(John Naughton’s article appeared on Russia Beyond the Headlines, 12/3.)
HISTORIC FILMS FROM RUSSIAN STATE ARCHIVES TO BE RELEASED WORLDWIDE
The home movies of the last of the Romanov emperors, shot before revolution changed Russia forever, are housed alongside footage recording the Gulag prison camps of the 1930s, the wartime siege of Leningrad, scenes from Gagarin's epic space flight, Bolshoi Ballet performances and rarely seen images of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and thousands of other priceless film footage cared for by the Russian State Archive.
Housed in a guarded nondescript industrial building on the outskirts of Moscow, the Archive is an immense treasure trove of film and video documenting the history and culture of the country from the time of the tsars to the break-up of the Soviet Union. Scarcely any of this vast quantity of more than two million items, including 138,000 documentaries, has ever been seen in the West, but that’s about to change thanks to the dynamism and determination of one man: Anthony Gould.
Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines – http://rbth.com/arts/2014/12/03/historic_films_from_russian_state_archives_to_be_released_worldwide_41915.html)