The movie Potemkin came up in the comments recently. It’s a film I recall seeing when I was in college or grad school, shown by one of those film societies that specialized in famous old films. Potemkin qualifies as both famous and old, having been made in 1925.
But although I know I watched it, the only thing I can remember from the movie is what I think of as the baby carriage scene. It turns out it’s usually referred to as the Odessa steps scene. I have no recollection of the plot, a summary of which you can find here, and where I learned (or re-learned?) that the movie is actually called Battleship Potemkin:
Battleship Potemkin is a 1925 Soviet silent epic film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by Sergei Eisenstein, it presents a dramatization of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against their officers.
The film is a prime example of the Soviet montage theory of editing, such as in the “Odessa Steps” scene, which became widely influential and often recreated. In 1958, the film was voted on Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo. Battleship Potemkin is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made.
As I said, I remember nothing of it except that scene. And of course, YouTube being YouTube, I was able to refresh my memory by watching that segment. It’s still very disturbing and powerful, and represents pretty much the invention of the montage technique by Eisenstein. See what you think:
Eisenstein was a fervent Soviet supporter at the beginning of Communist rule, but not a Stalin fan later on. This particular Odessa steps scene apparently never happened that way in real life; it’s basically propaganda:
The massacre on the steps, although it did not take place in daylight or as portrayed, was based on the fact that there were widespread riots in other parts of the city, sparked off by the arrival of the Potemkin in Odessa Harbour. Both The Times and the resident British consul reported that troops fired on the rioters; deaths were reportedly in the hundreds. Roger Ebert writes, “That there was, in fact, no tsarist massacre on the Odessa Steps scarcely diminishes the power of the scene … It is ironic that [Eisenstein] did it so well that today, the bloodshed on the Odessa steps is often referred to as if it really happened.
Odessa was a mess at the time, with a great deal of political turmoil and violence. There was also an anti-Jewish pogrom a few months later in Odessa that killed even more people [my emphasis]:
Most modern-day historians argue that pre-1881 pogroms [in Odessa] were “largely the product of frictions unleashed by modernization”, rather than a resurgence of medieval antisemitism. The 1905 pogrom was markedly larger in scale, with over 500 casualties (80% Jewish), 300 injuries, and over 1600 homes and businesses damaged, and with heightened antisemitism spurred by economic and political turmoil.
Historians believe the police and hospital figures were likely an underestimate, with a range of estimates from likely over 800, to over 1000 killed, and approximately over 2000 or even up to 5000 wounded. Even the pre-20th century incidents were incited by perennial antisemitic tropes such as rumors of Jewish desecration of the church, conspiracy theories of Jewish complicity in assassinating the tsar or the patriarch, and blood libels.
While most modern-day historians do not believe there is credible evidence that the tsarist state actively sponsored or centrally planned the pogroms, the tsar and his advisors created an environment of sanctioned antisemitism, toleration and leniency toward pogromists, and blamed Jews themselves for the events. Local authorities often failed to intervene, or in some cases actively abetted or perpetrated further violence.
What was the connection – if any – between the 1905 Potemkin killings in June and the anti-Jewish pogrom later that year? See this:
Yet fear of an impending pogrom resurfaced in June in the aftermath of a general strike and disorders occasioned by the arrival of the battleship Potemkin. On 13 June Cossacks shot several workers from metalworking and machine-construction factories who had been on strike since the beginning of May. Workers retaliated on 14 June by engaging in massive work stoppages and attacking the police with guns and rocks, but the arrival of the Potemkin that night diverted the workers from further confrontation with their employers and the government. On 15 June instead of intensifying the strike, thousands of Odessans jammed the port district in order to view the battleship and rally behind the mutinous sailors. By late afternoon some members of the crowd began to ransack warehouses and set fire to the harbor’s wooden buildings. Although available sources do not allow a precise determination of the composition of the rioters, partial arrest records reveal that non-Jewish vagrants, dockworkers, and other day laborers comprised the majority. To suppress the unrest, the military cordoned off the harbor and opened fire on the trapped crowd. By the next morning well over 1,000 people had died, victims of either the soldiers’ bullets or the fire which consumed the harbor.
Not on the Odessa steps – but still, the above paragraph seems to be describing what the Odessa steps scene in the movie was trying to convey (minus the ransacking of warehouses and the fire set by members of the crowd, and minus the deaths caused by the fire).
More:
During these disorders rumors of an impending pogrom once again surfaced, as right-wing agitators attempted to incite Russian workers against the Jews. On 20 June, only a few days after the massacre, a virulently antisemitic, four-page broadside entitled Odesskie dni appeared. The tract blamed the Jews, in particular the National Committee of Jewish Self-Defense and secondary school students, for the recent disorders and the tragedy at the port.
Accusing the Jews of fomenting the unrest and enlisting the support of unwitting Russians, the author of the broadside stated that Jews initiated the shootings on 14 and 15 June and were responsible for setting fire to the port.
Further events at the time are described at the link. It’s long and complex, but the whole thing culminated in a terrible 10/7-style pogrom in Odessa in November of 1905. There is no doubt that Jews were well-represented among the political agitators involved in the leftist (anti-Tsar) side of the initial and ongoing unrest (about a third of Odessa’s population at the time was Jewish). But the pogrom killed uninvolved Jews indiscriminately and viciously.
Watching the movie clip on YouTube, I’m struck by both the operatic style of the close-ups as well as the realistic feeling of the violence. It’s hard to believe people weren’t really hurt creating that scene, but there’s no record of any problems of that sort.
