Андрей Тихомиров, Маргарита Шмарина
From the history of cinema

The emergence of cinema

Cinematography (from the Greek words "movement" and "I write") is an apparatus for shooting objects in motion on photosensitive film and for subsequent reproduction of the images obtained by projecting them onto the screen, as well as a spectacle based on the use of this apparatus.

As a result of shooting with the help of cinematography and appropriate laboratory processing of photosensitive material, a motion picture is obtained – a series of images fixed on film depicting successive phases of the object's movement or changes in its state. Reproduction of the obtained images is achieved by shining through the film with a diverging beam of light rays directed at the screen, on which an enlarged image of the frames shot on film is formed. With intermittent motion of the film in the cinema and a certain frame rate, the motion of the captured objects is reproduced.

Cinematography appeared as a result of a combination of a number of inventions that made it possible to carry out the basic processes necessary to reproduce photographed motion: chronophotography (which gives a series of snapshots of successive phases of motion) on photosensitive film, projection of images onto the screen and intermittent movement of the film during filming and projection.

"Chronophotographic devices that took pictures with considerable frequency were designed in the 80s—90s of the 19th century. These include the "photographic weapon" by the French physiologist E. Marey (1882), the apparatus of the English inventor W. Friese-Green (1889), the apparatus of the Russian photographer V. A. Dubuque (1891), the "phonoscope" by the French physiologist J. Demeny (1892), "kinetograph" by the American inventor T. Edison (1893), chronophotographic apparatus and "stereokineograph" by the Russian photographer I. Yanovsky (1894) and others.

Flexible photosensitive film was invented: non-flammable – by the Russian photographer I. V. Boldyrev (1878-1881) and combustible, celluloid – by the American inventor J. At the same time, devices for projecting rapidly changing images onto the screen appeared: the tachiscope by the German photographer O. Anschutz (1891), the same apparatus by V. A. Dubyuk (1891), the optical theater by the French inventor E. Reynaud (1892), the kinetoscope by the Russian inventors I. A. Timchenko and M. F. Freudenberg (1893), etc. A device for intermittent movement of film – a jump mechanism of the "snail" type – was invented by the Russian mechanic I. A. Timchenko (1893).

The closest predecessors of cinematography were the "apparatus for analyzing stroboscopic phenomena" I. A. Timchenko (1893), which combined projection on the screen with intermittent image change; "chronophotograph" J. Demeny, which combined chronophotography on film and projection on the screen (1894); created by the American inventor W. Latham (1895) "panopticon", which combined chronophotography with projection on the screen, etc.

The device, which combined all the basic elements of cinematography, was invented in France by the brothers O. and L. Lumiere (1895), J. Demeny (1895); in Germany – M. Skladanovsky (1895), O. Mester (1896); in England – R. Pole (1896); in In Russia – A. Samarsky (1896), I. Akimov (1896), in the USA – F. Jenkins (1897), T. Armat (1897)" (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the State Scientific Publishing House "The Great Soviet Encyclopedia", 2nd edition, editor-in-chief B.A. Vvedensky, volume 20, 1953, p. 637).

M. Skladanovsky demonstrated his cinematography on November 1, 1895 in Berlin, and the Lumiere brothers in Paris on December 28, 1895. The subsequent trips of representatives of the Lumiere brothers with cinematography to various countries contributed to the spread of the "Lumiere cinematography" and quickly created wide fame for this art form.

Their most famous film is "The arrival of the train at La Ciotat station" ("L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de la Ciotat", 1895). In Russia, it is also known by the names "Arrival of the train" and "Arrival of the mail train". The plot is quite simple – in 49 seconds, a train stop at La Ciotat station and passengers walking along the carriages are demonstrated. This film became the progenitor of the silent film plot, which was called "stray". Directors all over the world began to reproduce it and shoot their versions at different train stations

The very first film in the world – "Scenes in the Roundhay Garden"

Frenchman Louis le Prince, the author of this film, used a new technology for that time: the recording was on paper film with an emulsion applied to it. The duration of the scene is only 1.66 seconds, and Louis captured a walk in the garden of his son, mother-in-law with her husband and friend Harriet Hartley.

