F-8906B

Russia late 1800's early 1900's.
B&W historic footage of three ladies dressed in white wearing big hats walking down steps and getting into waiting carriage with the Russian Czar Nicholas II. They are most likely his three daughters. Onlookers at top of steps as carriage pulls away.
Narrator, unseen, talks about Czar Nicholas II of Russia, upon his ascension of the throne in 1894 promised to uphold principles of autocracy, but failed after the Revolution of 1905 and the defeat in the Russian Japanese War he was forced to form a Parliament.

Nicholas II immediate family on the steps of the palace, including his wife, four daughters and boy. The girls dressed in white are handed flowers by military men. The family stands posed on steps of the palace.

The heir to the throne, Nicholas' young son, is seen standing near a horse with military men.
Unseen narrator speaks of the son as having hemophelia and being hypnotized by the Monk, Rasputin so as to top his blood flow.

The Russian Czar, Nicholas II is seen out in a field with his family and others playing silly games.
Footage of a bunch of men throwing white balls at each other, very haphazardly.

Narrator state Nicholas ruled by divine right, with no talent or competence to lead. He was happiest playing games with his family.

Russian military men marching forward and a parade of Russian military elite marching. Nicholas II's young daughter in the middle wearing a giant hat walking alongside her mom, the Czarina.

Shots of the Russian people of the day, early 1900's, working hard and toiling away. Men pulling long rope by the sea, women peasants shoveling huge mounds of snow and dumping heavy buckets, bending over washing clothes in a snowy river out in the freezing cold.
Narrator unseen talking about the huge gulf between the rich and poor in Czarist Russia.

Var shots of the peasants and poor in Czarist Russia, a forlorn looking man or woman wearing layers of torn clothing, a woman selling cakes on the street.

Czar Nicholas Romanov II in military uniform mounting a horse.
Black lines running through the film.

Circa 1914, the Russian Army marching across a large yard in front of a government building in the bkgd.

Footage of the Russian and German Army battling at war - WW1. Historic footage of the explosions and dead bodies on the battlegrounds. WW1 tanks and explosions with debris flying high in the skies, horse drawn wagons crossing a river, soldiers on the battlefield.

Shots of injured and dead peasant soldiers strewn and laying on the steps of a building in a village. Dead bodies being dumped out of wagons and onto the frozen fields.

Narrator unseen states 2.5 million Russian soldiers were killed, 5 million wounded. Czar Nicholas himself had assumed command of the Army.

Scenes from back home off the battlefield. A farmer manually pushing a horse and hoe across a field, women baling hay. People in the city standing on breadlines. A peasant woman with a baby wrapped up in her coat.

Narrator unseen talking about the poverty in Russia as the war went on.

CU Czar Nicholas II

Tilt down on a mob of peasants marching through the streets of Petrograd.

Ext. the Tauride Palace (Russian Capital building). Int. tilt down on the floor of the Capital, its members milling about on the floor remaining even after the Duma (Assembly) was desolved by the Czar - appears to be time lapsed.

Tilt down on the Petrograd Soviet assembled - hundreds of members are seen

Footage of the President of the Duma, Rodzyank, signing a document handed to him by an unknown man.

WS outside the Tauride Palace, hundreds of people maybe thousands crowd on the steps.

Billowing black smoke in Petrograd by the rail yard, mobs in the street amidst piles of shredded torn up papers - civil records which they destroyed

The red flag (appears black in the film) flying in the wind.

Soldiers (actually armed peasants) joining with people in the streets of Petrograd.
Tilt down on a surging mass of marching people in the streets - packed from one side of the street to the other and moving forward collectively.
Narrator unseen states - the slogan on their banners says, "Right of Citizens"

More footage of the people of Russia or mobs in the streets - they face the camera, some wave.

Diplomats of the newly formed but provisional government of the right wing standing posing for the camera.

Russian Foreign Minister Pavel Milyukov - for the provisional government.

Three Mensheviks, including Tsereteli (in the middle) the moderate Socialists

Russian man getting out of car in the middle of a mob.

Mobs of revolutionary Russian workers and soldiers, the masses, with large banners walking toward camera, not a space between them, in a mass protest

Another revolutionary Bolshevik leader, Leon Trotsky, seen speaking passionately and with great zeal to the people from a train, his arm raising up and down.
Narrator unseen states Trotsky in so many words spoke to "stop the war, confiscate the land, all power to the Soviet."

June 18, 1917 battlefield, canon and explosion. (The renewed war against Germany ordered by Kerensky)

People running haphazardly through the streets of Petrograd.

CU Leon Trotsky

Alexander Kerensky on horseback with his men passing by his Army lined up on sidelines.
A temporary winner, now assuming Dictatorial control.

Man standing high up on a platform addressing the masses gathered in Petrograd.
Armed workers marching through Petrograd.

Out in the country, the peasants gather together. Man unknown, one of Lenin's supporters talking to them (encouraging them to form Soviets and seize their landlord's land).

CU the armed worker's marching by, man pasting (revolutionary) posters to walls in the city - people seen interested in what they say.

Soviet capitol builidng flag blowing in the wind on the roof. Armed Soviets hanging around on the steps and nearby,

The Fall of the Provisional Government, October 25, 1917
Truckloads of Soviet soldiers and sailors in front of the Palace.

Soviet soldiers in uniform frantranizing with the enemy army soldiers hanging out together, joking around, switching hats

Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Commander in Chief of the Army, Leon Trotsky at his desk reading a book. Books piled up around him on the desk and bookshelf.

NY Klaneenan -
Troseen signing a petition.

Leon Trotsky seen with other diplomats walking through the snow - in Germany after walking out of the peace negotiations.

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany walking with his supporters towards camera and salutes.

Vladimir Lenin - outside

Nikolai Tchaikovsky, Russian socialist revolutionary seated and signing papers.

Narrator unseen states he started a anti bolshevik government receiving support from the USA and Great Britain.

Japanese battleship sits in the Harbor of Vladivostok, the largest Russian port in the Pacific Ocean.

Pan Navy troops (could be England or from USA) looking at camera - from on board ship at the Port of Vladivostok

Soldiers marching down the street - a line of people salute them.
Shots of various Armies put together to defeat the Soviets. A total of 14 Armies fought the Soviets.

Photos of the house where the Czar's family were executed.

Tilt down Lenin seen in the midst of a crowd of his supporters.

Narrator states that 6 weeks after the Czar was executed, Lenin was wounded in an assassination attempt, and the head of the Petrograd Secret Military Police was murdered.

WS canons pointing out to sea from the shoreline. Military men stand guard.

Footage of soldiers out on the battlefields. Kolchak orders mass executions of Bolsheviks sympathizers and soldiers.

Peasant bowing to Kolchak. Kolchak kisses a peasant as he gets into an open air car

Vladimir Lenin is seen outdoors speaking to the people - continuing his efforts to socialize the economy and impose dictatorial control.

In the Northwest, soldiers on horses out in freezing cold snowy barren fields. Footage of soldiers loading supplies into trucks and on horses.
WS soldiers seen moving along in the snowy fields on cross country skis (headed toward Petrograd). Battle scenes in the snow, a vintage bi plane flying, explosions from gun fire, soldiers shooting rifles and canons.

Battles on the Crimean Peninsula. the dead being loaded onto ships. More explosions.

CU Vladimir Lenin. WS Lenin standing tall overlooking the mass of people greeting him. Tilt down and pan the sea of soldiers, workers, crammed in to greet Lenin - The "Supreme Genius of Revolutionary Leadership"

End Reel.