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, "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.