Lenin in 1918

1939 film by Mikhail Romm

1939 (1939)

Running time

130 minutes
105 minutes (cut version)CountrySoviet UnionLanguageRussian

Lenin in 1918 (full film)

Lenin in 1918 (Russian: Ленин в 1918 году, Lenin v 1918 godu) is a Soviet biographical drama film released in 1939. It gives the background of the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution.^[1]

The film was directed by Mikhail Romm with E. Aron and I. Simkov as co-directors. The script was written by Aleksei Kapler together with Taisiya Zlatogorova.

Cast

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)

Production

The shooting started on 10 August 1938 and lasted for eighty-seven days. Shchukin never saw Lenin in real life, but he did intense research, immersing himself in everything related to him. During the production of Lenin in 1918, Boris Shchukin constantly suffered from ill health. Exactly six months after his appearance in the film and while a sequel was being developed Shchukin died.^[1]

International audience

During China's Cultural Revolution, Lenin in 1918 (along with Lenin in October) were the only Soviet feature films repeatedly screened to the public.^[2]^: 196

References

^ ^a ^b Jay Leyda (1960). Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film. George Allen & Unwin. pp. 352–353.
^ Li, Jie (2023). Cinematic Guerillas: Propaganda, Projectionists, and Audiences in Socialist China. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231206273.