Soviet Timeline of Cinema and Culture
(Abridged)
1896
May: First film (Lumière Brothers) presented in St. Petersburg at Aquarium Park
May: Coronation of Tsar Nicholas II – First film footage shot in Russia
1905
Jan: 1905 Revolution ("Bloody Sunday")
Jun: Uprising on battleship Potemkin
1908
Nov: Film control introduced
1909
Sep: Happy-go-Lucky Merchant- Goncharov
(First film with color)
1910
Nov: Death of Leo Tolstoy
1914
Jun: Murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
Jul: Germany declares war on Russia
Aug: St. Petersburg becomes Petrograd
1917
Feb: February Revolution
Mar: Abdication of the Tsar Nicholas II
Mar: Arrest of imperial family
Apr: Lenin returns to Russia
Oct: October Revolution
1918
Mar: Prohibition on cinema closures
Mar: Moscow becomes capital of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
Sep: Declaration of Red Terror
1919
Aug: Cinema nationalized
Sept: State Film School opens
1921
Feb: Widespread worker strikes in Moscow and Petrograd
Mar: New Economic Policy (NEP) introduced
1922
Jun: First newsreels of Kino-Pravda
Dec: Formation of the USSR
1924
Jan: Death of Lenin
Jan: Petrograd named Leningrad
Apr: The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks – Kuleshov
Sept: Aelita - Protazanov
Oct: Kino-Eye - Vertov
Nov: First personal radio connection
Dec: Stalin announces at 14th Party Congress ‘Socialism in One Country’
1925
Mar: The Death Ray - Pudovkin
Apr: Strike – Eisenstein
Dec: Battleship Potemkin - Eisenstein
1926
Oct: First Telephone exchange established
Oct: Mother - Pudovkin
Dec: A Sixth Part of the World – Vertov
1927
Mar:The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty - Shub
Nov: The Great Road – Shub
Dec: The End of St. Petersburg – Pudovkin
1928
First Five Year Plan: Industrialization (1928-32)
Mar: Party Conference on Cinema
Mar: October – Eisenstein
Apr: Zvenigora - Dovzhenko
May: The Eleventh Year – Vertov
Oct: Eisenstein, Aleksandrov, Pudovkin publish “Statement on Sound”
Nov: Storm Over Asia – Pudovkin
1929
Jan: Man with a Movie Camera –Vertov
Feb: Arsenal – Dovzhenko
Oct: First Sound cinema in Leningrad
Nov: The General Line –Eisenstein
1930
Apr: Earth – Dovzhenko
Apr: Film train departs for sixteen months
Nov: Today – Shub
1931
Apr: Enthusiasm - Vertov
1932
Nov: Ivan - Dovzhenko
1933
Second Five-Year Plan: Industry and Communications (1933-37)
Sept: The Deserter – Pudovkin
Nov: The Great Consoler - Kuleshov
1934
Jun: Accordian – Savchenko (First Musical)
Sept: Mosfilm and Lenfilm studios organized
Oct: Three Songs of Lenin – Vertov
1935
Jan: All-Union Conference of Workers in Soviet Cinema
Feb-Mar: First Moscow International Film Festival
Mar: Happiness - Medvedkin
1936
Jun: Grunia Kornakova – Ekk (First Color Film)
1937
Oct: Lullaby– Vertov
Nov: Lenin in October - Romm
1938
Jul: Victory – Pudovkin
Dec: Alexander Nevsky –Eisenstein
1939
Jan: Shumiatskii fired as head of film industry (later arrested and executed)
Aug: Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact signed
Aug: Trotsky assassinated in Mexico
Sept: Germany invades Poland. WW2 begins
1941
Jun: Germany invades USSR
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
REFERENCES
Beumers, Birgit. A History of Russian Cinema. New York: Berg Publishers, 2009.
Leyda, Jay. Kino. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1960.
Mowbray, Stephen. Key Facts in Soviet History. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1990.
