Stalin's harem: the spectator's dilemma in late 1930s Soviet film

This article analyses the topos of women's community in Stalinist films of the late 1930s. It shows how these films both eroticized the groups of women on screen and asked spectators to feel themselves a part of them through the powerfully affective functions of the cinematic apparatus. Further, by diverting the erotic gaze to Stalin and the Party/State, these films posed a dilemma to the contemporary spectator as to how he or she was supposed to negotiate the fantasies presented on screen. The article argues that groups of women established possibilities for identification and avenues for desire that undermined normative gender roles, asking men to be just as much a member of Stalin's 'harem' as women, and potentially opening avenues of lesbian desire for women.