FIVE THINGS ABOUT A SOVIET FILM

HOW TO CELEBRATE THE REVOLUTION?

As President Vladimir Putin struggles to come up with a way to celebrate the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution that defined modern Russia, a 1960 Soviet film surfaced on the Internet that evokes a poignant note about the meaning of 100 years of Soviet rule.

IN THE YEAR 2017

Plucked from the family collection of St. Petersburg resident Sergei Pozdnyakov, the 45- pane film strip, entitled In the Year 2017, recounts a day in the life of Igor, a boy who lives in a futuristic Moscow.

THE SETTING

If you go by the imaginations of the authors of the film, the U. S. S. R.’s achievements were awesome. Space ships can take you to the stars. Humans harness the energy of the Earth’s core and we can control the weather. The “imperialists” have destroyed themselves — those remaining have been taken to a remote Pacific island — the Soviet Union has created “atomic trains” that traverse the Bering Strait, and the dream of reversing the course of great Siberian rivers has been realized.

THE PLOT

Scientists are perfecting flying power stations that can control weather, and Igor’s dad works at the Institute of Weather Management. The cutting edge of technology is “meson energy,” a theoretical type of atomic energy, and one day Igor’s dad gets some bad news. The last imperialists have tested a forbidden meson weapon, but the test backfires. The explosion blew up the island, and created a noxious cloud that threatens to blot out life everywhere.

HAPPY ENDING

Igor’s dad springs into action. He gets permission to fly one of the weather- control stations, and darned if he doesn’t fly that thing right to the heart of the black muck, destroying it and saving the world!