SKU 6436
Availability

LENIN IN 1918 (1939) * with switchable English subtitles *

Boris Shchukin as Vladimir Lenin Mikheil Gelovani as Joseph Stalin (removed from cut version) Nikolay Bogolyubov as Kliment Voroshilov Nikolay Cherkasov as Maxim Gorky Vasily Markov as Felix Dzerzhinsky Leonid Lyubashevsky as Yakov Sverdlov Zoya Dobina as Nadezhda Krupskaya Nikolay Okhlopkov as comrade Vasily, Lenin's assistant and bodyguard Klavdiya Korobova as Natalya, Vasily's wife Vasili Vanin as Kremlin commandant Matveyev Yelena Muzil as Yevdokiya Ivanovna, Lenin's housekeeper Iosif Tolchanov as Andrei Fyodorovich, physician Aleksandr Khokhlov as professor Dmitry Orlov as Stepan Ivanovich Korobov, old St. Petersburg proletarian Serafim Kozminsky as Bobylyov, Lenin's assistant Nikolai Plotnikov as kulak from Tambov Governorate Nikolai Svobodin as Valerian Rutkovsky, socialist revolutionary Viktor Tretyakov as Ivan Grigoryevich Novikov, socialist revolutionary Natalya Yefron as Fanny Kaplan Aleksandr Shatov as Konstantinov, counter-revolutionary conspiracy organizer Vladimir Solovyov as Sintsov, chekist-traitor Sergei Antimonov as Polyakov (uncredited) Viktor Kulakov as Nikolai Bukharin (uncut version, uncredited) Rostislav Plyatt as military expert (uncut version, uncredited) Georgy Bogatov as Vyacheslav Molotov (uncredited) Anatoli Papanov as episode (uncredited) Directed by Mikhail Romm Written by Taisiya Zlatogorova Aleksei Kapler
$13.99

Idealized historical/biographic film about Lenin and the struggles of the Bolsheviks in the first year of the Russian Civil War. Lenin is shown as hard-working, caring, supportive and the indispensable backbone of the workers' and peasants' liberation movement. His enemies - especially the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks - cruel, ruthless and opportunistic. The part of Sverdlov in history is overexaggerated; the role of Trotsky in guaranteeing the military victory of the Bolsheviks completely absent. Nor are the crimes against millions of people opposing Bolshevism ever brought up. The Chekists are vigilant, but historically whitewashed; Dzerzhinski is almost likeable as the stern, but fair, mass murderer that he was. At times, the film is unbearably sycophantic, but ultimately revealing on how the Soviets viewed their early history and achievements ... in public discussion, anyway.

DVD-R is in Russian with switchable English subtitles. Approx. 105 mins. See film sample for audio and video quality!

play button