Catalog Search Results
History Reference Center
Full-text articles to support research in history and genealogy and lesson plans to support student learning.
Language
Russian
Description
Nikita Mikhalkov directs and stars as Colonel S. Kotov, a hero of the Revolution, who is spending the summer in the country with his young daughter (Mikhalkov's real-life daughter), his wife and her eccentric family. But when his wife's childhood love suddenly appears, the idyllic summer day takes a surprising turn. A lyrical film filled with beauty and warmth, it is also an indelible account of a man dedicated to family and fatherland, cruelly destroyed...
2) Russian ark
Language
Russian
Description
A modern filmmaker magically finds himself transported to the 18th century where he embarks on a time-traveling journey through 300 years of Russian history. The first feature film ever created in a single take.
4) Zerograd
Language
Russian
Description
Follows an Everyman engineer named Varakin who arrives in a remote city where nothing quite makes sense, but everyone acts as if it does. He's quickly drawn into the investigation of the suicide (or possibly murder?) of a local restaurant chef, Nikolaev, who may (or may not) be Varakin's missing father. The more complex and absurdist the mystery becomes, the more poignant and plaintive Varakin's predicament, 'I have to get back to Moscow,' he pleads...
5) Tangerines
Language
Russian
Description
The story of awakening humanity in the midst of violence. Nominated for an Academy Award as well as a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language film in 2015. An older Estonian man cares for two wounded soldiers from opposite sides of the 1990s-era war in Georgia.
Language
Russian
Description
Set in the Ukraine of the 16th century, a powerful Cossack chieftain is determined to regain his land from treacherous Polish invaders. Despite bitter dissension in the ranks, he is soon leading his soldiers into savage warfare. But further conflict erupts when his headstrong son, Andrei, falls deeply in love with a Polish girl. Spectacular battle scenes highlight the nonstop action, arriving at a shattering climax in which father and son must ultimately...
7) Come and see
Series
Language
Russian
Description
As Nazi forces encroach on his small village in Belorussia, teenage Flyora eagerly joins the Soviet resistance. Rather than the adventure and glory he envisioned, what he finds is a waking nightmare of unimaginable carnage and cruelty, rendered with feverish, otherworldly intensity by Klimov₂s subjective camera work and expressionistic sound design. Nearly blocked from being made by Soviet censors, who took seven years to approve its script, is...
9) Space dogs
Language
Russian
Description
Laika, a stray dog picked up by the Soviet space program on the streets of Moscow, became the first living being to orbit the earth when she was launched into space on Sputnik 2. Although Laika would not survive the journey, directors Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter trace the persistence of her memory and legacy into the present day. As the capsule containing Laika re-entered Earth’s orbit and began to burn up, the narrator announces “What had been...
12) War and peace
Language
Russian
Description
A painstakingly detailed adaptation of the Tolstoy novel which follows the interconnected lives of a group of Russian aristocrats from 1805 to 1812, including Napoleon's invasion of Russia.
13) Alexander Nevsky
Language
Russian
Description
Biographical story of Prince Alexander Nevsky and his successful resistance against an attempt by the Teutonic Knights to invade Russia in 1242.
14) War and peace
Series
Criterion collection volume 983
Language
Russian
Formats
Description
A titanic, awe-inspiring adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's classic tome in which the fates of three souls: the blundering, good-hearted Pierre; the heroically tragic Prince Andrei; and the radiant, tempestuous Natasha, collide amid the tumult of the Napoleonic Wars. Employing a cast of thousands and an array of innovative camera techniques, the director conjures a sweeping vision of grand balls that glitter with rococo beauty and breathtaking battles that...
Series
Criterion collection volume 146
Language
Russian
Appears on list
Description
Dramatization of love and disloyalty during World War II.
Language
Russian
Description
Based on a true story of the 9th company during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Young Soviet Army recruits are sent from boot camp directly into the war in Afghanistan. Real war is not like boot camp at all. This inexperienced company is sent to defend a difficult position, a task which may be beyond their capabilities.
17) War and peace
Language
Russian
Description
Follows the aristocratic Bolkonsky and Rostov families as Napoleon's armies sweep through Europe, culminating in the 1812 French invasion of Russia.
Series
Criterion collection volume 397
Language
Russian
Description
An evocative, poetic journey through the shadows and shards of a boy's war-torn youth. 12-year old Ivan works as a spy at the World War II eastern front. The small Ivan can cross the German lines unnoticed to collect information. Three Soviet officers try to take care of this boy-child.