Most Viewed From Central Studio of Documentary Films

Made by the highly influential Russian cameraman Roman Karmen, this documentary vividly features Albanian life immediately after the communists came to power in 1944. The film is especially memorable since it’s missing much of the heavy socialist realism that marked Albanian doc making. Shortly after he completed the film, Karmen set off for Berlin to shoot the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.

“The Magic Beam” is a film essay woven together from newsreels and documentary material from different decades, fragments of hundreds of non-fiction and fiction Soviet films of the 1910s-1960s.

A Soviet documentary chronicling the final assault on Nazi Germany’s capital. More than forty frontline cameramen from the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts captured the battle and its aftermath, supplemented with seized German footage. The film records the destruction of Berlin and the symbolic collapse of Hitler’s regime, standing as both a historical chronicle and a work of Soviet wartime cinema.

Children's books, which were considered a luxury in many Soviet families, were sent in large amounts to kindergartens and libraries. The former Rumyantsev Library (now the Russian State Library) had a children's reading room, where children would often choose a book based on the pictures on the card index. Which of the 1960s' writers were especially popular among them?

Comprising two segments, "London Will Not Surrender!" and "Our Moscow", the film showcases the air defense systems of London and Moscow.

The newsreel "Pioneerism" is dedicated to the theme of youth and childhood.

Documentary made for the 60th anniversary of Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein.

The Crimean (Yalta) conference of the leaders of the three powers - allies in the Anti-Hitler coalition was held from February 4 to February 11, 1945 in the Livadia Palace near Yalta.

Documentary portrait of Dziga Vertov, father of documentary cinema.

A Soviet documentary chronicling a single day of the Great Patriotic War—June 13, 1942, the 356th day of the conflict. Filmed simultaneously across all fronts and the home front by 160 newsreel cameramen, and edited by Mikhail Slutsky at the Central Studio of Documentary Films, it offers a sweeping portrait of total war. Released in October 1942, the project captured the Soviet struggle against the German invaders in a single, coordinated day of filming.

Documentary essay about the First Moscow International Film Festival, held in August 1959, about its participants and guests - Soviet and foreign actors, directors who came to the film forum.

On August 24th of 1940 a group of cameramen cross the immense territory of the Soviet Union before it was attacked by Nazi Germany, and capture multiple aspects of life in this new world.

In 1930, during what became known as the Industrial Party Trial, some members of the Soviet technical elite were tried for plotting to form a counter-revolutionary party. This documentary depicts that trial, in which a dozen men are prosecuted for crimes against the Russian Revolution. They promptly confess and are given the chance to address the court with an explanation. Full of remorse, they plead for the opportunity to pay off their debt to society by working. Then they wait for their sentence.

A documentary about the first Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR. The song “Moscow Nights” was written by the composer Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy to the lyrics by Mikhail Matusovsky especially for the event and later gained fame all across the country. In the movie it is performed by Vladimir Troshin, a Moscow Art Theatre actor.

Lenin Is Alive!

A documentary about the aviation holiday in Tushino on July 27, 1952.

Documentary film about early years of Russian cinema: its first directors, cameramen, producers and actors. Includes rare fragments of pre-revolutionary feature films, newsreels and Starewicz's animation.

Film-ballet written by composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The authors of the movie tell the story of the ballet's creation, as well as about various stage productions with the participation of outstanding performers of the role of Odette-Odile. The movie includes fragments of the ballet staged by choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.