Plot synopsis

The film juxtaposes two realities of the USSR in 1937: the triumphant staging of the centenary of Pushkin’s death and, behind this façade, the peak of Stalinist terror, which also claimed a very large number of child victims.

Dekulakization and famine produced a mass of homeless children, whom the state gathered into squalid institutions where they learned to steal and to survive. Because they were completely defenseless, these children also became a prime target for indoctrination. At the same time, a second wave of orphans arrived: the children of the “enemies of the people,” arrested starting in 1937 when the Great Terror fell upon the regime’s cadres and the population as a whole.

The film describes in detail the mechanics of state terrorism. The economy is in crisis, the Stakhanovite movement turns into a political instrument, and the search for saboteurs serves as a substitute for a rational economic policy. An order extends repression to the wives and children of those condemned.

The film also evokes the explosion of denunciations: “to write” now means “to denounce.” In every institution, one employee out of five provides reports to the NKVD. A famous informant, Nikolaenko, sends thousands of people to their deaths before herself being declared insane. In the midst of this darkness, a few figures of courage emerge, such as Mark Maliavko, director of a “special” institution for children of enemies of the people, who welcomes them humanely, keeps siblings together, and forbids them to define themselves as “children of enemies,” only as orphans.

The film ends with the elections of 1937: single-candidate ballots, “purges” before the vote, and the bitter laughter of a few intellectuals in the face of this parody of choice. Thus, behind the great cultural and political spectacle of 1937, a system takes shape whose most tragic product is a generation of children broken by hunger, violence, and ideology.

Commentaries

Сценарии телесериала «Исторические хроники с Николаем Сванидзе», с 1934го по 1953 год. [Scénarios de la série télévisée « Chroniques historiques avec Nikolaï Svanidzé », de 1934 à 1953], Marina ZHUKOVA, Амфора, 2014

- Screenplay

Selected in the following festivals or events :

- Historical Chronicles with Nikolay Svanidze, (kinoglaz.fr), 2026

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