10 Days Shake the World
1917-1918,
Belarusian theaters stay open
October-November 1917
At the end of October 1917 (this is under the old Russian calendar. Under the current, Western, calendar it was actually early November), the Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government and took power in Russia.
Sergei Eisenstein’s October, made 10 years later, recreated the events.
Poster for October: Ten Days That Shook the World movie, 1927.
This poster is in the public domain in the United States of America.
Poster for October: Ten Days That Shook the World movie, 1927.
Source: https://www.moviepostershop.com/ten-days-that-shook-the-world-movie-poster-1927
“October” or “10 Days that Shook the World”, English Intertitles, 1928.
The Bolshevik revolution gave Belarusian nationalists hope for a sovereign state.
On December 15, 1917 (new calendar), the Bolsheviks signed an armistice with the Germans.
On December 18 under the new calendar, a huge crowd of “delegates, guests, sympathizer and undercover provocateurs” waited for the opening of the All-Belarusian Congress at the Minsk city theatre.
Minsk City Theatre, Beginning of the XX century.
Source: Абецедарский Л.С. и др./Abetsedarsky, L.S. and others Eds., История Белорусской ССР/The Story of the Byelorussian SSR В двух томах, т. 1./two volumes, vol. 1. (1961) Академия наук Белорусской ССР/Academy of Sciences of the Belarus SSR. С. 429/P. 429.
The same image enhanced by ChatGPT.
The All-Belarusian Congress was made up mostly of Belarusian nationalists who were not Bolsheviks.1 Attendees proclaimed Belarus a democratic republic and refused to recognize any other authority on its territory, meaning the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks then disbanded the congress on December 30, 19172 and began to exert control in eastern Belarusian territory.
The political developments apparently did not stop filmgoers. On January 25, 1918 Gomel Life reported that those filmgoers had a chance to see Vera Kholodnaya in one of her last films, Why I Am Madly in Love.3 Neither film historian Jay Leyda’s book, Kino, a History of Russian and Soviet Film,4 nor the book Great Cinema: Catalog of Surviving Feature Films, 1908-1919,5 with contributions by a number of esteemed historians of Russian and Soviet film, lists this film. The Russian cinema website KINO-TEATR.RU lists the title and identifies Petr Chardynin as director and Dmitry Kharitonov as the producer. However, it has no information on the plot.6
Гомельская жизнь/Gomel Life, Jan 11, 1918.
= On 10 January the Art theatre will show a film in 5 parts, Why I am Madly in Love, with the participation of Vera Kholodnaya, Khudolev and Maximov.
= On Saturday, January 13, 1918, in the Art theatre the Gomel professional union of theatrical workers will arrange a grandiose club with dances.
The best lady's mask wins a luxurious prize.
There's confetti and serpentine.
On the stage, the invited artists: Bensky, Neveroi, Charnoveka and Yakovlev will perform the best numbers.
During the dances, the brass band of the All-Russian Union of Orchestras will play.
Starts at 11 p.m. evening.
Theatre and Entertainment
There is one small problem with the article being published on January 11. It says that the theater will show the movie…..on January 10. The fog of war and revolution.
Vera Kholodnaya, beginning of the XX century.
Source: https://odessa-life.od.ua/article/1951-goryachaya-lyubov-odessitki-very-holodnoi
Soviet film historian Nikolai Lebedev wrote that, in 1918, cameramen shot chronical/documentary films in Soviet cities, including in Belarus. One of them was Refugees in Orsha.7 Another was Brest-Litovsk Armistice.8 There was also Peace Negotiations at the Front. The url indicates it refers to Brest Litovsk, where negotiations started in December.
As the Bolsheviks slow-walked negotiating their treaty with the Germans, they also moved to exert more control over Minsk, including taking over the cinemas. On February 14, 1918, the government published a notice in the Minsk Gazette that the government planned to requisition all of the cinemas in Minsk.
Минская Газета/Minsk Gazette, Feb 14, 1918.
The Commissars of Internal Affairs submitted to the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies the following draft decree on the requisition of cinematographs in Minsk.
All cinematographs in the city of Minsk are declared the property of the Minsk S.R. and S.D.
General management of cinematography within the city of Minsk is transferred to the jurisdiction of the education department of the Minsk Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.
