Film 『 Arsenal 』
Directed by Alexander Petrovich Dovzhenko ( Довженко Олександр Петрович )
Release 1929
Starring Semyon Svashenko ( Семен Свашенко ) ( Tymish )
Mykola Kuchynsky ( Микола Кучинський ) ( Symon Petliura )
Osip Merlatti ( Осип Мерлатті ) ( Mykhailo Sadovsky )
■ Dovzhenko's film 『 Arsenal ( 1929 ) 』 depicts the civil war of the Ukrainian national self-determination movement that was triggered by the Russian Revolution during World War I. Symon Petliura ( Ukrainian : Петлюра Симон Васильович 1879~1926 ) overthrew the pro-German government of Pavlo Skoropadskyi ( Ukrainian : Скоропадський Павло Петрович 1873~1945 ) and established the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918.
■ However, after that, the Ukrainian nationalists of Petlyura ( The Central Rada of Ukraine ), the Russian nationalists of Anton Denikin ( White Army ), the Bolsheviks ( Red Army ), and The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine of Nestor Manov ( Black Army ) all entered into a civil war of spreading the conflict and cooperation, respectively.
■ Petliura making a speech at the Congress ( 1 ). However, there is no response from the audience consisting of workers, nationalists, and others ( 2 ). Petliura, speaking one-sidedly, does not notice one of the workers who raises his hand to express his opinion ( 3~4 ).
■ After finishing his speech, Petliura finally notices the workers raising their hands and encourages them to speak ( 5~7 ). In response to Petliura's nationalistic speech, the workers ask radical questions about whether it is okay to kill bourgeois and officials they meet on the street ( 8 ).
■ As the workers look on, Petliura is at a loss for an answer to an unexpected question, and can only give a vague response to mend the situation ( 9~12 ).
■ This sequence shows that the Ukrainian national movement of the time was not ideologically monolithic. In other words, the workers were not only thinking about Ukrainian independence, but also about seeking to improve their own living conditions, which were exploited by the bourgeois class, as an extension of the Russian Revolution.
■ Because this worker's perspective was missing, Petliura was unable to answer the question. This may also be backed up by the fact that at the time of the actual Ukrainian Civil War, the young Dovzhenko himself blindly participated in the nationalist rebellion under Petliura, without thinking deeply about the ideological implications.
■ Therefore, this is not a historical film about the Ukrainian Civil War based on Dovzhenko's own experience. It is an extremely subjective ideological film, in other words, a Bolshevik film, reconstructed by Dovzhenko, who gradually became fascinated by the Bolshevik ideology ( * A ), which he did not understand at the time of the civil war, in order to accept the experience of the civil war as the political trauma.
( * A ) However, in this context, "Bolshevik ideology" only means the superficial slogans of the Bolsheviks, which advocate the subjectification of the workers. In fact, the Bolsheviks were merely a political party that used cleverly the collective insurrectionary nature of the workers ( e.g., the Kronstadt rebellion of 1921 ), which had been outstanding in Russia previously. The Bolsheviks is not the workers' group as it is. Dovzhenko, who had awakened to the ideology at the time of the film's production, has not yet understood unfortunately that only politics justifying the powerful use of violence to oppress and execute many people, not the defense of workers, is the truth about the Bolsheviks.
■ Workers asked to sign the petition at the meeting ( 13 ). Tymish refuses to sign and is asked by the nationalists "Are you not Ukrainian ( 14~16 )? Tymish proudly answers that "yes, I am a worker"( 17 ).
■ A nationalist at a loss for words and a Tymish who walks away in silence ( 18~21 ).
■ However, Tymish sees the dissatisfaction smoldering among the workers and realizes that Petrulla is not going to be able to solve the problem, so he drives Petrulla away from the platform ( 22~23 ). Tymish encourages the workers ( 24~25 ).
■ Workers and farmers, who had been cool to Petrulla's speech, were so impressed by Tymish's speech that they stood up and applauded. Tymish grasped the hearts and minds of the audience in the room ( 26~29 ).
