Online Edition

Between 1922 and 1925, a total of 23 issues of Dziga Vertov's newsreel series Kino-Pravda (Kino-Truth) appeared (albeit irregularly and in very few copies). Vertov's goal was to create a kind of "screen newspaper"; the title is a tribute to the newspaper Pravda founded by Lenin. Just like the Kinonedelja newsreel series (1918–19), the Kino-Pravda issues offer a fascinating insight into the early Soviet Union and demonstrate the rapid development of Vertov's film language.

The 22 surviving issues (No. 12 is lost) have been digitized and subtitled in German and English by the Austrian Film Museum in 2017/18 and are available online since 2018.

>>> Credits
>>> Literature references
>>> Yuri Tsivian on Kino-Pravda:
Introduction | 1–9 | 10-14 | 15-19 | 20-23

Kino-Pravda No. 1

Issue Daten: June 5, 1922

Video Duration: 11 min 02 sec

Starving children / Requisitioning of valuables possessed by the Russian Orthodox Church / Fundraising flights in support of the hungry / Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries

Kino-Pravda No. 2

Issue Daten: June 12, 1922

Video Duration: 10 min 53 sec

Opening of an electric generating station / Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries

Kino-Pravda No. 3

Issue Daten: June 22, 1922

Video Duration: 7 min 32 sec

Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries / Demonstrators carrying banners

Kino-Pravda No. 4

Issue Daten: July 1, 1922

Video Duration: 9 min 34 sec

Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries / Motor race Moscow – Sevastopol' / Barges loaded with grain are sent to the starving in the provinces / The Caucasus and its resorts

Kino-Pravda No. 5

Issue Daten: July 7, 1922

Video Duration: 8 min 16 sec

Peasant People's Commissar for Agricultural Affairs, Vasilij Jakovenko / Health resort Soči / Sanatorium for children / Harness racing – The first Red Derby

Kino-Pravda No. 6

Issue Daten: July 14, 1922

Video Duration: 6 min 24 sec

Streetcar collision / Arms manufacturing plant resumes operation / Assembling an automobile / Bicycle and motorcycle races / A parade of Red Army armored units and an attack exercise

Kino-Pravda No. 7

Issue Daten: July 25, 1922

Video Duration: 11 min 29 sec

Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries / Rebuilding of the destroyed Siberian village of Taseevo / Railroad station Sljudjanka / Abandoned mica pits near Lake Baikal / Soči health resort / Chudjakovskij-Park / Beach near Tuapse / The loading of silk / Afghanistan, Kabul / Peacetime use of tanks / Mountain road / Chapel in the Caucasus

Kino-Pravda No. 8

Issue Daten: August 15, 1922

Video Duration: 14 min 36 sec

A bet is placed on the outcome of the trial / Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries / The verdict / People in streetcars and on the street / A crashed aircraft / Reconstruction of streetcar line 13 / Peacetime use of tanks – airport construction work

Kino-Pravda No. 9

Issue Daten: August 25, 1922

Video Duration: 13 min 46 sec

Congress of the "Living Church" / Opening of the racing season / Demonstration of an American movie camera / Operation of mobile projection units

Kino-Pravda No. 10

Issue Daten: Early September 1922

Video Duration: 15 min 38 sec

International Youth Day and demonstrations / All-Russian Olympiad / Streetcar collision / Construction of automobiles in a Petrograd factory

Kino-Pravda No. 11

Issue Daten: October 5, 1922

Video Duration: 18 min 19 sec

All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions / Delegations and diplomats / Renaming of a confectionery factory / Unloading supplies / Komsomol Day / Red Army maneuvers

Kino-Pravda No. 13

Issue Daten: November 1922

Video Duration: 36 min 32 sec

Fifth anniversary of the October Revolution

Kino-Pravda No. 14

Issue Daten: Premiere: January 29, 1923

Video Duration: 13 min 47 sec

IV. Congress of the Comintern / Congress of the Profintern

Kino-Pravda No. 15

Issue Daten: Spring (?) 1923

Video Duration: 22 min 4 sec

Against war / Against Gods / Education / Agitation / Sports and gymnastics / Danger of war

Kino-Pravda No. 16

Issue Daten: May 1923 (Premiere: May 21, 1923)

Video Duration: 26 min 24 sec

Arts and crafts exhibition / Actions against hunger / Eisenstein's "Dnevnik Glumova" / Young Pioneers / May 1, parades

Kino-Pravda No. 17

Issue Daten: Mid/End of August (?) 1923

Video Duration: 16 min 12 sec

Hunger and harvest / The alliance between city and country / First All-Russian Agricultural and Craft Exhibition: On the way to the exhibition, construction work and preparations, exhibits, map of the exhibition, visitors

Kino-Pravda No. 18

Issue Daten: February 1924 (Premiere: February 25, 1924)

Video Duration: 13 min 51 sec

Up the Eiffel Tower in Paris / Moscow / Auto race Petrograd – Moscow / Aspects of everyday Soviet life / Peasant from Jaroslavl' visiting Moscow / Ceremonial introduction of a newborn into a workers' collective

Kino-Pravda No. 19

Issue Daten: May 1924

Video Duration: 17 min 22 sec

Connecting city and country, south and north, summer and winter, peasant women and worker women / Emancipation of women in the USSR

Kino-Pravda No. 20

Issue Daten: End of 1924

Video Duration: 15 min 56 sec

Reports of the Pioneers: Excursion to the country, to the zoo etc.

Kino-Pravda No. 21

Issue Daten: January 21, 1925

Video Duration: 32 min 28 sec

First anniversary of Lenin's death: 1. Assassination attempt on Lenin and Soviet Russia's progress under his leadership / 2. Lenin's illness, death and funeral / 3. The year after Lenin's death

Kino-Pravda No. 22

Issue Daten: March 13, 1925

Video Duration: 19 min 24 sec

First anniversary of Lenin's death / Smychka - the "alliance" of the city and the village: a group of peasants on their visit to Moscow / Lenin's effect on peasants and oppressed nations

Kino-Pravda No. 23

Issue Daten: 1925

Video Duration: 20 min 03 sec

A peasant buys a receiver at the radio shop / Instructions to attach an antenna / Developing a broadcast station / The broadcasting of a concert.