All employees and workers are transferred to the service of the Minsk S.R. and S.D. and everyone is invited to remain in their places and continue their work in an orderly manner.
Requisition of Cinematographs
February 14, 1918 was also the day the Bolsheviks eliminated the old Justinian calendar, which ran thirteen days behind the new Gregorian calendar which was used by the rest of the world.9 In any event, the Bolshevik government in Minsk had no time to execute the requisition. The Germans soon were fed up with the Bolshevik delays in negotiations and they moved forward, toward Minsk, on February 18, 1918 (new calendar). The Bolsheviks fled.10 Shortly thereafter, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. Terms gave the Germans control over all of Belarusian territory and all of Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic states.
Fighting, treaty, or not in Orsha, the show continued. The Modern hosted the Kholodnaya film У Камина/By the Fireplace in February of 1918.
In fact, the Modern announced the showing of a number of films, including one with the famous Vera Kholodnaya.
You may again notice that the announcement is for film to be shown the 12-15 of February, but the paper is dated the 15 of February.
Оршанский Вестник/Orsha Vestnik, Feb 15, 1918.
MODERN THEATER (Театръ Модернъ) Luxury program for February 12, 13, 14, 15. Programs change on Mondays and Thursdays
- V. Kholodnaya, V.V. Maksimov and V.A. Polonsky. Staged by the famous artist P.I. Chardynin. The film does not require any advertising, it is enough to look at who is participating in it. From the management: we draw the public's special attention to one of the best films of this season. Solely for the interest and originality of the plot, the luxurious production and the brilliant acting of the actors, all this puts it in the ranks of outstanding films. We dare to note that the management of the Modern theater never advertises films that do not deserve it, and only on merit, so that the public does not make any complaints that the film is not worthy of advertising. Seat prices are higher. From 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
У Камина/By the Hearth/Fireplace
- A luxurious drama in 6 large parts with the participation of all the pride of Russian cinematography.
Announcement: In a short time. time in our theater will be ahown 2 world battles which will overshadow all the pictures that have passed in our theater. The directorate, without stopping at any costs, managed to acquire the following pictures:
Тайны Мадридскаго двора/Secrets of the Court of Madrid
- A luxurious drama in 5 large parts. The picture goes from beginning to end with applause.
ЖУ-ЖУ/ZHU-ZHU
- A splendid picture in 5 large parts. The picture also goes from the beginning to the end with applause. The picture is made up of tricks performed by the African monkey under the name ZHU ZHU.
Still from the film By the Hearth/Fireplace, 1917.
Source: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/У_камина_(фильм)
1 Kasmach, Lizavetta Belarusian Nation Building in Times of War and Revolution Central European Union Press, 2023, p 187-190.
2 Zaprudnik, Jan. Belarus, At a Crossroads in History Westview Press, 1993, p. 67; Lubachko, Ivan S. Belorussia Under Soviet Rule, 1917-1957 The University Press of Kentucky, 1972, p. 22.
3 Newspaper clip from «Киноэхо из прошлого: что видели жители Беларуси сто лет назад»/“Cinematic echo from the past: what the inhabitants of Belarus saw a hundred years ago” Национальная библиотека Беларуси/National Library of Belarus www.nlb.by/content/news/proekt-svideteli-epokhi-belarus-na-stranitsakh-gazet-100-letney-davnosti/kinoekho-iz-proshlogo-chto-smotreli-zhiteli-belarusi-sto-let-nazad/ Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
4 Leyda, Jay Kino: A History of Soviet and Russian Film George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1960.
5 Иванова, В.,и др./Ivanova, V; et al. Каталог сохранившихся русских игровых фильмов: 1908–1919/ Catalog of Surviving Russian Feature Films Новое литературное обозрение/New Literary Review Moscow, 2002.
6 Почему я люблю безумно/Why I love madly https://www-kino-teatr-ru.kino/movie/empire/12515/annot/
7 Лебедев, Николай/Lebedev, Nikolai Очерк истории кино СССР — Немое кино/Essays on the History of Film in the USSR: 1918-1934, Издательство «Искусство»/Art Publishing House 1965. pp. 109-110.
8 Ibid., p. 98.
9 Kasmach, p. x (Roman numeral 10).
10 Rudling, Per Anders, The Rise and Fall of Belarusian Nationalism University of Pittsburgh Press 2014. p. 80.