1. Born By The Revolution. Behind The Scenes
Thirty years ago a first and really successful crime series about Soviet militia was released. Love and adventures against a backdrop of true events. Gripping stories about everyday life of criminal investigation department. Bandits and detectives played by brilliant actors. Audience was stuck in front of their TVs during the premiere in 1977. Main parts were performed by Natalia Gvozdikova (Maria Ivanovna) and Eugeny Zharikov (Nikolay Kondratiev). Their love began a bit earlier than shooting period of the series. They tried to hide their romance during work, but one day their secret was revealed. In one scene the character of Kondratiev, shooting the bandits saved his partner Maria. He just needed to cover her with his back, but suddenly they froze in a long kiss. All crew also froze, because this was beyond the script. Many more stories like this one will be told by the filmmaker Grigory Kokhan, Geliy Ryabov, one of the scriptwriters, actors Gvozdikova, Zharikov, Iljina, Filippenko, Mazhuta and others. We can think differently about this film today, and compare it with those, which were released later. But «Born By The Revolution» has one doubtless advantage, which was worded by the actress Nina Iljina: «This series has got the magic of positive origin… People need to believe in something, need to love somebody… And this film was about this magic».

2. Bullet For Divisional Commander, The. The Secret of Schors’ Death
He was called an «Ukrainian Chapaev», his name became a legend in Soviet Union. All Soviet school children learnt a song: «With wounded head and with blood on his arm, the colonel headed with the red banner over him…». This colonel was the famous hero of the Civil War – Nikolay Schors. There are many blind spots in his biography, even his death was also a mystery. This mystery is nearly 100 years old. Officially he was at the firing line, when machine-gun burst cut his life off. Schors’ body was embalmed and put into zinc coffin – what a «luxury» for those times! He was buried far away from the frontline, in Samara. After the film «Schors» by Alexander Dovzhenko was released in 1939, interest to the legendary commander became incredible. Streets and Soviet co-operative farms, ships and forces were named after him. But few attempts to find his grave site failed. Only in the forties of last century the grave was found and the body was exhumed. Schors’ body was preserved quite well. Experts managed to see his face, his beard and moustache, but in a second it all became black because of oxygen. Formal words of experts’ decision said, that the bullet, which killed the colonel, was let out of a revolver! And he was killed in the back of his head. And the shot was made from the short distance. In other words, Schors was killed by insiders, not by the White Army, as Soviet propaganda used to tell us…

3. Only Old Men Are Going to Battle. Birth Of A Legend
He dreamt to be an aviator. He even left for special college in Leningrad in 1943. But his dream couldn’t come true, because the young «aviator» was just 136 cm tall. But he became an actor and made his dream true in the film «Only Old Men Are Going to Battle», where he, Leonid Fedorovich Bykov, worked as filmmaker and played the main part. The film had a thorny path to the audience. During the whole period of creating a film, from script up to filmed material, movie bureaucrats showed their negative attitude towards the film. And only advocacy of two people, Vitaly Popkov, twice the hero of the Soviet Union and prototype of captain Titarenko, and Alexander Pokryshkin, the legendary Air Chief Marshal, became decisive: film about singing air squadron was finally released. War pilots will tell us their memories, actors Paschenko, Fedorinsky, Talashko will tell us how the film was made. This film is still beloved by audience, new generations have also watched it. Because Leonid Bykov made the film «Only Old Men Are Going to Battle» honest and truthful.

4. Russian Mata Hari
She loved glory, money and young men. This country girl had been everywhere, from monastery to circus, from cabaret to royal palaces. She appeared at the best footlights of the world, she was rich and famous. Shalyapin and Sobinov, Rakhmaninov and Kachalov, they all were delighted with her voice. She was the favorite singer of Nikolay II, Ruslanova and Shulzhenko constituted themselves as her followers. She managed to survive during Civil War, because she always had devoted believers, and she never worried what side they were on. She became NKVD agent and led a man who was deeply in love with her to become a killer. Her destiny reminded the one of Mata Hari, legendary spy-dancer… Her name was Nadezhda Plevitskaya.

