Scenes of the Russian Revolution

This silent, black-and-white compilation, assembled by ZIV Television (1947–1964), vividly captures the Russian Revolution (1916–1925) through raw and staged footage. Opening with WWI’s strain—soldiers ford streams, wagons slog, troops pick lice or bandage wounds—it sets a grim stage. Petrograd’s streets boil: crowds surge, shell-scarred buildings loom, and mobs storm palace gates, toppling the Romanov double-eagle. Lenin commands focus—speaking at rallies, cat on lap at his desk—flanked by Trotsky handing flags to Bolsheviks and Kerensky mobbed by citizens. Stalin, Voroshilov, and Kalinin gleam in later Red Square parades (1930s), tanks rumbling. White Guards strut at Alexander Palace; lancers charge; spies face firing squads. Theatrical flourishes—revolutionaries fire from trucks, a Czarist cop shot in a café—blend with real scenes of refugees fleeing ruins, prisoners trudging to Siberia, and kids fed amid chaos. A jagged, potent portrait of Russia’s violent rebirth, it weaves despair, defiance, and triumph into a silent epic.