5th Congress of the USSR Union of Cinematographers

Background

After Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, glasnost was in the air, but the film industry remained under party censorship and the nomenklatura system of the Cinematographers' Union. The chain reaction began in April 1986, when film scholar Viktor Bozhovich proposed additional candidates beyond the party-approved slate at a meeting of the Moscow critics' section. Secret-ballot elections followed across professional sections, and much of the old guard (including Sergei Bondarchuk, Stanislav Rostotsky, and Union head Lev Kulidzhanov) failed to be elected as delegates.

The Congress

Opening at the Grand Kremlin Palace, the congress began with a routine report but erupted into fierce debate over the crisis in Soviet cinema. Rolan Bykov, Vladimir Menshov, Andrei Plakhov, and others excoriated censorship and the command-administrative system of film production; Nikita Mikhalkov defended Bondarchuk, calling the attacks 'childishness.' Through Klimov's arrangement and with Alexander Yakovlev's authorization, Tengiz Abuladze's Repentance (shelved since 1984) was screened at the congress and became a symbol of perestroika.

Aftermath

After overnight voting, the entire old leadership was excluded from the new board and Elem Klimov was elected First Secretary. The congress effectively dismantled party pre-censorship, liberated roughly 250 shelved films, and set a precedent for democratic elections in other creative unions. Dubbed a 'rehearsal for perestroika,' the event remains a decisive turning point in Soviet cultural history.