archive – platform films

Soviet Cinema 1925-1984

We have around 200 cans of 16mm film containing Soviet cinema movies and footage, dating from 1925-1984. Once the films are digitised and we will make them available to view from a website. From the site people will be able to view films, buy DVD versions and find out more about the films. Over time, we will add more features to the site, such as:

A search facility to find films, directors, producers, etc.
An archive of film posters and stills.
A growing archive of information, links to articles relevant to each film and to Soviet cinema in general.
Links to other sites providing relevant films and information, eg The BFI, Marx Memorial Library…
News on screenings and debates.

This short film includes a few clips from the material we have started to digitise.

Click to see all the films to be digitised

This is the full list of all the 16mm films waiting to be digitised, stretching from 1925-1984 (some have not yet been dated).

Action J
Adventures of Artyomka – 1956
Adventures in Bukhara -1943
Along Lenin’ s Road 1929-37
The Art of Alexei Shovkunenko (Ukraine)
Battleship Potemkin -1925
The Beginning of an Epic (Y.Gagarin)- 1976
Bell and Howell Projector Practice Film
The Big Family 1954
The Bonus – 1974
Born Twice – 1984
Carnival Night 1956
Cavalier of the Golden Star – 1950
The Centre Forward – 1946
The Communist – 1957
Cossacks Beyond the Danube – 1937
The Crucified Island – 1968
Daughter in Law 1971
Distant Bride -1948
Educational selection in the USSR
Eighteenth Century Russian Architecture
First Glove – 1946
The Flight that Became History – 1975
The Fourth Year of the War -1983
A Generation of Conquerors – 1936
Goal! Goal! Another Goal! – 1968
The Great Patriotic War – 1968
The Heart of Russia 1970
Heroes of Shipka – 1954
Higher Education In the – USSR
The Immortal Garrison – 1956
Inseparable Friends – 1952
Journey Through Fire -1957
Liberation of Byelorussia 1944
Lenin in 1918 – 1939
Lenin Lives On
Lenin in October – 1937
Lenin in Poland – 1965
Lenin: Pages From a Great Life – 1978
Lenin’s Paper – The Spark
Leningrad Music Students. Georgiev
Lessons of History
Life of Lenin
Lone White Sail -1937
Man with a Gun 1938
Magdana’s Donkey 1955
Marusya’s First Year at School- 1948
Matric Certificate
Maximka – 1952
Member of the Government – 1939
Milestones of the 5-year plan – 1972
Mother – 1939
A Mother’s Loyalty – 1966
Moscow Youth Festival – 1957
Moussorgsky – 1950
My Daughter – 1956
My Ukraine
Nikolai Roerich – 1976
October Days – 1958
Officers -1971
On the Way to Berlin – 1969
Our Gagarin – 1971
Our Leningrad – 1977
Pavel Korchagin – 1956
Portrait of a Great Man – 1967
Pushkin. There were too many in the canoe
The Rainbow – 1944
Red Square – 1970
Red Square Part Two Division Commander Kutasov – 1970
Return of Maxim – 1937
The Road to Life – 1931
Russian Language Learning
Skanderberg – 1953
The Siege of Leningrad – 1974 – 1977
Soldiers of the Revolution – 1968
Tanya’s Dog Baghera – 1976
That Funny Boy from Form “B” – 1972
Three Men and a Dog
The Tsar’s Bride – 1964
Two Stories About Lenin – 1957
The Village Teacher – 1947
Vyborg Side – 1938
The Warmth of Your Hands – 1971
We from Kronstadt – 1936
The Wife (Lessons in Life)- 1955
The Young Guard Part One – 1948
The Young Guard Part Two – 1948
The Youth of Maxim – 1935

How the films could be displayed on the site,

ROAD TO LIFE – 1931

Road to Life (Russian: Путёвка в жизнь, romanized: Putyovka v zhizn) is a 1931 Soviet drama film written and directed by Nikolai Ekk.[1] The film won an award at the 1932 Venice International Film Festival, which went to Ekk for Most Convincing Director.

It was the first sound film in the Soviet Union, and the first to be win a Best Director award at any film festival.
Young hobos are brought to a new camp to become good Soviet citizens. This camp works without any guards, and it works well. But crooks kill one of the young people when they try to damage the newly build railroad to that camp.

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LENIN IN OCTOBER (1936)

The movie about events of October revolution of 1917 and Lenin’s role in the organization of revolt of Bolsheviks.
Directors: Mikhail Romm, Dmitriy Vasilev (co-director) (as D. Vasiliev)

Writer: Aleksei Kapler
Stars: Boris Shchukin, Nikolai Okhlopkov, Vasili Vanin |

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A Cossack Beyond the Danube

1953 ‘Zaporozhets za Dunayem’ Directed by V. Larpoknysh

Zaporozhets za Dunayem (Ukrainian: Запорожець за Дунаєм, translated as A Zaporozhian (Cossack) Beyond the Danube, also referred to as Cossacks in Exile) is a Ukrainian comic opera with spoken dialogue in three acts with music and libretto by the composer Semen Hulak-Artemovsky (1813–1873). The orchestration has subsequently been rewritten by composers such as Reinhold Glière and Heorhiy Maiboroda. This is one of the best-known Ukrainian comic operas depicting national themes. ×

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We Are From Kronstadt

In 1919, during the post-revolution Russian Civil War, a naval detachment (made up of communist Reds) defends the strategic city of Petrograd from the White Russian counterrevolutionary forces. Director Yefim Dzigan had himself fought for the Bolsheviks in the fleet, so the Red sailors are the heroes of the film. The young Soviet State was besieged by enemies on all sides, and the Revolution was fighting for its life. While clearly propagandistic, the film is often quite poetic visually, not naturalistic as was prescribed by authorities at the time. The film was honored at the 1937 Paris World’s Fair. The video version is in Russian with English subtitles.

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