5. Genghis Khan Descendant, Or Who Are You, Doctor Badmaev?
It is hard to believe that some 800 years ago the Mongol Empire was as large as half of Eurasia, and ancestors of today’s cattle-breeders ruled the whole Europe. But Mongols never forget about this, they just calmly, as real Buddhists, wait for the time when their former glory will return. This is how Genghis Khan, the greatest Mongol, promised. This film is about a descendant of the great conqueror, christened Buryat, Pyotr Aleksandrovich Badmaev. He was the doctor of Tibet medicine, diplomat, concessionaire. There were a lot of rumors, gossips and fantasies concerning him. Some people took him as a great healer and statesman, other thought he was juggler, swindler and spy. Badmaev was a favorite of Alexander III, he fought against Sergey Vitte and intrigued against Rasputin. Badmaev tried to annex Mongolia and China to Russian Empire. Badmaev became Orthodox, though remained a Buddhist. Why? Filmmakers try to reveal the secrets of this extraordinary person.

6. Heroes Are Made. On The Screen And In Reality
This book is rarely released, and film can also rarely be seen on TV. Before «perestroika», the novel «Heroes Are Made» was one of the world bestsellers. Translated to nearly all world languages it reached fantastic edition of 100 millions! Image of Pavel Korchagin became an icon for few generations, and not only for Soviet youth. There were few more screen versions of this novel besides the one released in 1972, where an actor Vladimir Konkin took part and became famous afterwards. In 1942 there was a film by Mark Donskoy. In 1956 – by Alexander Alov and Vladimir Naumov. At the edge of centuries – a film by Chinese filmmakers.
Nikolay Ostrovsky’s novel «Heroes Are Made» is very personal. Like his main character, Ostrovsky was very ill in the end of his life – just his right hand was still working. He suffered from awful pain. A strong revolutionary, he told his friends before his death: «We have made something different to what we fought for…».

7. Stakhanov's Tragedy
This film is about a man, who quitted being himself. Others will think and work for him. Films and songs will be dedicated to him. The town will be named after him. But once he will be forgotten, even by very close people. On August 31st 1935 the miner Alexey Stakhanov mined 102 tons of coal. Next day «Pravda» had written about his labor record and since that moment Alexey Stakhanov became a property of party. One month later he was called out to Moscow, where the congress of foremost workers had been urgently organized. Rare people knew that during this congress there had appeared the concept of «Stakhanov’s Movement» and legendary Stalin’s quote «Life is getting better, comrades. Life is getting more pleasant!» had been born. Stakhanov was taken away from his wife Evdokia and settled in a well-known house at the Embankment. He had studied just three years in church school, but became a people’s commissar. He got to know Vassily Stalin. They had a lot in common despite 16 years of age difference. There were a lot of stories about their nights out. Later, his long-lasting benders became common for him. Stakhanov’s fate was a subject of disposal of Stalin, Khruschov and Brezhnev in their times. In 1970 Brezhnev was very surprised by the fact that Stakhanov was still alive, but yet was not a Socialist Labor Hero. Abandoned by his family Alexey Stakhanov died in autumn of 1977 in Donetsk regional psychiatric hospital…

8. Flying On Screen And Awake
The film «Flying Asleep And Awake» was released in the eighties of last century at Alexander Dovzhenko studio in Kiev. One couldn’t see this film in main cinemas of the Soviet Union. This was an unusual case when people went to suburbs, stood long lines in order to get into a small airless cinema hall to watch this film. The film, which later was named as generation manifesto. «It appeared that Soviet people have sex, grief, love, longing for better life and for real work. And women have love, unanswered, true…Many things which were alien before». These words of Oleg Tabakov, who played the main part in this film, could explain why movie bureaucrats didn’t want to release the film neither to cinemas nor to international festivals. From the stories told by the filmmaker Roman Balayan, actors Oleg Yankovsky, Oleg Tabakov, Lyudmila Gurchenko, Alexander Adabashian and others, we will know how the film was made, what climate was there on the lot.