The Train to the Revolution.

The Train to the Revolution. , 1969 (50:58)

Annotation: The film tells about the February Bourgeois Revolution in Russia in 1917.

Source description 1: Newsreel – 1917. At the fronts of World War I soldiers are greeting each other on learning about the February Revolution in Russia Military telephone operators and telegraphers are passing messages about the Revolution in Russia. The printing press is operating –newspapers reporting about the February Revolution are being printed. A Russian Royal Army is reading a newspaper to peasants. People are reading newspapers with reports about the February Revolution in the streets. Photographs of the representatives of various social classes. A portrait of Lenin and Nadezhda Krupskaya (his wife). The city of Zurich; the house where Lenin used to live during his emigration. A panorama of the pier at Zurich Lake; Zurich streets, the city clock tower. Newsreel – 1917. People are exulting in the streets of Petrograd [the name of the city of St. Petersbourg in 1914-1924] and Moscow after the February Revolution; Nikolay the Second’s abdication; the Bolsheviks [members of the Lenin fraction of the Communist Party of Russia] are leaving the underground. Soldiers and workers with revolutionary slogans are passing by. Soldiers are taking down the signboard “A Supplier of the His Imperial Majesty Court” from the house, breaking down the bars from the prison window. The funeral of the February Revolution victims in Petrograd on the Mars Field. The funeral ceremony participants are collecting money to render assistance to the families of the dead. The Provisional Government members: Skobelev, Guchkov, Lvov – and the representatives of Petersburg Council of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies are at the funeral. Zurich. A photograph of Grand Prince Nikolay. The Provisional Government members: Prince Lvov, Prime-Minister Guchkov, Milyukov, Rodzyanko, Kerensky. A photograph – a session of the Provisional Government in the Tavrichesky Palace [Taurida Palace]. A photograph – foreign diplomats, including the English Ambassador Buchanan are at the session of deputies in the Tavrichesky Palace. Newsreel – A Buchanan’s daughter is sitting in the car near the Taurida Palace. Englishmen are congratulating Russian soldiers on the Revolution victory. The Revolutionary troops are swearing fealty to the Provisional Government, priests are coming out to carry out the ceremony of taking the oath. Imperialistic war disabled veterans are standing in the Red Square where the oath ceremony is being carried out.

Source description 2: Photograph of Nadezda Krupskaya. A map of Europe where the Kaiser’s Germany, Russia, England, France are marked. Photographs of the Russian Revolutionary leaders Inessa Armand, Alexandra Kollontay, V. A. Karpinsky, Ya. Ganetsky, Lenin. A street of Zurich, Zurich Lake. A panorama of the roofs of ancient houses. Newsreel of 1917 – Moscow during the first days after the February Revolution, people are in the streets, the soldiers and workers are going by, a cabman and a tram with passengers are going by. People in the Petrograd streets; they are reading brochures, newspapers. Photographs of reading people. The newspaper “Pravda” [“The Truth”] dated March 23, 1917. The published letter Lenin “Pervy etap russkoy revolutsii” [“The First Stage of the Russian Revolution”] (the first letter of the five “letters from afar”, sent by Lenin from Switzerland). Streets of Zurich, ancient buildings, block pavements. Newsreel – a locomotive is going, wheels are flying round rapidly. A passenger train is entering the tunnel. Landscapes of Switzerland shot from the running train. The train is going through the cities of Taidigen, Gottmadingen. Local citizens are waving, seeing off the train. Photographs of Lenin’s comrades with whom he secretly moved from Switzerland to Russia via Germany – Nadezhda Krupskaya, G. Usievich, Inessa Armand, O. Ravich, M. Goberman, E. Usievich, M. Tshakaya, F. Platten. Rail track, the train is rushing. Germany, 1917 – a beggar is in the street, an organ-grinder is playing, a woman is sitting on the pavement with kids, children are playing in the dirty yard, queues for bread. A queue for bread in Russia. The passenger train is arriving in Berlin, the railrway station in Berlin, a platform. Empty streets of Berlin during the days of the strike. Queues for bread in Germany and Russia. Frames of World War I – soldiers are in trenches. Mobilization in different countries. Echelons with soldiers are on the way. A photograph of Lenin.

Source description 3: Basic content - Newsreel of World War I: explosions of shells at the front line, soldiers in trenches, the cavalry is attacking, the cannons are shooting, and injured soldiers, are going along the road. A Roman Catholic priest (Polish) is blessing soldiers before the battle. Accountants are working in the military office. Russian soldiers are knocking together crosses for the new graves on the common cemetery. A soldier is carrying a dead comrade, a (German) military front hospital in the dugout; soldiers are being carried to the hospital. A train is going; landscapes shot from the running train. A photograph of Lenin. Soldiers in trenches are resting, smoking, talking. A soldier is sitting near the wall of a destroyed building. Russian soldiers are receiving mail at the front line. Soldiers are going through the clothes looking for insects. A soldier at the dugout is feeding doves. Signalmen are drawing a field cable. Soldiers are chiseling various things of shells. A soldier is playing the piano near the demolished building. Russian soldiers are dancing on the edge of the wood, playing leapfrog. Cannons are shooting, soldiers in trenches during artillery bombardment. Soldiers are trying to raise a horse put to the cart which has foundered. Fraternization of Russian and German soldiers at the front. A photograph of Lenin. Rails, an arm semaphore is being raised, and the train is going along the territory of Germany. The manuscript of the by Lenin “Apelskie tezisy” [“April Theses”]. Production of shells and weapons at different factories in different countries during 1914-1917. Portraits of the armament suppliers Putilov, Krupp. A cannon is on the railroad platform. Launching of a military ship in the English dockyard. The military ship (dreadnought) is in the sea. A caravan of military ships in the sea, a column of military motor vehicle is on the roads. Soldiers at the front are unloading ammunition from the car. Bread is being baked in the field bakery; the officer is slicing the bread and giving it to the soldiers. Refugees with kids are on the roads in different countries. A child is begging his mother for something to eat. In the city children are being taught how to use the respirator. Children in military uniform are in the formation. The English Queen is reviewing the formation of girls- soldiers. A German general is reviewing the line of old men drafted into the army. Rewards for valor are being handed over to the widows of perished soldiers and officers. An absent wedding ceremony with a fiancé’s friend while he himself is at the front (France). Disabled war veterans are plaiting baskets, sewing boots, armless veterans are digging ground. England – a woman is plowing the ground with the help of an elephant, a elephant is pushing a carriage loaded with woods. A queue to the pawnshop. Refugees are boarding the carriage, soldiers are carrying old women on their arms. Ruins and sites of fire in different countries.

