The Sailors of Kronstadt

The Sailors of Kronstadt (Russian: Мы из Кронштадта) is a 1936 Soviet drama war film directed by Efim Dzigan.^[2][3][4][5]

The Sailors of Kronstadt
Russian poster
Russian: Мы из Кронштадта
Directed by	Efim Dzigan
Written by	Vsevolod Vishnevskiy
Starring	Vasiliy Zaychikov Georgi Bushuyev Nikolay Ivakin Oleg Zhakov Raisa Yesipova
Cinematography	Naum Naumov-Strazh
Release date	20 March 1936 (1936-03-20)[1]
Running time	91 min.
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

Plot

The film tells about the confrontation of the sailors of the Baltic Fleet and the Yudenich formations, which besiege Petrograd.

Cast

• Vasiliy Zaychikov as Commissar Vasili Martinov (as Vasili Zajchikov)
• Georgi Bushuyev as Artyom Balashov
• Nikolay Ivakin as A Red Army Soldier
• Oleg Zhakov as Regiment Commander Draudin
• Raisa Yesipova as Mademoiselle
• Pyotr Kirillov as Seaman Valentin Bezprozvanny
• E. Gunn as Seaman Anton Karabash
• Mikhail Gurinenko as Misha, the cabin boy (as Misha Gurinenko)
• Fyodor Seleznyov as A White Army Soldier (as F. Seleznyov)
• Pyotr Sobolevsky as A Lieutenant^[6]

Reception

Writing for The Spectator in 1937, Graham Greene gave the film a good review, characterizing it as being "in the tradition of boys' stories, full of last charges and fights to the death, heroic sacrifices and narrow escapes, all superbly directed", and summarizing it as an "unusual mixture of poetry and heroics". Identifying moments of humour and pathos, Greene claimed that a Fordian poetic sense (i.e. not melodic arrangement, but moral composition) had thoroughly "impregnated" the film "from the first shot to the last", and that the writing resonated with Chekhov's definition of the novelist's purpose, "life as it is: life as it ought to be".^[7] Greene would return several months later to re-review the film for Night and Day where he again claimed that it was "the best film to be seen in London". Describing the film as somewhat propagandistic, Greene noted that "what makes the film immeasurably superior to its rivals is the strain of adult poetry, the sense of human beings longing for peace".^[8]

References

1. Peter Rollberg (2009). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. US: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 745. ISBN 978-0-8108-6072-8.
2. Смоляне в сталинском кинематографе. Часть I
3. Ко Дню ВМФ в Южном Тушине пройдут бесплатные кинопоказы
4. Кинотеатр «Родина» покажет кино о революции
5. В «Родине» стартовал марафон революционного кино
6. Мы из Кронштадта (1936) Full Cast & Crew
7. Greene, Graham (26 February 1937). "We from Kronstadt". The Spectator. (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. Oxford University Press. pp. 133–135. ISBN 0192812866.)
8. Greene, Graham (1 July 1937). "We from Kronstadt/The Frog/Make Way for Tomorrow/Der Herrscher". Night and Day. (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. Oxford University Press. p. 150. ISBN 0192812866.)

External links

• The Sailors of Kronstadt at IMDb