the Russian cinema press to examine how the roles and working practices of khudozhniki (set designers) evolved in late Imperial and early Soviet cinema in the silent era against the context of the increasing professionalization of the film industry and its nationalization from a private to a state enterprise in 1919. It provides a typological account of khudozhniki, assessing the conventions that were common among them rather than circumstances that were specific to individuals. In its focus on set design as a practice, this article seeks to demonstrate how available technology, the studio environment, and professional partnerships, as much as the creative visions of individuals, shaped the evolution of film aesthetics and influenced contemporary understandings of cinema's artistic and ideological potential.