Космический рейс / The Space Voyage (1936) - Vasily Zhuravlev

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Anticipation of man's trip to the moon, with scientific advice, by the Soviet top authority on the subject, Professor Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, responsible for ensuring that no scientific imprecision occurred in the film, which in fact is prophetic in most of the concepts corresponding to Neil Armstrong's flight, 34 years later. Some theoretical concepts that the film shows, which have not yet materialized, are currently viable for future interplanetary manned missions.

Curiosities & Comments:

This 1936 silent film was banned shortly after its release by the Soviet dictatorship.

The picture was specifically forbidden because of the astronauts' jumps on the moon, done with stop-motion, being considered unrealistic. While the political doctrine of Soviet Realism in Arts was against films from the "Hollywood class" (made inside fake studios), that were considered unrealistic and a false representation of reality and nature, from what I know of Stalin, he probably didn't like the film himself, and so he ordered it banned. Come on, the guy even ordered the director of Soviet Cinema to be executed by a firing squad, on charges of beeing a british spy...

The film was only seen again, during the 1980's, thanks to the Perestroika doctrine.


Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (Russian: Константин Эдуардович Циолковский, IPA: [kənstɐnʲˈtʲin ɪdʊˈardəvʲɪtɕ tsɨɐlˈkofskʲɪj] (About this soundlisten); 17 September [O.S. 5 September] 1857 – 19 September 1935) was a Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory. Along with the French Robert Esnault-Pelterie, the German Hermann Oberth and the American Robert H. Goddard, he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry and astronautics.[2][3] His works later inspired leading Soviet rocket engineers such as Sergei Korolev and Valentin Glushko and contributed to the success of the Soviet space program.(Wikipedia EN)

The scientific consultant of this pioneer sci-fi picture, died before the film was released, in the next screenshot you can see the sci-fi Inertia Dampening used incorrectly in Star Trek, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, beeing done correctly in this 1936 soviet film. I'm referring to a human pilot not feeling the effect of massive acceleration, by beeing submerged in a liquid with the same density of the human body, as to nullify the Inertia Force, a basic law of Physics, demonstrated in recent years by Professor Michiu Kaku with a chicken egg, floating inside water, exposed to a 20 G's (or so) acceleration on a laboratory centrifuge. The egg did not break.


Soviet cosmonauts inside a water chamber, to nullify the rocket G forces

My 18 fps trailer

I reduced the incorrect 24 fps of the russian TV version found on You Tube, to a more natural frame-rate of 18 fps, as it was filmed and projected in 1936, to make my trailer, which has many interesting scenes like:

- The water chamber
- The stop motion jumps on the moon, the official reason for banning the film, until the Perestroika in the 1980's
- Wonderfull miniature hangar with great camera rotation and movement, while in stop-motion
- Women scientists in 1936 (Communist doctrine, which is the world social norm now, but not outside communist countries in 1936, just look at women in Hollywood films from the 1950's)
- Lead boots to help moon walking




This was something I've kept on my radar for a while, but never got around to. I've long been interested in late Soviet sci-fi, and feel like I should give this forerunner a go soon. Based on the historical context, it seems it deserves to be watched. If I keep reading your reviews, my watchlist is gonna spring a leak.