A friend of Mayakovsky and Eisenstein, she was hired by the fledgling Soviet film industry in 1922 to re-cut and re-title foreign films (including American serials) and make them "suitable" for viewing by Soviet audiences. She soon became a very skillful editor. Inspired by Eisenstein's successful employment of old newsreel footage, forming it into a series of compelling compilation film stracing the then-recent history of Russia before, during, and after the Revolution. Her films remain among the finest examples of creative editing in compilation films. Technically, she was considered the director of these films, for most of which she also wrote the narration scripts.