The first film with sound is "The Jazz Singer"

Sound recording technology (phonograph) already existed before the advent of cinema. In 1894, Thomas Edison and his assistant William Dixon made the first attempts to introduce sound recording into a movie camera. But the invention (kinetophonograph) remained only a technical incident due to the big problems in device synchronization and very low sound quality.

Leon Gaumont tried to repeat something similar in 1900: he combined the Lumiere apparatus with a phonograph. Nevertheless, the invention remained unsuitable for the birth of sound cinema for many years.

Technological progress required film directors to move forward: the popularity of radio had a bad effect on the flow of viewers to cinemas. Therefore, the introduction of audio accompaniment for films has become a necessity.

The first color film, "Journey to the Moon"

, Attempts to manually color films were made by the Lumiere brothers, but they themselves did not consider it a serious job, so there were no mentions of specific paintings in history.

The Media Museum in the UK conducted many studies and searches in the archives, as a result of which the very first color film in the world was found called "Journey to the Moon", which dates back to 1901-1902.

It belonged to Georges Méliès, a filmmaker from France, who recorded the expedition to the moon. He managed to achieve the color effect in the "Journey" with the help of three films with different colors, namely blue, red and green. Due to their superimposition on each other, Georges managed to get an image of different shades. Unfortunately, he did not have time to complete the idea.

Before the discovery of the Melies tape, Herbert Kalamus was considered the founder of color cinema. In 1912, he founded the Technicolor company with its own film coloring technology. The painting was colored due to the special equipment of the camera with a system of glass prisms that divided the luminous flux from the lens into two. The filters also transferred the image in two colors to different films. Precisely because such a process of applying color is quite time-consuming and complex, the company released the first film only in 1917. In 1922, Technicolor showed the movie "Victims of the Sea" on the screens, which was a huge success with the audience, although it was colored with only four colors (green, red, black, white).

Despite many earlier findings, the official year of the appearance of cinema in color is considered to be 1935. Then director Ruben Mamoulian released his film "Becky Sharp", which is an adaptation of the book "Vanity Fair".

The word "cinema" soon after the invention of the cinema camera began to be applied to a new kind of spectacle. Subsequently, it began to be used to denote a new kind of art that arose on its basis, as well as all cases of the use of cinema for scientific research, education and information. Cinematography has now become a branch of culture that produces films and shows them to the audience. In a number of countries, it is a large sector of the economy. Cinematography is the most popular form of art, an important means of propaganda and information.

The formation of cinema in Russia

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the work of Russian scientists and technicians contributed to the invention of cinematography, methods of cinematographic recording and sound projection. However, in tsarist Russia, due to its technical and economic backwardness, film production began only in 1907-1908, although already in 1896 Russian photographers V. A. Sashin (Fedorov) and A. K.Fedetsky successfully filmed the first documentaries. Since 1896, foreign, mainly French, films have been shown in Russia.

In St. Petersburg, in the Aquarium Garden, and a day later, on May 6, in Moscow, in the Hermitage summer garden. In the same year, the first chronicle filming took place, timed to coincide with a significant event – the accession to the throne of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II. The Lumiers sent their cameraman Kamil Cerf to the ceremony (although, according to J. Sadoul, it was Francis Dubie, who was filming under the direction of M. Perigo), and his shooting turned out to be, firstly, the first filming on the territory of Russia, secondly, the world's first relevant political newsreel, and thirdly, gave rise to the first genre of Russian cinema – the "royal chronicle", which was then filmed by court photographers until the abdication of the tsar in March 1917.

