The Unforgettable Year 1919
Encyclopedia
The Unforgettable Year 1919 (Russian
: Незабываемый 1919-й)
is a 1952 Soviet film directed by Mikhail Chiaureli. It is considered an important representation of Joseph Stalin
's cult of personality
.
. The city's High Soviet is demoralized and about to order an evacuation, while the White fifth column inside it plots an insurrection. The Krasnaya Gorka fort
dispatches a detachment of Baltic Fleet
sailors to assist Petrograd, among them is the young Vladimir Shibaev. As the Red Army faces defeat by the Whites, Joseph Stalin
arrives on the battlefield, rallies the communists and routes the enemy, saving the city.
record beyond all recognition". Chiaureli's work was one of the only nine Soviet pictures produced during 1951. With a budget of nearly 11,000,000 rubles, it was also the most expensive film made in the Soviet Union up to that time. In addition, it was the last of Chiaureli's "super-productions about Stalin."
movies from the 1930s.
The film won the Crystal Globe
in the 1952 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
. Olga Romanova wrote that Stalin was not pleased by the portrayal of his youthful self by Mikheil Gelovani
, and therefore did not award The Unforgettable Year 1919 a Stalin Prize; it was Chiaureli's only personality cult film to be denied the prize. At 1952, the Der Spiegel
critic wrote that, in 1919, "Young Stalin stands in white-silk armor and arranges the defense of Leningrad... While the traitors receive their deserved bullet in the head". He added that it was only screened in East Germany.
In 1953, the picture was criticized by the Central Committee
for "having significant shortcomings and lower ideological-artistic merits than those previously released by the director." In the summer of 1953, after Stalin's death, it was removed from circulation.
In February 1956, Premier Nikita Khrushchev
carried a speech condemning Stalin's cult of personality in front of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He told the audience: "Stalin loved to see the film The Unforgettable Year of 1919, in which he was shown on the steps of an armored train and where he was practically vanquishing the foe with his own saber. Let Kliment Voroshilov
, our dear friend, find the necessary courage and write the truth about Stalin; after all, he knows how Stalin had fought." At March, the pro-Stalin protesters in the 1956 Georgian demonstrations included re-screenings of the film in their list of demands.
Peter Kenez
noted that the film was the last made about the October Revolution and Civil War in the Stalinist period. Louis Menashe regarded 1919 as one of the post-war pictures in which "Stalin monopolized all heroism". William Luhr described it as "a highly elaborate and costly production... Another attempt at myth-making... In which Stalin is given the sole credit for crushing the anti-Bolshevik uprising." Ann Lloyd and David Robinson referred to as "the eminently forgettable The Unforgettable Year 1919."
Denise J. Youngblood commented that "as absurd" as Stalin's role was in Chiaureli's last film, The Fall of Berlin
, it still contained "a grain of historical truth... Stalin was the USSR's leader during World War II." But in 1919, he was depicted in a completely a-historical manner: "he was not the head of the party at 1919, nor was he a Civil War hero." John Riley added that during the relevant period in the Civil War, Stalin was stationed in Moscow, where he functioned as the People's Commissar for Nationalities.
Nikolas Hüllbusch, who researched Stalin's representations in cinema, wrote that the portrayal of premier's propagandistic "screen alter-ego" reached its "zenith" in the The Fall of Berlin, and "this development marked its atrophic crisis." According to Hüllbusch, the officially-sanctioned artistic line took a turn already in 1952, and the attempts to use Stalin's figure were frowned upon. Consequently, The Unforgettable Year 1919 and other Stalinist works from that year "had little notability... And were forgotten after the political reshuffle of 1953."
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
: Незабываемый 1919-й)
is a 1952 Soviet film directed by Mikhail Chiaureli. It is considered an important representation of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's cult of personality
Cult of personality
A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are usually associated with dictatorships...
.