Source description 4: Basic content - Landscapes of Germany shot from a going train. A passenger train is running. The German port of Zasnits. Railway trains are in the port. Passengers are in the port. A railway train is being loaded onto the ferryboat “Queen Victory”. The captain is signaling to sail off, the ferryboat is in the sea. A seagull is in the sky, passengers are on the deck during the sailing, the captain is also on the deck. The lighthouse and pier of the Swedish port Trolleborg. The ferryboat “Queen Victory” is entering the port. Passengers on the deck are relaxing, reading newspapers. Photographs of Y. Ganetsky and the leader of left social-democrats of the city of Malmo O. Grimlund,, with whom Lenin met during his move from Switzerland to Russia in March-April of 1917. The port of Trolleborg – a quay, buildings. Landscapes of Sweden shot from a going train. A wind mill in the field. Malmo – the monument to Gustav Adolf [a Swedish king and a famous military commander] is in the square. The house where Vladimir Lenin stayed and met with local social-democrats. Pedestrians and children are in the streets and in the parks. The restaurant “Savoy” where Lenin met with the Swedes. The empty restaurant hall, silver dishes. Ancient buildings, the clock tower in Malmo, the railway station – a passenger train is running. Lenin is talking to the American reporter Air. The revolutionary F. Platten is in a carriage of the train going to Russia in 1918. O. Grimlund is in the carriage – in the compartment, in the passage. Spring landscapes of Sweden, the passenger train is arriving in the city of Stockholm. Passengers are getting off the carriages. Stockholm. The Stockholm newspaper “Politiken” dated April 14, 1917. A portrait of Lenin is in the newspaper. A photograph – Swedes are reading the newspaper. The text of the memorandum by J. Buchanan where he wrote about Lenin and the German Government’s attitude towards him. A photograph of J. Buchanan. The French Ambassador to Russia Maurice Paleolog who wrote the memorandum about Lenin. The clock on the Stockholm Town City Hall, the train is coming up to the railway station platform. A photograph – the police agents are waiting for the train arrival. Passengers are getting off, the square near railway station. The Swedish social-democrats meeting Lenin, the Stockholm Mayor Lindhagen, editor of the newspaper “Politiken” Carleson, writers T. Nerman and F. Strem and others are walking along the platform. A photograph of Lenin and O. Ravich, Nadezhda Krupskaya, M. Tshakaya, Inessa Armand accompanying him during his trip. A photograph –Lenin and the others are walking from the railway station to the hotel “Regina”. Photographers and operators are shooting the greeting of Lenin in Stockholm. The photographer V. Malstrem who took pictures of Lenin. The hotel “Regina”, photographs of its rooms. Photographs of Nerman, Lindhagen, Carleson with whom Vladimir Lenin hold a session in Stockholm and signed a joint communiqué. The newspaper “Politiken” with the text of the Joint Communiqué.

Source description 5: Newsreel – a photograph of the hotel “Regina” where Lenin stayed. The Russian Consulate building in Stockholm. They are dispensing food to the Russian refugees in the Consulate yard. Stockholm streets, buildings, shops, people in the streets. Photographs of police agents spying Lenin during his stay in Stockholm. A photograph of Baron Palmschern who wrote down in his diary the message the preparation of assassinating Lenin during the crossing of the Russian border. The train is departing from Stockholm railway station. Photographs of Stockholm. A photograph of Lenin with his autograph. A boundary pillar at the Russian border. The bridge over the Torneo River which connects the Finnish and Swedish coastlines. A custom house on the riverbank. Russian disabled soldiers are getting across the river to Russia by the bridge, carts are going by (Lenin went to Russia from abroad by this bridge in 1917). The Customs in Torneo which belonged to Russia then. The train is going; children are running along the railway. The train is going. Photographs of Nadezhda Krupskaya, G. Usievich, Inessa Armand, O. Ravich, M. Goberman, E. Usievich, M. Tshakaya. Russian newspapers including“Pravda” and others issued in March of 1917. Photographs of Provisional Government members. Military operations during of World War I –bombs are falling, an American ship is sinking, an aerostat is burning, people are jumping to the water from the sinking ship, a plane is burning, gas explosion, cannons. Fanfare players and drummers are playing. Dead soldiers are lying. City ruins of. Frames and photographs – a steam-engine funnel, a train is going, soldiers are in trenches, faces of soldiers and peasants, demonstrations in different cities after the February Revolution.

Directors: Mikosha V.

Script writers: Mikosha V., Firsova D., Moskovskiy P., Lytkin V., Semenov V.

Composers: Savelev G.