Their country may have been occupied
But Belarusians still went to the movies
1919-1920
On August 27, 1919, Lenin nationalized the cinema in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). While this is sometimes considered a historic day, film historian Richard Taylor wrote that there was little to nationalize: “This was in any case only the beginning of a centralized film industry for there was little equipment left for production, the distribution network had broken down, and the cinemas themselves were in bad repair.1
Film historian Vance Kepley, Jr. points out that the decree was one of many nationalization decrees that Lenin signed. Lenin later said he had signed so many decrees under “War Communism” that it was difficult for the government to keep track of and enforce them.2
Lenin created the All-Russian Photo and Cinema Department, or VFKO (russian abbreviation), under the Commissariat of Education, to implement the nationalism decree.3 As we shall see later, the VFKO quickly showed it was not built to handle the task of reviving cinema in Russia and the areas under Russian control. Its successor planted the seeds for Belarusian state cinema.
The text of Lenin’s order states that it only refers to Russia.4 At that time, Poles controlled a great deal of Belarusian territory.
Despite the fighting and occupation, there was some sense of normality in the cities. In Minsk, on January 1, 1920, the Belarusian Gazette ran advertisements reporting that the Modern would show the well-respected film Father Sergius, starring Ivan Mozzhukhin and his wife, Natalia Lisenko.
Belarus Gazette, 1 January 1920.
Source: National Library of Belarus.
Modern → Father Sergius
by L.H. Tolstoy with actors Mozzhukhin and Lisenko
Lux → In the Eagle’s Claws
The same ad reported that the Lux cinema would show the film In the Claws of the Eagle, in which two monkeys — Jacques and Coco, play the lead roles.
January 1920 was a busy month in Minsk cinemas. On January 4, the Modern began showing The Mystery of the Mine, of which we can find no record. The Lux showed the suspensefully named In The Shackles of Mystery, of which we can also find no record.
Belarus Gazette, 4 January 1920.
Source: National Library of Belarus.
Modern → The Mystery of the Mine
Lux → In The Shackles of Mystery
A few days later, both theaters changed shows. On January 6, the Modern ran The American Zigomar (Ravengar), which was probably part of the the serial, The Shielding Shadow, whose villain was named Ravengar. It was a Pathé film and was known in France as Ravengar.5 Zigomar was one of a series of several French films based up a Yugoslavian masked hero. On the same day, the Lux ran "an original farce" called In The Shackles of Mystery, starring Baranshevski, Pavlova, and Strizenski. We have not been able to any film in which all three starred.
On January 10, the two theaters reversed places in the ad, even though they were showing the same films. The Modern still ran The American Zigomar (Ravengar) and the Lux still ran In the Shackles of Mystery
Belarus Gazette, 6 January 1920.
Source: National Library of Belarus.
Modern → The American Zigomar (Ravengar)
Lux → In the Shackles of Mystery
Belarus Gazette, 10 January 1920.
Source: National Library of Belarus.
Lux → In the Shackles of Mystery
Modern → The American Zigomar (Ravengar)
The (New York) Evening World, The Shielding Shadow poster.
Source: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
By January 14, 1920, Zigomar and Protea were still at the Modern. The Lux was running Convict Number 17. This was one of a number of the German made series about American detective Joe Jenkins. A number of German actors played the detective, including Prof. Leon Rains (1917)6 and Curt Brenkendorf (1918-1919).7 None of the sources of early German films, including filmportal.de, lists any title of the Joe Jenkins films that indicate anything about a prison or convict.
Belarus Gazette, 14 January 1920.
Source: National Library of Belarus.
Modern → Zigomar | Courier from Washington and Protea
Lux → Convict Number 17
A detective drama in 6 big parts from the life of the famous detective
In February, we find more "new" pictures. That is, we have not seen these names before, so we cannot tell whether they are newly produced or some of the older films that theater owners had kept through the war. On February 13, the Modern was running The Mystery of the Seabed, and the Lux was running The Countess and the Artist.
Belarus Gazette, 13 February 1920.
Source: National Library of Belarus.
Modern → Mystery of the Seabed
Lux → The Countess and the Artist
In March of 1920, the Modern ran a film named The Adventures of Don Juan. There were several early Don Juan movies, some of which did not even use Don Juan in the title, so it is almost impossible to track down this one. The Lux ran an actual Zigomar film, not "the American Zigomar" that the Modern ran in January. It also ran Protea, a French film about a female spy. Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset directed both Protea, and two Zigomar movies.8
Belarus Gazette, 8 March 1920.