In 1908, the company A. O. Drankov released the first Russian feature film "Ponizovaya Volnitsa" ("Stenka Razin"), which staged a famous folk song. In 1908-1911, films based on works of classical literature and drama, as well as films about the events of Russian history, were produced in large numbers. The artistic level of the first Russian films was low. There was no own technical base, the necessary materials (film, chemicals, etc.) and equipment were imported from abroad. The production of films was, as a rule, in the hands of businessmen. The tsarist censorship sought to limit the subject of films to "salon-psychological", criminal-adventure plots. The decadent, pessimistic sentiments that spread after the defeat of the revolution of 1905-1907 had a great influence on the content of the films.

The heyday of Russian cinema in the 1910s occurred during the First World War. It was at this time that the cinematography of old Russia was formed in its thematic and stylistic originality, and film production reached a maximum (500 films in 1916). Films shot in genres that were almost unrelated to national traditions appeared on the screens: detectives, in the Russian interpretation turned into stories about robbers ("Sonka – The Golden Pen" by Alexander Chargonin, 1915; "The Robber Vaska Churkin" by Evgeny Petrov-Krayevsky, 1916); psychological dramas, complicated in local conditions by the motive of social inequality ("The Spirit of the Times" by Andrei Andreev, 1915; "Forget about the Fireplace" by Peter Chardynin, 1917), the same motive is added to secular melodrama.

Russian Russian cinema, however, showed the influence of the progressive traditions of Russian literature and painting, and the experience of the advanced Russian theater in the best works of pre-revolutionary cinema. "Leading pre-revolutionary film directors Ya. A. Protazanov, V. R. Gardin, E. F. Bauer, etc., cameramen A. A. Levitsky, E. O. Slavinsky, V. A. Starevich, L. P. Forestier, etc. in the early years of their work, they created films with serious artistic merits – "The Queen of Spades" (based on the story by A. S. Pushkin) and "Andrey Kozhukhov" (directed by Ya. A. Protazanov), "The Noble Nest" (based on the novel by I. S. Turgenev, directed by V. R. Gardin), "Belated Flowers" (directed by V. M. Sushkevich)" (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the State Scientific Publishing House "The Great Soviet Encyclopedia", 2nd edition, editor-in-chief B.A. Vvedensky, volume 50, 1957, p. 632).

The development of Soviet cinema in the 20-3rd years of the 20th century

The decree of the Council of People's Commissars of August 27, 1919 on the transfer of photographic and cinematographic trade and industry to the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Education nationalized film factories, rental offices and cinemas. Cinematography was called upon to play a major role in the political and cultural education of the masses. V. I. Lenin said: "Of all the arts, cinema is the most important for us."

"On September 1, the State School of Cinematography (now VGIK) opened in Moscow at the Photographic and Cinematographic Department of the People's Commissariat of Education. Creators – directors V. R. Gardin and L. V. Kuleshov" (Tikhomirov A.E., The Hard Times of Russia: 1916-1919 Chronicle of events. "Ridero", Yekaterinburg, 2019, p. 143).

In the early years of Soviet cinematography, documentaries and chronicles were shot and shown, reflecting the most important events in the life of the country, recreating episodes of the heroic struggle of the people for Soviet power. The work on the creation of newsreels contributed to the ideological and creative formation of Soviet directors (D. Vertov, L. V. Kuleshov) and cameramen (A. A. Levitsky, A. G. Lemberg, G. V. Giber, E. O. Slavinsky, P. V. Ermolov, E. K. Tisset, etc.). Along with the release of newsreels, attempts were made to embody the modern revolutionary reality in artistic cinematography. So—called propaganda films were created – short films devoted to topical political issues. The scripts for these films were often created by prominent writers (D. Bedny, A.V. Lunacharsky, etc.), and the best directors and cameramen took part in their production. Propaganda films played an important role in the development of Soviet cinema, although they schematically and simplistically solved the themes of modernity. The experience of working on the production of propaganda films contributed to the creation of the full—length motion picture "Hammer and Sickle" (directed by V. R. Gardin, 1921) – one of the first films about revolutionary reality.