Plot
May 1919. The city of Petrograd, the Bolsheviks' stronghold in Russia, is attacked by the counter-revolutionary White Army of General Nikolai Yudenich, who is supported by the imperialist British, and especially by the warmongering Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
. The city's High Soviet is demoralized and about to order an evacuation, while the White fifth column inside it plots an insurrection. The Krasnaya Gorka fort
Krasnaya Gorka fort
Krasnaya Gorka is a coastal artillery fortress west of Lomonosov, Russia on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, opposite Kotlin Island and the Baltic Fleet's base at Kronshtadt...
dispatches a detachment of Baltic Fleet
Baltic Fleet
The Twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet - is the Russian Navy's presence in the Baltic Sea. In previous historical periods, it has been part of the navy of Imperial Russia and later the Soviet Union. The Fleet gained the 'Twice Red Banner' appellation during the Soviet period, indicating two awards of...
sailors to assist Petrograd, among them is the young Vladimir Shibaev. As the Red Army faces defeat by the Whites, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
arrives on the battlefield, rallies the communists and routes the enemy, saving the city.
Cast
- Mikheil GelovaniMikheil GelovaniMikheil Gelovani was a Georgian-Soviet actor, known for his many portrayals of Joseph Stalin in cinema.-Early life:Mikheil Gelovani was a descendant of the old Georgian princely house of Gelovani. He made his stage debut in a theater in Batumi during 1913. From 1919 to 1920, he attended the Drama...
- Joseph StalinJoseph StalinJoseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee... - Pavel Molchanov - Vladimir LeninVladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
- Boris AndreyevBoris AndreyevBoris Fyodorovich Andreyev was a Soviet actor. He appeared in 51 films between 1939 and 1982.-Biography:Boris Andreyev was born 9 February 1915 in Saratov, Russian Empire to a family of workers. His childhood and youth years were spent in Atkarsk, Saratov Governorate...
- Shibaev - Gabriel Belov - Mikhail KalininMikhail KalininMikhail Ivanovich Kalinin , known familiarly by Soviet citizens as "Kalinych," was a Bolshevik revolutionary and the nominal head of state of Russia and later of the Soviet Union, from 1919 to 1946...
- Victor Stanitsin - Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
- Gnat Yura - Georges ClemenceauGeorges ClemenceauGeorges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman, physician and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. For nearly the final year of World War I he led France, and was one of the major voices behind the Treaty of Versailles at the...
- Viktor Koltsov - Lloyd George
- Nikolai Komissarov - General Neklyudov
- Sergei Lukyanov - General Rodzyanko
- Paul Massalsky - Colonel Vadbolsky
- Vladimir Ratomsky - Potapov
- Gleb Romanov - commander of the armored vehicles
- Marina Kovaleva - Katya Danilova
- Angelina Stepanova - Olga Butkevich
- Eugene Morgunov - Anarchist
- Vsevold Sanaev - Boris SavinkovBoris SavinkovBoris Viktorovich Savinkov was a Russian writer and revolutionary terrorist...
Production
The script was adapted from a play by the same name, that was composed by Vsevolod Vishnevsky for Stalin's 70th birthday in 1949 and won the Stalin Prize. Ronald Hingley wrote that Vishnevsky's play "magnified Stalin's Russian Civil WarRussian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
record beyond all recognition". Chiaureli's work was one of the only nine Soviet pictures produced during 1951. With a budget of nearly 11,000,000 rubles, it was also the most expensive film made in the Soviet Union up to that time. In addition, it was the last of Chiaureli's "super-productions about Stalin."
Reception
The Unforgettable Year 1919 was excessively promoted by the Soviet press months before its release. It was watched by 31.6 million people in the USSR, becoming the country's fifth highest-grossing picture of 1952, coming behind four old American TarzanTarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
movies from the 1930s.
