The Film Factory

1939

154	Sergei Eisenstein: My Subject Is Patriotism

Source: International Literature, 1939, no. 2, pp. 90–3 (originally published in English).

Such is the inscription on the scrap of paper on which I jotted down my first ideas about the new picture when I undertook the task of reproducing on the screen the thirteenth century, the great national struggle of the Russian people against aggression and the figure of Alexander Nevsky, that remarkable warrior and statesman.

My subject is patriotism – the phrase was constantly before me and before our entire group, during the shots, during the sound recordings and during the cutting.

And I believe this slogan, which guided the production of the entire picture, makes itself felt in the finished film.

The great ideas of our Socialist fatherland endow our art with remarkable fecundity. I tried to serve these ideas in all the films which I made in the course of nearly fifteen years. The themes dealt with the underground revolutionary struggle in tsarist Russia, the October Socialist Revolution, collectivisation. And now, in this picture, we have approached the national and patriotic theme, which engages foremost minds not only in our country, but in the West as well. For the guardian of national dignity, of national pride, national independence and true patriotism throughout the world is first of all the Communist Party, is Communism.

The bourgeoisie, in fear of its impending doom, has betrayed its previous ideals, its countries and its peoples, endeavouring at any price, by means of various ‘axes’, agreements, both secret and open, to create a barrier to the onslaught of the working people. It is trying at any price to postpone the final, decisive battle for freedom and independence.

It is impossible to view the capitalist world without feelings of horror. I do not believe that any period in history witnessed such an orgy of violence to all human ideals as has resulted in recent years from the growing insolence of fascist aggression. The suppression of the independence of the so-called small countries, blood-drenched Spain, dismembered Czechoslovakia, China gasping in desperate struggle, these realities appear like a gory nightmare. Nothing could seem more terrible. But every new day brings us news of greater outrages, greater savagery. It is hard to believe your eyes when you read of the unbridled ferocity of the Jewish pogroms in Germany, where before the eyes of the world hundreds of thousands of downtrodden people, shorn of human aid, are being wiped from the face of the earth. Opposed to this bloody nightmare as champions of humanity and culture, as an active force rallying the energy of the best men, are first of all the Communists.

The struggle for the human ideal of fairness, freedom and national rights, even for the very right of national existence, derives its moral strength from the Soviet Union. Exposing all fascist obscurantism, the mighty voice of the Soviet Union may be heard unfaltering, persistent and uncompromising. All that is finest in thinking humanity cannot fail to add its voice to the appeal of the Soviet intellectuals to condemn the barbarians.

Naturally Soviet art could not ignore these all-important themes; and this applies not only to those themes directly connected with the struggle waged by the Soviet Union, defending peace against constant aggression, which seeks to attack the integrity and inviolability of our borders. It also includes generalised themes.

133 Teutonic and Livonian knights, the ancestors of the contemporary fascists.’ Eisenstein directing Alexander Nevsky (1938).

134 ‘We want our film not only to inspire those who are in the very thick of the fight against fascism, but to bring spirit, courage and confidence to those quarters of the world where fascism seems as invincible as the Order of Knights appeared in the thirteenth century.’ (Eisenstein.)

This applies, for example, to the theme of national defence, which at the present time arouses equal interest in all corners of the world where human dignity has not been lost, where belief in human ideals still remains.

This is the subject of our film. We have taken a historic episode from the thirteenth century, when the Teutonic and Livonian knights, the ancestors of the contemporary fascists, undertook a systematic advance eastward in order to subjugate the Slavonic and other peoples, in precisely the same spirit as contemporary fascist Germany is trying to do, with the same frenzied slogans and the same fanaticism.

When you read the chronicles of the thirteenth century alternately with the newspapers of today, you lose your sense of time, for the bloody terror which the invading orders of knighthood sowed is scarcely distinguishable from present events in Europe.

This is why the picture, though it deals with a specific historic epoch, with specific historic events, seems like a modern picture, according to the testimony of those who have seen it. The feelings which inflamed the Russian people in the thirteenth century when they repelled the foe are quite close to those which the Soviet peoples feel at the present time. Undoubtedly the same feelings fire those upon whom the predatory paws of Hitlerite aggression have already been laid.

After devouring all the small intermediate peoples in its fierce attack, the wave of German invasion reached Slav territory. Despite the fact that eighteen years before, Russia had experienced the frightful invasion of the Tartars, who had devastated almost all the country, so that only the northwestern part remained with Novgorod as the centre, the Russian people found the strength whereby to collect sufficient troops and prevent the German invasion, prevent the imposition of the German yoke, which was more terrible than that of the Tartars. The Tartars were interested only in tribute, but the Germans, just like the fascists today, sought to destroy the national spirit of the people, they completely obliterated every trace of national independence and character in the countries they conquered.

Just as today the hounds of fascism are tearing to shreds Czechoslovak culture, destroying the language, the schools and literature, destroying the intellectuals and the working class, so did the Teuton knights of the thirteenth century eradicate everything which each nation or nationality possessed and treasured as its own. The roads of conquest of the knights were marked with blood and fire. Cities, villages and people were destroyed – until Alexander Nevsky and the Russian levies met the Germans on the ice of Lake Peipus. Here Alexander crushed the German knights, who used a special fighting formation, forming an iron wedge with their cavalry which swept all barriers from its path. This formation, famed as the ‘pig’, became legendary.

Alexander Nevsky, with the genius of a great military leader, repeated Hannibal’s manoeuvre at Canna; he succeeded in squeezing the hitherto invincible ‘pig’ in the vice of crushing blows from the flanks and in completing its defeat with the aid of the peasant levy, which attacked the ‘pig’ from the rear.

The blow struck against the Germans was crushing and merciless. Before their defeat in the battle on the ice, the knights had been surrounded with the halo of invincible might. There are many people who are weak or lacking in confidence, who likewise believe blindly in the invincibility and indestructibility of the brazen diplomatic and military adventurism practised in the world arena by fascism.

We want our film not only to inspire those who are in the very thick of the fight against fascism, but to bring spirit, courage and confidence to those quarters of the world where fascism seems as invincible as the Order of Knights appeared in the thirteenth century. May the faint-hearted cease kneeling humbly before fascism, may they cease the constant concessions and tribute to the ravenous monster. Let them remember that there is no force of ignorance and darkness which can resist the united forces of all that is fine, healthy and progressive in humanity.

These feelings are inspired and these forces led by the most splendid country in the world, which is experiencing the vigorous development of the great Stalinist epoch. This country has recently repaid the aggressive attempts of Japan with the same relentlessness with which it defeated German aggression in the thirteenth century. The forces of civilisation must convince themselves and are convincing themselves, that unyielding determination in struggle always brings victory, and the forces of civilisation must be mobilised for this victory.

Now, as I write this article, the picture Alexander Nevsky is finished.

Our entire collective, imbued with the lofty ideas of the picture, worked on it enthusiastically; we are sure that the close of the film, Alexander Nevsky’s splendid speech, will resound in our day as a terrible warning to all enemies of the Soviet Union:

… Should anyone raise his sword against us, he shall perish by the sword. On this the Russian land stands and shall stand!

These words express the feelings and will of the masses of the Soviet people.