For the equipment of the O.D.S.K. photo laboratory.
The Society of Friends of Soviet Cinema (ODSK) was a Soviet mass voluntary public organization, created in 1925 on the initiative of the Association of Revolutionary Cinematography (ARK) and the Main Political Education Directorate (Glavpolitprosvet) of the People’s Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR.
During its period of activity, the society carried out extensive work to support the cinemaization of the country, especially in rural areas; it created film clubs at factories and plants, developed the amateur film movement, and organized activities in educational institutions and at cinemas.
In early 1924, the Society of Builders of Proletarian Cinema (OSPK) was created—a voluntary “organization of working people interested in using film for the purpose of building a new life.” However, the society’s work was deemed unsatisfactory: it was noted that the primary “cells suffered from ‘idleness,’ vainly trying to find suitable forms of work,” and that “the masses, having received no satisfaction, moved away from OSPK.”
In February 1925, a meeting was held in the Agitation and Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) on the organization of a new public association—the Society of Friends of Soviet Cinema (ODSK), and in March the Central Committee of the RCP(b) approved the creation of the society.
In the appeal of the ODSK organizing bureau, it was noted that the society was being created “for the active creativity of the masses in the field of Soviet cinema.” On October 1, 1925, OSPK leaders D. N. Bassalygo and V. S. Iosilevich announced the self-dissolution of the organization and proposed that all OSPK cells “in an organized manner join, transferring with all their active members into the Society of Friends of Soviet Cinema.” The Central Committee of the RLKSM and Glavpolitprosvet supported the creation of ODSK and called for assistance to the society at the local level.
On November 12, 1925, a Moscow conference was held to elect the Central Council of ODSK; F. E. Dzerzhinsky was elected Chairman of the Central Council.
The society’s work was conducted in several directions: assistance in the cinemaization of cities and villages, organization of public screenings and promotion of cinema through the press, study of audience demands, and leadership in the development of the mass amateur cinema-and-photo movement.