Inside The Gates Of Soviet Russia (1920-1921)

Title - ’Inside the Gates of Soviet Russia!’ Intertitle - ’Pathe News presents a series of the first pictures taken since the beginning of the Bolshevik rule showing conditions of peasant life in Soviet Russia. George Ercole, Pathe News cameraman (right), is accompanied by Arthur Ransome, noted journalist, on his trip across the Latvian-Russian border’. CU of the two men with train in background. MS of the pair talking to military officer. MS as they walk towards camera past line of Soviet soldiers and get on train. MS train pulling away. Intertitle - ’Owing to the disastrous failure of the annual grain crop, famine ravages large areas - villages are found deserted by inhabitants seeking food in the towns’. MS pan on deserted village. CU deserted farm. Intertitle - ’Groups of the refugees gathered along the banks of the Volga present a piteous spectacle of poverty and desolation’. MS pan from across Volga river of refugees walking on other side. MS pan refugees sitting on ground with bundles of clothing etc, a little boy has blanket or big jacket around him. MS more refugees by docks with furniture and pots, pans and samovar. Intertitle - ’The children and old folk must be fed first’. CU as woman squats by pot; stirring food. MS a few other women cooking, a woman kneels with arms round toddler. Pan across area where different families are gathered round ready to eat; steam and smoke coming from food and fires. 5 people share soup from pot. Intertitle - ’The towns are overrun by the starving hordes from the villages: the Soviet Government provides Red Army tents for the refugees’. MS Refugee camp with tents; family with 2 small children in foreground. CU woman and child at tent entrance. Intertitle - ’The dead and living side by side - camp cemeteries are built close to the camp colonies’. Shot of people and tents; with cemetery in background. Closer of cemetery; with wooden crosses. Intertitle - ’Rolling villages of freight-cars are another emergency means of housing the homeless peasants’. Various shots refugees alongside train. Then shot on train platform; man splitting wood in foreground. Title - ’The heart of the world has heard the cry of the millions of hungry Russian children and America has been first to answer their call!’. MS group of children looking tired hungry and worried. MS more children. CU’s children looking tragic. See also ON 246 B; ON 495 Q. FILM ID: A VIDEO FROM BRITISH PATHÉ. EXPLORE OUR ONLINE CHANNEL, BRITISH PATHÉ TV. IT’S FULL OF GREAT DOCUMENTARIES, FASCINATING INTERVIEWS, AND CLASSIC MOVIES. FOR LICENSING ENQUIRIES VISIT British Pathé also represents the Reuters historical collection, which includes more than 136,000 items from the news agencies Gaumont Graphic (1910-1932), Empire News Bulletin (1926-1930), British Paramount (1931-1957), and Gaumont British (1934-1959), as well as Visnews content from 1957 to the end of 1984. All footage can be viewed on the British Pathé website.