The film won the Crystal Globe
Crystal Globe
Crystal Globe is the main award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, first given in the city of Karlovy Vary of the Czech Republic, in 1948.In the international competition of films, IFFKV presents the following awards:...
in the 1952 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in July in Karlovy Vary , Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival gained worldwide recognition over the past years and has become one of Europe's major film events....
. Olga Romanova wrote that Stalin was not pleased by the portrayal of his youthful self by Mikheil Gelovani
Mikheil Gelovani
Mikheil Gelovani was a Georgian-Soviet actor, known for his many portrayals of Joseph Stalin in cinema.-Early life:Mikheil Gelovani was a descendant of the old Georgian princely house of Gelovani. He made his stage debut in a theater in Batumi during 1913. From 1919 to 1920, he attended the Drama...
, and therefore did not award The Unforgettable Year 1919 a Stalin Prize; it was Chiaureli's only personality cult film to be denied the prize. At 1952, the Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
critic wrote that, in 1919, "Young Stalin stands in white-silk armor and arranges the defense of Leningrad... While the traitors receive their deserved bullet in the head". He added that it was only screened in East Germany.
In 1953, the picture was criticized by the Central Committee
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, "Tse-ka", earlier was also called as the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ...
for "having significant shortcomings and lower ideological-artistic merits than those previously released by the director." In the summer of 1953, after Stalin's death, it was removed from circulation.
In February 1956, Premier Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
carried a speech condemning Stalin's cult of personality in front of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He told the audience: "Stalin loved to see the film The Unforgettable Year of 1919, in which he was shown on the steps of an armored train and where he was practically vanquishing the foe with his own saber. Let Kliment Voroshilov
Kliment Voroshilov
Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , popularly known as Klim Voroshilov was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman...
, our dear friend, find the necessary courage and write the truth about Stalin; after all, he knows how Stalin had fought." At March, the pro-Stalin protesters in the 1956 Georgian demonstrations included re-screenings of the film in their list of demands.
Peter Kenez
Peter Kenez
Peter Kenez is a historian specializing in Russian history and Eastern Europe. He also teaches courses on Soviet cinema and an interdisciplinary course on the Holocaust with literature professor Murray Baumgarten...
noted that the film was the last made about the October Revolution and Civil War in the Stalinist period. Louis Menashe regarded 1919 as one of the post-war pictures in which "Stalin monopolized all heroism". William Luhr described it as "a highly elaborate and costly production... Another attempt at myth-making... In which Stalin is given the sole credit for crushing the anti-Bolshevik uprising." Ann Lloyd and David Robinson referred to as "the eminently forgettable The Unforgettable Year 1919."
Denise J. Youngblood commented that "as absurd" as Stalin's role was in Chiaureli's last film, The Fall of Berlin
The Fall of Berlin (film)
The Fall of Berlin is a 1950 two-part Soviet film directed by Mikhail Chiaureli. The plot revolves around the history of the Great Patriotic War, focusing on the role that Joseph Stalin played in the events...
, it still contained "a grain of historical truth... Stalin was the USSR's leader during World War II." But in 1919, he was depicted in a completely a-historical manner: "he was not the head of the party at 1919, nor was he a Civil War hero." John Riley added that during the relevant period in the Civil War, Stalin was stationed in Moscow, where he functioned as the People's Commissar for Nationalities.
Nikolas Hüllbusch, who researched Stalin's representations in cinema, wrote that the portrayal of premier's propagandistic "screen alter-ego" reached its "zenith" in the The Fall of Berlin, and "this development marked its atrophic crisis." According to Hüllbusch, the officially-sanctioned artistic line took a turn already in 1952, and the attempts to use Stalin's figure were frowned upon. Consequently, The Unforgettable Year 1919 and other Stalinist works from that year "had little notability... And were forgotten after the political reshuffle of 1953."
External links
- The Unforgettable Year 1919 on the IMDb.
- The Unforgettable Year 1919 on Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. - The Unforgettable Year 1919 on kino-teatr.ru.