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[THE EARLIEST SOVIET MONOGRAPH ON RUSSIAN CINEMA] Kino v Rossii. (1896-1926): Materialy k istorii russkogo kino. CH. 1 [i.e. Cinema in Russia. (1896-1926): Materials for the History of Russian Cinema. Part 1 [of 1 published]]

Likachev, B.

Item #2388

Leningrad: Academia, 1927 (tip. «Krasnoy gazety» im. Volodarskogo). Original photomontage publisher’s wrappers. Loss of the fragment of the spine in the middle, front wrapper is soiled in left bottom corner. Otherwise in good condition.

Scarce. First edition. 1 of 3,000 copies. Text in Russian.
Foreword by Alexey Gvozdev (1887–1939), a prominent Soviet theater critic, scholar, and educator. Photomontage wrappers likely by Boris Leo (1904–1975), a noted artist, poster designer, and cartoonist. Leo contributed caricatures to Odesa newspapers during his student years, later refining his craft at Leningradskaya Pravda. He worked with Literaturnaya Gazeta, Vechernaia Moskva, and Krasnaia Zvezda. During World War II, he remained in besieged
Leningrad, producing frontline illustrations for Na Strazhe Rodiny and co-organizing the Leningrad branch of TASS Windows alongside Vladimir Galba.
A well-preserved copy of the first Soviet monograph on the history of pre-revolutionary Russian cinema written by Boris Likhachev (1898–1934)—a film historian, actor, director, and one of the pioneers of Soviet cinema scholarship.

The book opens with an overview of the invention of cinematography and its arrival in Russia in 1896, tracing early cinema’s close ties to theater and its gradual evolution into an independent art form. Likhachev discusses key milestones in pre-Revolutionary Russian cinema, including the controversy
surrounding The Departure of the Great Elder, a banned film about Leo Tolstoy, and the unexpected prominence of Jewish-themed films during this period. He examines Russia’s first domestic drama, On the People’s Field (now lost), and the spectacular success of 1812, which brought Vereshchagin’s war paintings to life. The rivalry between film producers Khanzhonkov and Drankov—both of whom released films commemorating the 300th anniversary
of the Romanov dynasty—is explored alongside The Defense of Sevastopol, a groundbreaking film that sparked public interest in Russian cinema. Likhachev also profiles leading directors and actors of the era, including Vasily Goncharov, Pyotr Chardynin, Vladimir Krivtsov, animator Władysław Starewicz, Yakov Protazanov, and Vladimir Gardin, the first director of what is now VGIK (the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography). The book concludes with a comprehensive list of films produced in the Russian Empire before 1914 and a chronological index of actors who appeared on Russian screens during this period. The edition is illustrated with over forty rare black-and-white images, including lost film stills from A Purchased Husband and Violin (1911), Mazeppa (1909), 1812 (1912), and The Romance of a Russian Ballerina (1913). Originally conceived as a three-volume study, the second part (covering 1914–1917) was only published posthumously in 1960, while the third (1917–1927) never materialized.

Boris Likhachev (1902–1934) was among the first film historians in Russia. He began researching cinema history and collecting archival materials in the 1920s. From 1927, he lectured on film history at the State Institute of Art History, later heading its Film Cabinet and Laboratory. Under his leadership, the Film Cabinet amassed the largest film studies library in the USSR, with approximately 10,000 items.

Overall, the earliest study of pre-revolutionary Russian cinema.

Worldcat shows copies of the edition at Harvard University Library, Yale University, Columbia University Libraries, Museum of Modern Art, Johns Hopkins
University, American University, University of Chicago Library, and Getty Research Institute.

Price: $450.00