Cinematic Discoveries Resonating with the Themes of The German Curse in Russia: Cult Guide

The The German Curse in Russia Phenomenon

The vintage appeal of The German Curse in Russia to reinvent the tropes of cult cinema for a global audience.

Events in Russia from August 1914 until the revolution of 1917 are shown. Subtitles relate that German treachery was responsible for food riots, street fighting, overcrowded hospitals, shortages of war materials and surgical necessities, and the overthrow of the Kerensky government. Scenes include a sea battle in which 14 boats in the Turkish fleet and a German U-boat are destroyed by Russia's Black Sea Fleet; battle scenes on the Dvinski front; a gas attack; a machine-gun attack that virtually wipes out a Russian detachment sent "over the top"; loyal Cossack troops in the Carpathian mountains; Czar Nicholas II and Grand Duke Nicholas conversing; wounded in hospitals; the Duma and the Council of Workmen and Soldiers in session; Nikolai Lenin speaking in the streets of Petrograd; Leon Trotsky; the attack on the Duma; a march of 15,000 anarchists; Alexander Kerensky, Elihu Root, and Root's American commission; David R. Francis, U.S. Ambassador to Russia; and Mrs. Emmaline Parkhurst, an English suffragette and her daughter Christabel meeting Mme. Yasha Bochkareva, leader of the women's "Battalion of Death," who are seen in battle.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The German Curse in Russia perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.