Where They Watched Films. Theaters in Belarus.
1908–1910
Minsk • Pinsk • Brest • Vitebsk
By 1907 the movie theater business in the Russian Empire was growing.
Louise McReynolds
Early Russian-language film journals show that once the indigenous Russian film business started in 1908, theaters in Belarusian territory began to flourish.
Minsk Theaters
Minsk, Zakharjewskaja street, Eden cinema, beginning of the XXth century.
Source: https://poshyk.info/kino-history-minsk/
On December 1, 1907 Cine-Phono referred to an Illusion in Minsk.2 On March 15, Cine-Phono called it the Paris Illusion.3 One article said that the Paris Illusion was Stremer’s and Cine-Phono seemed to report the same thing. In June 1908, Cine-Phono wrote that Z. Natanson ran the theater.4 The name of Stremer’s theater is never mentioned.
On October 15, 1909, Cine-Phono said there were four theaters in Minsk, but only named three: The Eden, next to the Stremer theater; the Modern, run by Gold, and the Illusion, as above, run by Natanson. The article does not say the name of Stremer’s theater.5
Cine-Phono reported that the Giant theater would open in Minsk by March of 1910.6 By May 1910 Kine-Zhurnal reported that Giant was the “best working” cinema in Minsk.7
Minsk, Gubernatorskaya street. Beginning of the XXth century
Source: https://blizko.by/notes/samyy-bolshoy-samyy-staryy-i-samyy-nezhuyuschiy-vspominaem-interesnye-i-neobychnye-kinoteatry-minska_vg
Pinsk
Pinsk, Bernardynska street, beginning of the XX century
Source: https://pl.planetabelarus.by/publications/kak-menyalis-goroda-belarusi-stolitsa-polesya-pinsk/
The early journals only mention a Pinsk theater because the only cinema in town closed. In an apparent reference to the October 1909 Stremer theater fire in Minsk, Minskoye Slovo wrote:
"Recently an event happened to us. Our cinema died a shameful death, but not to any one biographer. Surely, the courage of some finally burst. There was already a painful smell, as they say in Minsk, of Stremershchina.”8
We’ll have more on the Stremer fire later.
Brest
Brest, Illusion electro-theater in Kobrinz house. 1910
Source: https://www.realbrest.by/novosti/istorija-bresta/kinoteatry-dovoennogo-bresta.html
Real Brest wrote that the first cinema appeared in Brest in 1909, but the name has been lost.9
By May of 1910, Brest had four cinema theaters: the Illusion, the Fantasia, the Oasis, and the Orion.10
Real Brest wrote that in 1911 there were three theaters: the Illusion was probably in the Kobrintz House and the Fantasy (or Fantasia), in the Birshtein House, both on Shossenaya Street (now Masherov Avenue). The third is only described as “in the fortress.11
Vitebsk
Vitebsk, the building that housed the first cinema, photo by Sigismund Yurkovsky. Late XIXth century
Source: https://fotokrok.org/yurkovsky
In 1905, Vitebsk opened its first cinema, called the Record.12 Today it is called Dom Kino and is the oldest cinema in Belarus.13 In 1907, Cine-Phono reported that there was a theater called the Moscow Electrical.14
Cine-Phono and Kino-Zhurnal reported that by April of 1910, the Illusion, run by Levinsky, was open.15 In October, there was mention of a Lotus, operated by Suzhomilov.16 In November, there is a mention of the Electro-Giant-Theater.17
Other stories say that there were six cinemas in Vitebsk “in the 1910s”: “The Record, Odeon, KinoArs, Illusion, Torch and Art.”18 Another article names the Giant, instead of the Torch.19
Vitebsk News newspaper, 1909
1 McReynolds, Louise, “Russia at Play,” Chapter title: “Tsarist Russia’s Dream Factories”. Cornell University Press (2003), p. 266. Accessed at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/ 10.7591/j.ctv2n7knt. In her footnote, McReynolds wrote “The paperwork for applications and investigations has been maintained in the Moscow City Archive, f. 46.
2 Cine-Phono, December 1, 1907, Issue 3, p.11.
3 Cine-Phono, March 15, 1908, Issue 9, p. 10.
4 Cine-Phono, June 15, 1908, Issue 15, p. 12.
5 Cine-Phono, October 15, 1909, Issue 2, p. 13.
6 Cine-Phono, March 15, 1910, Issue 12, p. 11.
7 Kine-Zhurnal, May 8, 1910, Issue 8, p. 9.
8 Cine-Phono, October 1, 1910, Issue 1, p. 14-15. More on the Stremer fire in a later article.
9 “Cinemas of Pre-War Brest,” Real Brest, 11 Sept. 2021. https://www.realbrest.by/novosti/istorija-bresta/kinoteatry-dovoennogo-bresta.html Accessed March 8, 2025. This article cited V. Moroz and V. Exhelov "From Berestye to Brest: from century to century." Accessed March 8, 2025.
10 Kine-Zhurnal, 1910-04-23 Issue 7, p 10.
11 “Cinemas of Pre-War Brest,” Real Brest, 11 Sept. 2021. https://www.realbrest.by/novosti/istorija-bresta/kinoteatry-dovoennogo-bresta.html Accessed March 8, 2025.
12 Dom Kino updated June 13, 2023. https://www.cbsvit.by/index.php/2012-05-10-07-15-06/gorodskie-istorii/4290-dom-kino Accessed March 7, 2025.
13 Did you know that the first film screening in Belarus took place in Vitebsk in 1898? hhttps://www.sb.by/author/1567039-artemiy-vasilevich-20230412/ Accessed March 8, 2025.
14 Cine-Phono, December 1, 1907, issue 3, p. 11.
15 Kine-Zhurnal,1910-06-08 Issue 10, p. 17.
16 Kine-Zhurnal,1910-10-23 Issue 20, p. 24.
17 Kine-Zhurnal, 1910-11-23 Issue 22, p. 12.
17 Dom Kino updated June 13, 2023. https://www.cbsvit.by/index.php/2012-05-10-07-15-06/gorodskie-istorii/4290-dom-kino
18 Veresek, Anastasia “Where were 11 Cinemas in Vitebsk and why they were special” Vitebsk Courier, 22 June 2020. https://dzen.ru/a/XvC3CjPGuUfgQWVG Accessed March 8, 2025.
19 Cine-Phono, April 15, 1910, Issue 14, p. 20.