Tri pesni o Lenine
Three Songs of Lenin (1970 sound version) | Drei Lieder über Lenin (Tonfassung von 1970)

Tri pesni o Lenine (Tonfassung von 1970) | Three Songs of Lenin | Drei Lieder über Lenin by Dsiga Wertow
UdSSR, Retrospective
Source: Deutsche Kinemathek

Tri pesni o Lenine (Tonfassung von 1970) | Three Songs of Lenin | Drei Lieder über Lenin by Dsiga Wertow
UdSSR, Retrospective
Source: Deutsche Kinemathek

Tri pesni o Lenine (Tonfassung von 1970) | Three Songs of Lenin | Drei Lieder über Lenin by Dsiga Wertow
UdSSR, Retrospective
Source: Sammlung Österreichisches Filmmuseum/Collection Austrian Film Museum

Behind the Scenes | Werkfoto: Dsiga Wertow, Mark Magidson (an der Kamera)
Tri pesni o Lenine (Tonfassung von 1970) | Three Songs of Lenin | Drei Lieder über Lenin by Dsiga Wertow
UdSSR, Retrospective
Source: Sammlung Österreichisches Filmmuseum/Collection Austrian Film Museum
Eulogies and jubilant singing, folk songs and dirges: lots of editing, insertions and corrections mark the eventful history of films on the founder of the Soviet Union. Stalin claims his place with an iron hand, only to be removed in 1970, as if he had never been there in the first place. Vertov – revolutionary and avant-gardist – becomes a plaything of the powers-that-be, yet he still remains true to himself. His montages speak a clearer language than the slogans in the pictures. TRI PESNI O LENINE (Three Songs of Lenin) is both a sound and silent film. The two versions are being shown in comparison: the silent film (for the provincial cinemas) was made in 1938; the talkie is the de-Stalinised version dating from 1970.
Print courtesy of the Austrian Film Museum, Vienna