''Cosmic Voyage'' or ''The Space Voyage'' (russian: Космический рейс, Kosmicheskiy reys: Fantasticheskaya novella) is a 1936 Soviet

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

produced by

Mosfilm Mosfilm (russian: Мосфильм, ''Mosfil’m'' ) is a film studio which is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Founded in 1924 in the USSR as a production unit of that nation's film monopoly, its output incl ...

. It was one of the earliest films to represent a realistic spaceflight, including weightlessness as well as one of the last Soviet silent era films.

Plot

In the year 1946, the Soviet space program is undergoing turmoil. Professor Sedikh, who is planning to lead the first crewed exploration to the Moon, is denounced by his rival Professor Karin as being too old and too mentally unstable for the mission. Professor Sedikh, aided by his assistant Marina and a youth named Andryusha, disregard Professor Karin's authority and make a successful landing on the Moon. Although a few problems occur at the Moon, including the discovery of a damaged oxygen tank and Professor Sedikh's becoming trapped under a fallen boulder, the expedition is a success and the cosmonauts return to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Cast

* Sergei Komarov as Pavel Ivanovich Sedikh * Ksenia Moskalenko as Marina, Karin's assistant * Vassili Gaponenko as Andryusha Orlov * Nikolai Feoktistov as Capt. Viktor Orlov * Vasili Kovrigin as Professor Karin * Andrey Karasyov * Sergey Stolyarov

Production

''Kosmicheskiy reys: Fantasticheskaya novella'' was initially conceived in 1924 by Russian filmmaker Vasili Zhuravlov, but it was not pursued for production until 1932, when

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (russian: link=no, Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи (ВЛКСМ), ), usually known as Komsomol (; russian: Комсомол, links=n ...

(the Communist Union of Youth) recommended the creation of film that would spur an interest in space studies. Zhuravlov consulted with

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (russian: Константи́н Эдуа́рдович Циолко́вский , , p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin ɪdʊˈardəvʲɪtɕ tsɨɐlˈkofskʲɪj , a=Ru-Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.oga; – 19 September 1935) ...

, the noted aeronautical theorist and rocket science engineer, on the screenplay. Tsiolkovsky died shortly after the film was completed. Two spaceships in the film were named after the Soviet leaders

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

and

Kliment Voroshilov Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov (, uk, Климент Охрімович Ворошилов, ''Klyment Okhrimovyč Vorošylov''), popularly known as Klim Voroshilov (russian: link=no, Клим Вороши́лов, ''Klim Vorošilov''; 4 Februa ...

. The film's cosmonauts enter liquid-filled chambers to buffer the impact of takeoff and landing, and they communicate their landing to the Earth by spelling out "CCCP" (the Russian-language acronym for "USSR") with reflective substances spread across the lunar surface. ''Kosmicheskiy reys: Fantasticheskaya novella'' was shot as a silent film and had only a brief release in early 1936 before being removed from circulation by Soviet censors, who felt that an animated sequence of cosmonauts hopping across the low-gravity lunar surface was antithetical to the spirit of "

socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...

." It was not widely seen again until the 1980s.

References

*David Christopher, "Stalin's "Loss of Sensation": Subversive Impulses in Soviet Science-Fiction of the Great Terror," ''

Journal of Science Fiction The Museum of Science Fiction (MOSF) is a 501c(3) nonprofit museum that has plans to be based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in the spring of 2013 by Greg Viggiano and a team of 22 volunteer professionals with a goal of becoming the world's fi ...

'', Vol. 1, No. 2 (May, 2016), 18-35.

External links

* *

{{YouTube, 71HgQ0JNE7E, title= ''Kosmicheskiy reys'' (English subtitles)
Space Flight intertitles
1936 films Soviet science fiction films Mosfilm films Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Soviet black-and-white films Soviet silent feature films 1930s science fiction films Films about astronauts Films set in 1946 Moon in film Films set in the future