Esfir (Esther) Shub was born into a Jewish family in a small town in the Chernigov region. She studied Russian literature in Moscow at the Higher Courses for Women (*Moskovskie vysshie zhenskie kursy*). After the revolution, she attended classes for young proletarian poets. Between 1919 and 1921, she worked as a secretary in the Theater Department of the People's Commissariat for Education (TEO). In 1922, she began working in the film department (later Goskino), where she was responsible for film editing and title card writing. Among the first films she prepared for release in Russian theaters were American productions—notably films by Chaplin, who was virtually unknown in Russia at the time.
Deeply enthusiastic about the possibilities offered by film editing, she attended classes led by Lev Kuleshov, the undisputed master of the craft. She also collaborated with Sergei Eisenstein on the shooting script (*rezhissersky stsenariy*) for his film *Strike* (*Stachka*). Together with Eisenstein, she also re-edited Fritz Lang’s film *Dr. Mabuse the Gambler* (*Doktor Mabuse, der Spieler*), which was retitled *The Gilded Rot* (*Pozolochennaya gnil*). In late 1926, she scoured archives for footage of the family of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, and used these images as the basis for her film *The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty*. She established principles for documentary film editing—distinct from those of Dziga Vertov—that prioritized simplicity, clarity of message, and fidelity to historical context. To convey her ideological message, Shub often employed the technique of juxtaposing images, heightening the contrast between the rich and the poor, and between the Tsar’s family and ordinary workers. In doing so, she demonstrated the power of editing to create a strong emotional impact on the audience. Shub frequently used very long takes, allowing viewers time to study the faces of the people on screen. In the film *Today* (*Segodnya*), she alternated between American and Soviet footage to illustrate the contrast between life in the capitalist world and the socialist world. She directed one of the first Russian sound documentaries, *Komsomol—Leader of Electrification*, a reportage-style film covering a factory meeting. In 1934, she worked in Turkey, shooting a film—*Turkey on the Rise* (*Turtsiya na pod'yeme*)—that was eventually completed in 1937 by one of her assistants. In 1939, using footage shot in Spain by Roman Karmen and Boris Makaseev, she created the film *Spain* (*Ispaniya*), a work dedicated to the Spanish Civil War and the Spanish people. During the final years of her life, Shub worked on her book *Close-Up* (*Krupnym planom*), in which she recounted her filmmaking experiences and personal memories.
