EDUCATIONAL DVD

PUSHKIN IS OUR EVERYTHING – Educational DVD

Russia is a critical area of study again. There is no better way to help students of Russia understand today’s situation than through the lens of Pushkin. The story of how Russia turned Pushkin into their national poet illuminates the contours of Russia’s past and present: political upheaval, centralized rule in multicultural country,  propaganda, and a genuine love of literature.

The film introduces audiences to Russian professionals in their places of work – a sculptor in his studio, a creative director in his ad agency, a museum director in her museum, and a teacher with her students, among others. The film was shot at multiple locations in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tsarskoe Selo, and Buryatia in distant Siberia. It’s a journey that opens a window on real life in Russia.

 

 

ENTERTAINING AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING

Professors and students at USC, Harvard, Case Western Reserve, Pomona, Wellesley, Claremont-McKenna and other schools have used the film for campus screenings and class discussions.

Much more than a film about the legacy of a poet, Pushkin Is Our Everything exposes the rich but also restless culture of this country whose uncertainties about its modern identity seem to generate grand myth after grand myth—and running through them all is its myth about Alexander Pushkin.

 

It is beautifully filmed, and will remind anyone who ever fell in love with Russia why they did so.”

 

— Prof. Thomas Seifrid, Chair, Slavic Languages and Literatures
Univ. of Southern California

 

FILM DETAILS

72 min. / English and Russian with English subtitles

PART 1: Pushkin and Russian History (35 min.)

PART 2: Pushkin in Russia Today (37 min.)

 

FILM TOPICS OF DISCUSSION

  • Pushkin’s life, duel, death
  • Revolution and writers
  • Westerners vs. Slavophiles
  • Dostoevsky’s Pushkin speech and his role in elevating Pushkin’s status
  • Culture and propaganda under Lenin and Stalin
  • Russian Orthodox Church and Pushkin
  • Racism and political opposition in contemporary Russia
  • Russia as multi-ethnic space
  • The Bronze Horseman, Eugene Onegin, To Chaadaev, Exegi Monumentum, Elegy 1830

 

INSTITUTIONAL LICENSE

The Educational Edition for Colleges, Universities and Institutions is licensed for public performance rights for non-theatrical educational use only. View institutional license.