Eisenstein's Masterpiece

The Battleship Potyomkin premiered at the Bolshoi Theater on December 21, 1925, to great fanfare. Still in his twenties, its director, Sergei Eisenstein, was already famous.

The film’s release was timed to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the Revolution of 1905, and the initial plan was for it to include a number of famous events from those tumultuous times. However, due to various technical difficulties and time constraints, the scope of the film had to be narrowed, and it wound up focusing on the uprising by sailors of the Black Sea Fleet. The filmmaker used his genius to create the impression that this rebellion was, perhaps, the revolution’s pivotal moment.

The Revolution of 1905 was a fascinating episode in Russian history, one that has been little understood. In fact, for a long time its history has been distorted.