A significant place in artistic cinematography during the Civil War was occupied by the adaptation of works of Russian classical literature containing progressive, humanistic ideas that revealed acute social contradictions in the social structure of pre-revolutionary Russia. In 1918-1920, the films "Mother" (based on the novel by M. Gorky, directed by A. E. Razumny), "Father Sergius" (based on the story by L. N. Tolstoy, directed by Ya. A. Protazanov), "Polikushka" (based on the story by L. N. Tolstoy) and "Soroka the Thief" (based on the story by A. I. Herzen, director of films A. A. Sanin), "Lunin and Baburin" (based on the story by I. S. Turgenev, directed by A.V. Ivanovsky).

With the transition to peaceful construction, it became possible to begin the restoration and reconstruction of film production. The technical equipment of film factories, restoration and expansion of the cinema network have begun. In the 20s, cinematography was created in Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan. The young creative personnel of the republics developed progressive national artistic traditions, widely used the experience of Russian Soviet cinema. Production and rental functions were combined in single business organizations (Sovkino in the RSFSR, VUFKU in Ukraine, Goskinrom in Georgia, etc.), which made it possible to turn rental income to the reconstruction of the production base and financing of new film productions.

Soviet cinema grew and strengthened in the struggle for communist ideology, against the influence of bourgeois ideology. Reflecting the Soviet reality, mastering the realistic traditions of Russian art and classical literature, critically mastering the experience of foreign cinema, film workers improved their skills, developed artistic means of cinematography.

"Strengthening ties with the working masses, the Gubernatorial Committee of the Orenburg region widely used new forms of ideological influence that arose during the revolution and the civil war. Non-partisan conferences, for example, have become widespread. In 1920, they were held in Pokrovsky, Sharlyk, Isaevo-Dedovsky, Petrovsky and a number of other rural areas. Political propaganda among the population of the province was conducted by the Central Executive Committee's propaganda train "October Revolution" (September 1919), "Red Turkestan" (January —April 1920) and the propaganda train of the Gubernatorial Party committee (summer 1920). The latter had a group of agitators, a theater troupe, an orchestra, a cinema and a library. In a short time, the staff of the propaganda train held 22 rallies, 27 performances and concerts on the Orenburg – Buzuluk line, and distributed many political pamphlets and newspapers among the population. The Gubernatorial committee of the party organized a campaign trip of the "Red Car" to Krasnokholmsky district. Agit brigades left Iletsk Protection, Isaevo-Dedovo and Mozharovsky for the villages" (Tikhomirov A.E., Soviet Russia in 1920. "Ridero", Yekaterinburg, 2021, p. 58).

In 1923, the Georgian film studio released the film "The Red Devils" (based on the story by P. A. Blyakhin, directed by I. N. Perestiani). This picture, depicting the events of the civil war, the participation of Komsomol members in the struggle against the Makhnovshchina, was imbued with the spirit of revolutionary romance, bright optimism; it gained wide popularity among young people and laid the foundation for the adventure genre in Soviet cinema. In 1924, the film "The Palace and the Fortress" (directed by A.V. Ivanovsky) was staged, depicting the revolutionary movement in Russia in the 2nd half of the 19th century.

The team, headed by film director L. V. Kuleshov, acquired great importance at this time. This team formed the work of directors V. I. Pudovkin and B. V. Barnet, actors A. S. Khokhlova, V. P. Vogel and others.

The ideological and artistic development of Soviet cinema was brilliantly expressed in the films directed by S. M. Eisenstein and V. I. Pudovkin. Eisenstein began his work in cinema with the film "Strike" (1925), the first work of Soviet cinema that recreates the image of the revolutionary working masses. Despite the fact that the artistic solution of the picture was influenced by the theories of the "Proletkult", it became an important stage in the development of Soviet cinema. In Eisenstein's next film, The Battleship Potemkin (screenplay by N. F. Agadzhanova, S. M. Eisenstein, cinematographer E. K. Tisset, 1925) the revolutionary theme received a politically profound and artistically passionate embodiment. Depicting with great expressiveness and drama one of the episodes of the 1905 revolution – the uprising on the battleship Potemkin, the film asserted the victorious power of revolutionary ideas, showed the inevitability of the victory of the revolution, and was recognized more than once as one of the best films ever made according to the results of international surveys of critics, film critics and viewers. The truth of life and revolutionary pathos were expressed in this film with the help of innovative visual means. The installation, rhythm, composition, and vivid realistic details served the purpose of creating an image of a struggling people. The Battleship Potemkin had a huge impact on the formation of world cinematography.

