 After the film 's final rejection , Shumyatsky took responsibility for the failure in the Soviet media , with an essay detailing the film 's history in Pravda . According to Shumyatsky , Bezhin Meadow was a slander against the Soviet countryside , and an example of Formalism that needed to be eliminated . Shumyatsky went on to say , " [ Eisenstein was ] making Bezhin Meadow only because it offered him an opportunity to indulge in formalistic exercises . Instead of creating a strong , clear , direct work , Eisenstein detached his work from reality , from the colors and heroism of reality . He consciously reduced the work 's ideological content . " Shumyatsky would lose his government position two years later , when he was charged with being an English spy , arrested , and shot . One of the reasons Shumyatsky gave for shutting down production of Bezhin Meadow was that Eisenstein was wasting money and resources in producing it ; conversely , before his execution , Shumyatsky himself was charged with wasting money and resources by cancelling films such as Bezhin Meadow . The suppression of Bezhin Meadow was also said to be part of an ongoing campaign against the artistic avant @-@ garde in Joseph Stalin 's Russia . 
