The 55 Best Russian and Soviet Films
"Films chosen by 50 russian specialists"
List activity
2.3K views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
38 titles
- DirectorYakov ProtazanovAlexandre VolkoffStarsIvan MozzhukhinOlga KondorovaV. DzheneyevaPrince Kasatsky is a just and proud youth, shock and disappointment with the world bring him to church, he becomes father Sergius. It is a story of his piety and temptation.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsGrigoriy AleksandrovMaksim ShtraukhMikhail GomorovA group of oppressed factory workers go on strike in pre-revolutionary Russia.
- DirectorLev KuleshovStarsAleksandra KhokhlovaSergey KomarovVladimir FogelA five-person team of gold prospectors in the Yukon has just begun to enjoy great success when one of the members snaps, and suddenly kills two of the others. The two survivors, a husband and wife, subdue the killer but are then faced with an agonizing dilemma. With no chance of turning him over to the authorities for many weeks, they must decide whether to exact justice themselves or to risk trying to keep him restrained until they can return to civilization.
- DirectorGrigoriy KozintsevLeonid TraubergStarsAndrei KostrichkinAntonina EremeevaAndrei KaplerOne of the most acknowledged film interpretations of classic short story "The Overcoat" (1842) by Nikolai Gogol, describing a fate of a "small person".
- DirectorAbram RoomStarsVladimir FogelNikolay BatalovLyudmila SemyonovaA married couple have a small apartment in Moscow. When an old friend of the husband's arrives in the city, he is unable to find lodgings. Kolia, the husband, invites his friend to move in with them.
- DirectorBoris BarnetStarsVera MaretskayaAnel SudakevichAda VoytsikA girl Parasha Pitunova comes to Moscow from a deep province, eventually she arrives at a house. This is a story about the house and its inhabitants.
- DirectorVsevolod PudovkinStarsI. InkizhinovI. DedintsevValéry InkijinoffAfter a run-in with the law, a Mongolian man becomes a fugitive and joins the Russian Civil War.
- DirectorFridrikh ErmlerStarsEmil GalSergey GerasimovYakov GudkinA story of a man who loses his memory during the First World War, regains it 10 years after the Russian Revolution and returns home to a new and alien St. Petersburg.
- DirectorBoris BarnetStarsYelena KuzminaMikhail ZharovNikolay BogolyubovOutskirts is an internationally renowned masterpiece of early sound cinema. In a remote Russian village during World War I, colorful and nuanced characters experience divided loyalties: family loyalty vs. personal desire, nationalism vs. transcendent humanism.
- DirectorAleksandr MedvedkinStarsPyotr ZinovyevYelena YegorovaMikhail GipsiA hapless man undergoes misadventures with avaricious clergy, a tired horse, and a walking granary on his road to collectivized happiness.
- DirectorGrigoriy KozintsevLeonid TraubergStarsBoris ChirkovValentina KibardinaMikhail TarkhanovA 1935 USA trade-paper reviewer called it... "an impressive and technically outstanding historical drama dealing with czarist terrorism and revolutionary boiling in the days of 1907. Picture is one of the Soviet prize winners and has particular merits in realistic performance, photography and movement, plus some musical touches in way of folk songs."
- DirectorGrigoriy AleksandrovStarsLeonid UtyosovLyubov OrlovaMariya StrelkovaA musically talented shepherd gets his big chance when he is mistaken for a famous conductor.
- DirectorSergey VasilevGeorgi VasilyevStarsBoris BabochkinBoris BlinovVarvara MyasnikovaThis film is based on the book about Vasili Ivanovich Chapaev (1887 - 1919) who was in real life the Commander of the 25th Division of the Red Army. Chapaev is an uneducated peasant and a decorated hero in the World War I and later in the Russian Civil War, that followed the Russian revolution. This man of action is fighting on the side of the poor people. His troops consist of peasants, just like him. Unable to write, he can brilliantly demonstrate various battle tactics by moving potatoes on the table. He is street smart. He never lost a battle against the experienced Generals of the Tzar's Army.
- DirectorAbram RoomStarsDmitri DorlyakOlga ZhiznevaYuri YuryevThe characters debate the role of free love and free will within the Soviet social and political economy.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinDmitriy VasilevStarsNikolay CherkasovNikolai OkhlopkovAndrei AbrikosovThe story of how a great Russian prince led a ragtag army to battle an invading force of Teutonic Knights.
- DirectorMikhail RommStarsYelena KuzminaVladimir SolovyovValentin ShcheglovAbout the inhabitants of a boarding house run by a tyrannical old woman, described by director Mikhail Romm as a "study of human destinies influenced by Tolstoy and Balzac."
- DirectorYuli RaizmanStarsValentina KaravayevaMikhail KuznetsovD. PankratovaIn 1939, as the air raid sirens sound over Moscow, a young man, Alyosha, falls in love with a telegraph operator called Mashenka.
