Viktor Kotov

In spring 1938 in the mountains in the north of Chile a fiery UFO, later named "Chilean Sphere ", fell down. The investigation of this episode, made by a film crew, has led to a sensational discovery. It appeared that before the Second World War (in the thirties) in the USSR a secret space program had been developed. The Soviet scientists and military authorities managed to launch the first spacecraft 23 years prior to Jury Gagarin's flight! "The First on the Moon" tells about everyday life, heroic deeds and tragedy of the first group of the Soviet cosmonauts. It is the first Russian film shot in a very rare genre 'mockumentary' or 'documentary fiction'.

Petty bourgeois Zhigalovs, whose daughter-in-law Dasha is being extradited, find out to their horror that the official Aplombov, who has been caring for Dasha all summer, has dined every day with them and has proved himself to be his bridegroom, is not going to marry at all.

A celebration of the culture of the Pomors who live around the White Sea.

A documentary about the reopening of Moscow's GUM, the largest department store in the Soviet Union.

A film essay about the daily experiences of schoolchildren across the Soviet Union.

The Arctic operation linking up with the Allies through the Barents Sea and Murmansk.

A documentary on the history of the Red Army, from the Russian Civil War to the end of the Second World War.

War correspondent and poet Konstantin Simonov reminisces about the experiences of Soviet soldiers during WWII.

Documentary recounting the story of the Cuban Revolution and its impact on the young people of Cuba.

Aleksandr Pokryshkin

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.

The Voronezh Nuclear Power Plant reactor; Novgorod’s archaeological excavations. Archaeologist Boris Rybakov on importance of historical science. Lenin’s Materialism & Empirio-Criticism. The first university dept of natural compound chemistry in the Soviet Union, located in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR. Agriculturalist Pavel Lukyanenko develops winter wheat varieties at Krasnodar Research Institute of Agriculture. French physicist Hubert Curien on USSR–France collaboration in nuclear physics. Foreign members of the USSR Academy of Sciences: Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Niels Bohr; theoretical physicist Igor Tamm on nuclear transformations in planetary & meteoritic matter, study of the Moon in relation to the Earth’s evolution. Dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Academy of Sciences. Archival film, photographs, manuscripts, books, interviews from Academy members, explore its role in the development of science, economics, and its prominent figures throughout its history…