An outstanding role in the development of cinematography was played by V. I. Pudovkin's film "Mother" (based on the novel by M. Gorky, screenplay by N. A. Zarkhi, cinematographer A. D. Golovnya, 1926), recreating the events of the first Russian revolution. In 1927, Pudovkin directed the film "The End of St. Petersburg" (screenplay by N. A. Zarkhi, cinematographer A. D. Golovnya), in 1929 – "Descendant of Genghis Khan" (screenplay by O. M. Brik, cinematographer A. D. Golovnya), in which vivid typical images of advanced representatives of the people were created.

In the early 20s, the directors of the older generation, who began their creative career in pre-revolutionary cinema, achieved significant success. The largest of them, Ya. A. Protazanov, created a number of films imbued with love for the common Soviet man, reflecting revolutionary changes in the life of the Motherland (films "His Call", 1925, "Forty—first", 1927, "Don Diego and Pelageya", 1928, etc.).

One of the most significant and successful films of early Russian cinema should be called "The Defense of Sevastopol" (1911) Vasily Goncharov and Alexander Khanzhonkov. The film is a chain of reconstructed events of the defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War of 1853-1856, possibly following the course of real facts. Although this film is devoid of a plot and an elementary dramatic structure, it makes no sense to make dramatic claims – it is better to simply designate its genre: a reconstructed chronicle, as you and I already know, introduced by Melies. The battle scenes here, apparently, for the first time in the world, were filmed with two cameras using panoramas and camera angles. Regular units of the Russian army and veterans of the battle for Sevastopol from both sides of the front took part in the filming – in the final they appear on the screen. In the original, the film lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes. It was the first Russian and one of the first feature films in the world.

In the 20s, Soviet cinematography was replenished by a large group of young directors.

In 1922, directors G. M. Kozintsev and L. 3. Trauberg created the collective "Factory of the Eccentric Actor" (FEKS) in Petrograd. In the film "New Babylon" (1929), they truthfully showed the events of the Paris Commune on the screen. During these years, director F. M. Ermler worked on modern themes with great success. In the film "The Fragment of the Empire" (1929), directed by Ermler, the meaning of the political conquests of the working class was revealed in a vivid artistic form. In the film "Lace" (1928), director S. I. Yutkevich poetically embodied the features of the new in the life and morals of the Soviet people. Among the best comedies of the late 20s: "The Trial of three Million" (1926) and "Don Diego and Pelageya" (1928) directed by Ya. A. Protazanov, "Two friends, a model and a girlfriend" directed by A.D. Popov (1928), etc. A group of young directors worked successfully in Moscow, among whom were B. V. Barnett, A. M. Room, Y. Ya. Raisman, I. A. Pyriev, G. L. Roshal, E. V. Chervyakov and others. Most of the films they directed reflected the problems of modernity and new morality. The rise of Soviet cinema was closely connected with the formation of a cadre of directors, as well as film dramatists (E. N. Vinogradskaya, G. E. Grebner, S. A. Ermolinsky, N. A. Zarkhi, B. L. Leonidov, O. L. Leonidov, V. K. Turkin, etc.), operators (A. D. Golovnya, D. P. Demutsky, A. N. Moskvin, E. K. Tisset).

Historical and documentary films stand out in the documentary films of these years: "The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty" (1927), "The Great Way" (1927), "Russia of Nicholas II and Leo Tolstoy" (1928) directed by E. I. Shub, the film "Shanghai Document" directed by Ya. I. Blioch (1928) – about the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people, "Turksib" directed by V. A. Turina (1929) – about the successes of socialist industrialization.

