Loading article…
The End of St. Petersburg (Russian: Конец Санкт-Петербурга, romanized: Konets Sankt-Peterburga) is a 1927 silentdrama film directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin and produced by Mezhrabpom.[1][2][3] Commissioned to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution, The End of St Petersburg was to be one of Pudovkin's most famous films and secured his place as one of the foremost Sovietmontagefilm directors. A historical-political film, it covers a period from 1913-1917, including the injustice of the Tsar regime, the First World War, and the Bolsheviks's rise to power in 1917.
Political figures of the time are not shown; the emphasis is on the struggle of ordinary people for their rights and for peace against the power of capital and the autocracy. The film forms part of Pudovkin's 'revolutionary trilogy', alongside Mother (1926) and Storm Over Asia (aka The Heir to Genghis Khan) (1928). The film inspired the composer Vernon Duke to write his eponymous oratorio (completed in 1937).
A peasant boy leaves his rural community and arrives in St. Petersburg to obtain employment. He stays in the basement apartment of a Bolshevik worker. When the workforce at the Lebedev factory goes on strike, the Bolshevik worker's wife fears their family will starve.
The boy is offered a job in the Lebedev factory. He naively tells the management which employees started the strike, and he leads them to the Bolshevik worker's home. This results in the Bolshevik worker and his fellow communists being arrested. The boy is shocked by the consequences of his actions.
The boy goes to the factory office, hoping to convince the boss to free the Bolshevik worker. After a violent fight with the management, the boy is arrested and forcibly enlisted in the Imperial Russian Army. Meanwhile, the aristocracy decides to enter World War I.
戦争は3年間続き、その間にロシア軍は多くの犠牲者を出した。1917年、帝政政府は国民への食糧供給よりも兵器製造を優先し、飢餓に苦しむ市民が暴動を起こした。皇帝は打倒され、臨時政府が樹立され、上流階級は歓喜した。
労働者階級は資本家大臣を打倒することを決意する。ロシア兵は臨時政府を支援し、「革命を共産主義の裏切り者から救う」ために前線から呼び戻される。兵士たちが都市への進軍準備を整える中、ボリシェヴィキの労働者が現れる。少年が現れ、前線へと進み、兵士たちに武器を下ろすよう命じ、兵士たちはそれに従う。ボリシェヴィキの労働者は軍を説得し、ソビエトの大義に加わらせる。
ソ連軍は冬宮殿を攻撃し、激しい戦闘の末に勝利を収める。翌朝、妻は夫を探しにやってくる。彼女は兵士たちとジャガイモを分け合い、負傷した少年の手当てをする。そして教会で夫と再会し、喜びを分かち合う。映画は「サンクトペテルブルクはもはや存在しない」「レーニンの街万歳」と宣言する。
