Viktor Stanitsyn

War and Peace

A seven-hour epic adaptation of the novel by Leo Tolstoy. The love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov is interwoven with the Great Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon's invading army.

War and Peace, Part IV: Pierre Bezukhov

As Moscow is set ablaze by the retreating Russians, the Rostovs flee their estate, taking wounded soldiers with them, and unbeknownst to them, also Andrei. Pierre, dressed as a peasant, tries to assassinate Napoleon but is taken prisoner. As the French are forced to retreat, he is marched for months with the Grande Armée, until being freed by a raiding party. The French are defeated by Kutuzov in the Battle of Krasnoi. Andrei is recognized and is brought to his estate. He forgives Natasha on his deathbed. She reunites with Pierre and they marry as Moscow is being rebuilt.

War and Peace, Part III: The Year 1812

In 1812, Napoleon's Army invades Russia. Kutuzov asks Bolkonsky to join him as a staff officer, yet the prince requests a command in the field. Pierre sets out to watch the upcoming confrontation between the armies. During the Battle of Borodino, he volunteers to assist in an artillery battery. Bolkonsky's unit waits in the reserve, but he is hit by a shell. Both Anatol and Bolkosnky suffer severe wounds. The French Army is victorious and advances on Moscow.

War and Peace, Part II: Natasha Rostova

In the end of 1809, Natasha attends her first ball. Andrei falls in love with her and intends to marry her, but her father demands they wait. The prince travels abroad, and Natasha desperately longs for him. But she then meets Anatol Kuragin and forgets of Andrei. At the last minute, she regrets and abandons her plans to elope with Anatol. Bolkonsky hears of this and declares their betrothal is over. Pierre, trying to calm her down, suddenly announces he loves her.

War and Peace, Part I: Andrei Bolkonsky

The first film of a four-part adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s 1869 novel. In St. Petersburg of 1805, Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a rich nobleman, is introduced to high society. His friend, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, joins the Imperial Russian Army as aide-de-camp of General Mikhail Kutuzov in the War of the Third Coalition against Napoleon.

Anna Karenina

The performance of the Moscow Art Theater. Gorky based on the novel of the same name by L. N. Tolstoy, staged for the stage by one of the founders of the theater V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.

The Unforgettable Year 1919

Soviet propaganda film in two episodes about Stalin's strong and cruel suppression of the 1919 anti-communist uprising in St. Petersburg, Russia. Stalin and Lenin are shown as heroes who destroyed the efforts of anti-communists led by White Russians with support from "bad" British capitalists headed by Sir Winston Churchill and Lloyd George.

The Fires of Baku

Dedicated to the development of the oil industry of Soviet Azerbaijan in the background of the first half of the twentieth century, including their selfless work in strengthening the economic and military might of the USSR.

The Fall of Berlin

Surrounded by a few party officials, Alexei Ivanov, a stakhanovist smelter, is decorated by Stalin. The "Little Father of the Peoples" takes this opportunity to invoke threats of war.... One day, war indeed breaks out. Bombs fall on the field where Alexei finds himself in the company of the schoolmistress Natacha, his fiancée. Alexei joins the Red Army and soon becomes a sergeant. Fighting rages and German troops advance. Natacha is arrested and deported. But the tide turns decisively with the German defeat at Stalingrad. Now the major offensive against Hitler can begin.

The Battle of Stalingrad

A 1949 two-part Soviet epic war film about the Battle of Stalingrad, directed by Vladimir Petrov. The script was written by Nikolai Virta.

They Have a Motherland

The Great Patriotic War is over, but Major Sorokin and Colonel Dobrygin still have a lot to do for their homeland. They must go to West Germany in order to find and return the children who were taken out of the Soviet Union by the Nazis and are now kept in atrocious conditions under the supervision of British intelligence. Former allies want to grow real spies out of their children.

The Third Blow

On April 1944, Joseph Stalin orders the Red Army to liberate the Crimea from the German occupiers. The Wehrmacht's local commanders beg Hitler to allow them to retreat from the vulnerable position, but he refuses. After a fierce battle, the Soviet forces destroy the German and Romanian units defending the peninsula and retake Sevastopol.

Guilty Without Guilt

A story based on a classic play by Alexander Ostrovsky,

The Paris Commune

"Paris Commune," 1870-1871. Poor working class in Paris rises up against their oppressors as France is defeated by Germany in the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian war.

Love and Hate

A group of Ukrainian women are forced to work in the mine under the supervision of cruel enemy soldiers. When the soldiers are forced to retreat and decide to blow up the mine, the women organize a guerrilla action to stop them.

Men and Jobs

An American engineer, consulting on a Soviet construction project, inspires a backward and timid new foreman to learn better about his job, assert himself, solve problems and inspire his own men to bring the job in ahead of schedule.

Ranks and People

From his early silent works, the great Russian film director, Herr Yakov Protazanov, made literary adaptations from equally great Russian writers, as is the case with "Chiny I Lyudi" ( Ranks And People ) (1929) in which three short stories by Chekhov, "Anna On The Neck", "Death Of A Petty Official" and "Chameleon" were assembled for the silent screen.