Since 1927, the income from the rental of Soviet films has exceeded the income from the rental of foreign films. The export of Soviet films abroad increased (in 1927, films were sold to 54 countries).

Since the 30s, the production of sound films has been mastered. Since that time, a new stage in the history of Soviet cinema has begun, inextricably linked with the further development of the principles of socialist realism. Soviet films in these years were distinguished by the richness of their subjects, the abundance of genres, and the originality of the work of film directors. In the 30s, a number of new directors came forward: G. V. Alexandrov, L. O. Arnshtam, G. N. and S. D. Vasilyev, S. A. Gerasimov, E. L. Dzigan, A. G. Zarkhi, I.A. Pyriev, M. I. Romm, I. A. Savchenko, I. E. Heifits, etc. The importance of film drama (literary script) has increased dramatically. In the works of such film dramatists as M. Y. Bleiman, M. V. Bolynintsov, E. N. Vinogradskaya, E. O. Gabrilovich, G. E. Grebner, A. Ya. Kapler, V. M. Gusev, the script has turned into a full-fledged work of fiction. Writers B. V. Vishnevsky, P. A. Pavlenko, N. F. Pogodin and others were involved in the creation of scripts. A little later, screenwriters K. F. Isaev, M.G. Papava, E. M. Landowners, M. N. Smirnova, B. F. Chirskov, as well as novelists and theatrical playwrights Yu. P. German, P. F. Nilin, L. N. Rakhmanov, A. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Shteiv and others came to the cinema. Many film directors turned to studying the experience of theatrical art and, above all, the creative system of K. S. Stanislavsky.

With the advent of sound cinema, actors were able to use words to create psychology and character characteristics on the screen more deeply and fully, and to convey the ideological idea of the film to the viewer more vividly. The use of sound in cinema has also changed the nature of editing, leading to the development of new techniques in directing and cinematography. Music and song become one of the most important components of the film; songs from films become widely popular. Music for cinema was created at this time by composers I. O. Dunaevsky, D. B. Kabalevsky, N. N. Kryukov, S. S. Prokofiev, A. I. Khachaturian, T. N. Khrennikov, D. D. Shostakovich et al.

The best films of the 30s are distinguished by the depth of their ideological content and the multifaceted coverage of reality. They show the social and labor activity of a person in unity with his inner spiritual life.

The masterpiece of Soviet cinematography of the 30s is the film Chapaev (1934), created by directors G. N. and S. D. Vasilyev (based on the novel of the same name by D. A. Furmanov). Russian Russian cinema summarizes the experience of Soviet cinema in previous years, organically embodies the best traditions of Russian classical and Soviet literature and Russian realistic theatrical art; it is marked by truthfulness, depth, and bold use of new expressive means of cinema. The convincing, truly folk image of Chapaev was created by the artist B. A. Babochkin. The accuracy of the ideological plan, realistic completeness, and fidelity to typification characterized the performance of other roles (Furmanova – actor B. V. Blinov, Colonel Borozdin – I. N. Pevtsov, etc.). The film "Chapaev", which became a new milestone in the development of cinematography, gained the widest popularity among the workers of the USSR and foreign countries.

In the 30s and early 40s, many outstanding film productions in the field of historical and revolutionary genre were created – "We are from Kronstadt" (directed by E. L. Dzigan, 1936), "Deputy of the Baltic" (directed by A. G. Zarkhi and I. E. Heifits, 1937), "Shchors" (director A. P. Dovzhenko, 1939), "Yakov Sverdlov" (directed by S. I. Yutkevich, 1940), etc.

One of the best historical and revolutionary works of Soviet cinema is the trilogy about Maxim ("Maxim's Youth", "Maxim's Return", "Vyborg Side", 1935-1939) directed by G. M. Kozintsev and L. 3. Trauberg. In terms of the breadth of disclosure of the historical epoch, the richness of vivid typical images, this trilogy, depicting the development of the revolutionary movement in Russia in 1907-1917, approaches a multifaceted realistic novel. The role of the St. Petersburg worker Maxim, who became a Bolshevik, a professional revolutionary, was played with deep vital truth and penetration by the artist B. P. Chirkov. According to the visual solution, the trilogy about Maxim is one of the most significant works of Soviet cinematography (cameraman A. N. Moskvin).

