:00:00
"The first revolution,
:00:03
and the counter-revolutionary
period which followed it (1907-1914)
:00:06
laid bare the true nature
of the czarist monarchy,
:00:09
pushed it to its limits,
:00:12
and exposed the rottenness,
the corruption,
:00:15
the cynicism and the debauchery
among the Czar's followers,
:00:18
with the monstrous Rasputin
leading the pack..."
:00:22
V.I. Lenin
"Letters from Exile"
:00:28
MOSFILM
:00:37
Second Artists' Association
:00:45
Russia
:00:54
The Russian Empire is a vast
territory
:00:57
straddling Europe and Asia.
:01:03
A land of 170 million inhabitants,
the largest monarchy in the world.
:01:10
An agricultural country, with
industry only moderately developed.
:01:15
A country of great poets, writers,
:01:18
thinkers, and revolutionaries.
:01:22
A country where two-thirds of
the population is illiterate.
:01:27
A country of enormous
social contrasts,
:01:31
where bureaucracy and censorship
are omnipresent,
:01:33
where the authorities
stifle human rights.
:01:40
The First World War has revealed
:01:42
the patent bankruptcy
of government
:01:46
and accentuated its weaknesses
and internal contradictions.
:01:50
Crushing military defeats have
caused the loss of Poland,
:01:55
Lithuania, parts of Latvia
and Byelorussia.
:01:57
The army was almost out of
ammunition.