The Bright Way / Светлый путь

17 May 2021

I found out recently that this film from 1940 was shot in the New Weaving Factory in Noginsk (formerly Bogorodsk). This is part of the factory complex at the centre of my research, where Thomas Boardman from Rochdale was employed as a ‘master thread-maker’ at the beginning of the 20th century. (See my post – British Workers in the Russian Textile Industry – explaining my interest in Thomas Boardman…). I’m thrilled to be able to see what this factory looks like in action, with some of the machinery probably being of British manufacture.

Also, as readers of this blog will know from my enthusiasm for ‘Volga-Volga’, I am fond of mid-century Soviet propaganda films. (Another favourite is ‘Cossacks of the Kuban‘, from 1949.) The lead actress of ‘The Bright Way’ (which I have also seen translated as ‘The Shining Path’) is Lyubov Orlova, who also starred in ‘Volga-Volga’. She plays Tanya Morozova, an illiterate village girl who becomes an industrious textile factory worker, finding happiness through her education and the Stakhanovite movement. Her character is modelled on Klavdiya Fyodorovna Sakharova, who initiated Stakhanovite principles amongst machinists in the textile industry. Tanya spectacularly exceeds her quota at work. Beginning as a novice weaver in charge of eight looms, she soon succeeds in managing the entire workshop of 150 machines. She ascends through the Party ranks, ultimately being elected as a member of the Supreme Soviet.

The narrative has a fairy-tale element in that Tanya is at first a down-trodden Cinderella-like peasant. The climax of the film sees her travelling in a flying car to a palace with crystal chandeliers and gilded mirrors, where she is awarded the Order of Lenin. Of course there is also a romantic story-line. Tanya has secretly fallen in love with a charming young engineer but considers herself unworthy of such a presentable and intelligent man until being honoured for her achievements.

 

You can watch the film with English subtitles via YouTube here.

Workers at the end of their shift at the New Weaving Factory, Noginsk in 1959

My photo of the factory, taken in 2011

I’ve just discovered a contemporary response to the film by the artist Maria Kapajeva.  I hope to find out more about this.