In the 30s, major films were created dedicated to the events of the Great October Socialist Revolution, depicting the activities of V. I. Lenin: "Lenin in October" and "Lenin in 1918" (directed by M. I. Romm, 1937, 1939), "Man with a Gun" (directed by S. I. Yutkevich, 1938).

The comedy genre achieved great success in the 30s, especially in the work of directors I. A. Pyriev and G. V. Alexandrov. Destroying the stencils of bourgeois film comedy, Pyriev sought to reflect modern life in comedy. His films "The Rich Bride" (1938), "The Tractor Drivers" (1939), "The Pig and the Shepherd" (1941) show the affirmation of the new in everyday life and the minds of the people of the Soviet village. The images of Soviet people created in these films by M. A. Ladynina, N. A. Kryuchkov and others are very convincing. Alexandrov's cheerful, music-filled comedies widely use the techniques of sharp satire, eccentric jokes, buffoonery. His films "Funny Guys" (1934), "Volga-Volga" (1938), "The Bright Path" (1940) are distinguished by their vivid entertainment and entertainment, in which artists L. P. Orlova, I. V. Ilyinsky and others created memorable images.

In the late 30s and early 40s, film productions on historical topics devoted to patriotic traditions and friendship of the peoples of the USSR were released. Masters of literature and cinematography have created a number of outstanding films, including "Peter the Great" (based on the novel by A. N. Tolstoy, directed by V. M. Petrov, 2 episodes, 1937-1939), "Alexander Nevsky" (directed by S. M. Eisenstein, 1938), "Bogdan Khmelnitsky" (directed by I. A. Savchenko, 1941 G.), "Suvorov" (directed by V. I. Pudovkin, 1940). Major Soviet actors—N. K. Simonov (the role of Peter—"Peter the First"), A. K. Tarasova (the role of Catherine – "Peter the First"), N. K. Cherkasov (the role of Tsarevich Alexei – "Peter the First", Alexander Nevsky in the film of the same name), M. I. Zharov (the role of Menshikov – "Peter the First"), N. D. Mordvinov (the role of Bogdan Khmelnitsky in the film of the same name), N. P. Cherkasov (the role of Suvorov in the film of the same name) – created in these films vivid, realistic images.

"In ten years (1929-1939), the country's cinema network was not only switched to sound equipment, but also increased more than 2 times: the number of film installations reached over 30 thousand. The number of film installations in rural areas increased 25 times by 1939, reaching 20 thousand. The newly created and reconstructed film copying factories produced more than 80 million copies of films in 1938. The circulations of the best films in the late 30s exceeded 1,000 copies. The total number of moviegoers in 1940 reached St. Petersburg. 1 billion" (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the State Scientific Publishing House "The Great Soviet Encyclopedia", 2nd edition, editor-in-chief B.A. Vvedensky, volume 50, 1957, p. 636). During the first five-year plans, the film industry was created, which began to provide film studios with filming, laboratory and other equipment and freed Soviet cinematography from foreign dependence. The methods of color filming were successfully mastered, first using two-color, and then using a three-color hydrotype method.

Vintage films are an artistic heritage, they carry great value and the experience of generations. We must not forget that progress in cinema became possible only after the first difficult discoveries.

Used literature

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, The State Scientific Publishing House "The Great Soviet Encyclopedia", 2nd edition, editor-in-chief B.A. Vvedensky, volume 20, 1953

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, The State Scientific Publishing House "The Great Soviet Encyclopedia", 2nd edition, editor-in-chief B.A. Vvedensky, volume 50, 1957

Tikhomirov A.E., The Hard Times of Russia: 1916-1919. Chronicle of events. "Ridero", Yekaterinburg, 2019

Tikhomirov A.E., Soviet Russia in 1920. Ridero, Yekaterinburg, 2021