(Abridged)
1896
May: First film (Lumière Brothers) presented in St. Petersburg at Aquarium Park
May: Coronation of Tsar Nicholas II – First film footage shot in Russia
1905
Jan: 1905 Revolution ("Bloody Sunday")
Jun: Uprising on battleship Potemkin
1908
Nov: Film control introduced
1909
Sep: Happy-go-Lucky Merchant- Goncharov
(First film with color)
1910
Nov: Death of Leo Tolstoy
1914
Jun: Murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
Jul: Germany declares war on Russia
Aug: St. Petersburg becomes Petrograd
1917
Feb: February Revolution
Mar: Abdication of the Tsar Nicholas II
Mar: Arrest of imperial family
Apr: Lenin returns to Russia
Oct: October Revolution
1918
Mar: Prohibition on cinema closures
Mar: Moscow becomes capital of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
Sep: Declaration of Red Terror
1919
Aug: Cinema nationalized
Sept: State Film School opens
1921
Feb: Widespread worker strikes in Moscow and Petrograd
Mar: New Economic Policy (NEP) introduced
1922
Jun: First newsreels of Kino-Pravda
Dec: Formation of the USSR
1924
Jan: Death of Lenin
Jan: Petrograd named Leningrad
Apr: The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks – Kuleshov
Sept: Aelita - Protazanov
Oct: Kino-Eye - Vertov
Nov: First personal radio connection
Dec: Stalin announces at 14th Party Congress ‘Socialism in One Country’
1925
Mar: The Death Ray - Pudovkin
Apr: Strike – Eisenstein
Dec: Battleship Potemkin - Eisenstein
1926
Oct: First Telephone exchange established
Oct: Mother - Pudovkin
Dec: A Sixth Part of the World – Vertov
1927
Mar:The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty - Shub
Nov: The Great Road – Shub
Dec: The End of St. Petersburg – Pudovkin
1928
First Five Year Plan: Industrialization (1928-32)
Mar: Party Conference on Cinema
Mar: October – Eisenstein
Apr: Zvenigora - Dovzhenko
May: The Eleventh Year – Vertov
Oct: Eisenstein, Aleksandrov, Pudovkin publish “Statement on Sound”
Nov: Storm Over Asia – Pudovkin
1929
Jan: Man with a Movie Camera –Vertov
Feb: Arsenal – Dovzhenko
Oct: First Sound cinema in Leningrad
Nov: The General Line –Eisenstein
1930
Apr: Earth – Dovzhenko
Apr: Film train departs for sixteen months
Nov: Today – Shub
1931
Apr: Enthusiasm - Vertov
1932
Nov: Ivan - Dovzhenko
1933
Second Five-Year Plan: Industry and Communications (1933-37)
Sept: The Deserter – Pudovkin
Nov: The Great Consoler - Kuleshov
1934
Jun: Accordian – Savchenko (First Musical)
Sept: Mosfilm and Lenfilm studios organized
Oct: Three Songs of Lenin – Vertov
1935
Jan: All-Union Conference of Workers in Soviet Cinema
Feb-Mar: First Moscow International Film Festival
Mar: Happiness - Medvedkin
1936
Jun: Grunia Kornakova – Ekk (First Color Film)
1937
Oct: Lullaby– Vertov
Nov: Lenin in October - Romm
1938
Jul: Victory – Pudovkin
Dec: Alexander Nevsky –Eisenstein
1939
Jan: Shumiatskii fired as head of film industry (later arrested and executed)
Aug: Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact signed
Aug: Trotsky assassinated in Mexico
Sept: Germany invades Poland. WW2 begins
1941
Jun: Germany invades USSR
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
REFERENCES
Beumers, Birgit. A History of Russian Cinema. New York: Berg Publishers, 2009.
Leyda, Jay. Kino. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1960.
Mowbray, Stephen. Key Facts in Soviet History. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1990.