Source: National Library of Belarus.
Modern → The Adventures of Don Juan
Lux → Zigomar and Protea
On March 17, 1920, when Polish forces still would have occupied the city, the Belarus Gazette, ran ads for the same two theaters. The Modern was showing a film called Black Tailcoat. The Lux was not operating, and the ad reported that theater is temporarily closed due to renovations.
Belarus Gazette, 17 March 1920.
Source: National Library of Belarus.
Modern → Black Tailcoat
Lux → The theatre is temporarily closed due to renovations
Two days later, on the 19th, the Gazette ran ad for a film advertised as Bocaccio’s Decameron, although it was probably the 1920 Austrian film entitled simply Boccacio.9 No matter the name, it was playing at the Modern. The Illusion was screening Cabiria, which had been popular a few years earlier, and the Lux promised a new program “today.”
Belarus Gazette, 19 March 1920.
Source: National Library of Belarus.
Modern → Bocaccio’s Decameron
Illusion → Cabiria
Lux → New program today
When Russia dissolved the recently created Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus in early 1919 in order to create the short-lived Lit-Bel republic, it re-configured the eastern borders. Vitebsk, which had been part of the SSRB, became part of Russia. In May 1920, employees of the Film and Photo Section of Vitebsk province established their own film production organization. During the Week of the Labor Front they filmed railway repair work carried out by troops of the 15th Red Army on the bank of the Western Dvina River.10
Belarus Gazette, 19 June 1920.
Source: National Library of Belarus.
Modern → Yellow Triangle Club
Illusion → A Woman’s Struggle or The Triumph of Happiness
By June, the Gazette was not listing the Lux in its ads…only the Modern and Illusion.
1 Taylor, Richard. “A Medium for the Masses: Agitation in the Civil War.” Soviet Studies, Vol 22, No. 4 (Apr. 1971), pp. 562-574, p. 565.
2 Kepley, Vance Jr. “Soviet Cinema and State Control; Lenin’s Nationalization Decree Reconsidered.” Journal of Film and Video, Vol. 42, No. 2 Summer 1990 pp. 3-14. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20687894
3 Калашникова, Ю. С. и друг/ Kalishnikova, Y.S., and others Очерки Истории Советского Кино, 1917-1934/Essays of the History of Soviet Movies, 1917-1934. Государственное Издательство Искусствоб /State Publishing House Art 1956 с. 29/p 29.
4 Kepley, Vance Jr. “Soviet Cinema and State Control; Lenin’s Nationalization Decree Reconsidered.”
5 “S…is for The Shielding Shadow” Norman Studios Online Museum https://normanstudios.org/nsdrc/project/s-is-for-the-shielding-shadow/ Accessed 13 Sept. 2025.
6 Lichtbuild Buhne No. 12. 24 Marz 1917/24 March 1917, p.22 Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/lichtbildbuhne-1917-03/page/n269/mode/2up?view=theater Accessed 13 Sept. 2025.
7 Der Kinematograph No 583 27 Marz 1918/6 March 1918, p. 24 Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/kinematograph-1918-03/page/39/mode/2up?view=theater Accessed 13 Sept. 2025.
8 Victorin Hippolyte-Jasset IMDB hhttps://www.imdb.com/name/nm0419327/ Accessed 13 Sept. 2025.
9 There is also a 1914 British film, Count Anguersa, that is based on the Decameron. “Boccacio in Films,” Motion Picture News, June 20, 1914, p. 36, and 1917 American film, “A Tale from the Decameron” listed in an ad in Motion Picture News, January 20, 1917, p. 363.
10 Шамякин, И.П., Ред./Shamyakin, I.P, Ed. Энциклопедия Белорусской ССР /Byelorussian SSR Encyclopedia Minsk, 1981. V. 4. Cited in https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/кинематограф_белоруссии#cite_note-бсср-кэ-1. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024; Красинский, А. В. и друг./Krazinsky, A.V, and others, История Белорусского Кино, 1926-1945/History of Belarusian Cinema 1926-1945 1969 Издательство Наука и Техника /Science and Technology Publishing House Минск/Minsk стр. 16/p. 16.