- DirectorNadezhda KosheverovaMikhail ShapiroStarsYanina ZheymoAleksey KonsovskiyErast GarinA young woman forced into servitude by her step-family gets a chance to attend the royal ball.
- DirectorGrigoriy ChukhrayStarsIzolda IzvitskayaOleg StrizhenovNikolay KryuchkovAn unexpected romance occurs for a female Red Army sniper and a White Army officer.
- DirectorEldar RyazanovStarsIgor IlyinskyLyudmila GurchenkoYuri BelovA new chief of a "Culture House" is planning to hold a terribly boring New Year concert. A group of young amateur actors are doing their best to liven up the concert.
- DirectorMarlen KhutsievFeliks MironerStarsNina IvanovaNikolay RybnikovVladimir GulyaevA newly appointed Russian literature teacher develops a strong connection with one of her flagging students.
- DirectorMarlen KhutsievStarsValentin PopovNikolay GubenkoStanislav LyubshinFollowing three lifelong friends who return to Moscow after military service, we see their aspirations juxtaposed against everyday life in 1960 Soviet Union.
- DirectorGrigoriy KozintsevStarsInnokentiy SmoktunovskiyMikhail NazvanovElza RadzinaAfter the death of the King of Denmark - Hamlet's father - his brother Claudius ascends the throne, who takes his widow Gertrude as his wife. Hamlet meets the ghost of his father and learns that he was killed by Claudius.
- DirectorElem KlimovStarsEvgeniy EvstigneevArina AleynikovaIlya RutbergA satirical comedy about the excessive restrictions that children face during their vacation in a Young Pioneer camp.
- DirectorRolan BykovStarsOleg EfremovRolan BykovLidiya KnyazevaA fantasy story based on Kornei Chukovsky classics about a brave doctor Aybolit and his adventures on the land and on the sea.
- DirectorAndrey KonchalovskiyStarsIya SavvinaLyubov SokolovaAleksandr SurinAbout gentle, tender and proud love of Asya, a lame woman, and the driver Stepan who is a good-for-nothing person.
- DirectorGleb PanfilovStarsInna ChurikovaAnatoliy SolonitsynMikhail GluzskiyA talented girl is trying to find happiness amidst the Russian revolution of 1917 and the civil war that split the nation.
- DirectorKira MuratovaStarsNina RuslanovaVladimir VysotskiyKira MuratovaA maid works for the estranged wife of a geologist who once visited her village and whom she loves.
- DirectorAleksandr AskoldovStarsNonna MordyukovaRolan BykovRaisa NedashkovskayaKlavdia Vavilova, a Red Army cavalry commissar, is waylaid by an unexpected pregnancy. She stays with a Jewish family to give birth and is softened somewhat by the experience of family life.
- DirectorGleb PanfilovStarsInna ChurikovaValentina TelichkinaTatyana StepanovaA film-in-film story set in a provincial town in Russia. Pasha (Churikova) is an amateur actress who plays a witch at a local club, but her dream is to play Joan of Arc. In a strike of luck she is cast as Joan of Arc in a big screen film. Now she is torn between her luck and her love to Arkadi (Kuravlev) who is a married man.
- DirectorIlya AverbakhStarsMikhail GluzskiyMargarita TerekhovaMarina NeyolovaA professor of science dedicated to his work, but alienated from his personal life, struggles to reconcile with his estranged daughter.
- DirectorVasiliy ShukshinStarsLidiya Fedoseeva-ShukshinaVasiliy ShukshinIvan RyzhovA former thief is released from a prison. He tries to start a new life with his penfriend - a good village woman, but his past doesn't let him go.
- DirectorSergey SolovyovStarsBoris TokarevTatyana DrubichIrina MalyshevaA group of Russian teenagers spend their summer at a summer camp. Mitia falls in love and gets so occupied with his own problems that he forgets the others.
- DirectorNikita MikhalkovStarsLyudmila GurchenkoStanislav LyubshinValentina TelichkinaTamara and Sasha were separated during the war. Now (1957) Sasha is visiting Moscow for five days and by chance recognizes the house where Tamara used to live. She is still living there with her nephew Slava.
- DirectorMircea DaneliucStarsMitica PopescuMircea DiaconuValeria SeciuNaita Lucean, a smart and stubborn peasant, opposes collectivization by all means. He instinctively feels that this can only bring him harm, since he would cede the land and cattle raised with so much effort to the state.
- DirectorRoman BalayanStarsOleg YankovskiyLyudmila GurchenkoOleg TabakovOn the eve of his fortieth birthday, a man realizes nothing he has achieved in his life has amounted to very much.
- DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsAleksei AnanishnovEskender UmarovIrina SokolovaDays of Eclipse is filmed in a psychedelic manner close to stream of consciousness using unusual cinematographic techniques. The action is set in Middle Asia.
- DirectorPyotr LutsikStarsYuriy DubrovinNikolay OlyalinAleksei PushkinThe hero is an ordinary farmer, Philip Safronov, whose peaceful life is aggressively interrupted when his land is appropriated by a mysterious group to exploit its oil resources.