The Red Stuff : The First Russian Cosmonauts : Leo de Boer

Heroes of the Russian cosmos
The Red Stuff is a film about the first real explorers of the cosmos, the "Eaglets", from the early years of Russian space travel. A period in which Russians had one success after another and were streets ahead of their arch rivals, the Americans.
In 1957 the first Russian Sputnik - the first artificial satellite in history - had scared the hell out of the Americans. Later that year the first living creature was sent in to space, the dog Laika. And in 1961 Yuri Gargarin earned his place in history as the first man in space. Soon after, he was followed by Gherman Titov, the second, who circled the earth even before the Americans could target their John Glenn. In '62 these triumphs were followed by the first manned flight for two and in 1965 by the first walk in space. But that success was soon overshadowed by the Americans who were the first to set foot on the moon in 1968 and were hence deemed to have won the space race.

Propaganda interests
Who were the people behind these first Russian successes? What kind of sacrifices had to be made? What is true and what is false in our view of Russian space exploration, distorted as it is by propaganda interests? With the demise of the Soviet Union, censorship has been reduced. And now this last bastion of military secrecy and political propaganda is crumbling, so the story of Russian space exploration can be told from a different perspective, without the familiar propaganda excesses. Not just the medals and triumphs, but also the darker side...

The darker side
Unique archive material reveals the bravery and the unsurpassed stamina of the cosmonauts. How do they look back on their work and their enforced role in the Soviet propaganda machine? The songs and musical accompaniment to their heroic deeds are of a different order. Passionate, poetic and sometimes wonderfully sentimental, they express heroism, loneliness and love.

director : Leo de Boer
camera : Peter Brugman
sound : Jac Vleeshouwers
production Russia : Masja Novikova
editor : Berenike Rozgonyi
production company : Pieter van Huystee Film &TV
premiere: IDFA, 1999
format : 35mm
duration : 78 minuten

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• documentary
• trailer
• Yuri
• Gargarin
• Russian
• Sputnik
• John
• Glenn
• pieter
• van
• huystee

[TheSovietEnd]

Thats are NOT russians!!! Thats are Soviets!-_-

Sovietunion!!!

not only russian!

UNION!!!

[DasEchooo]

Thats correct!!!

It was the sovietunion and not only the russians!

[TheSovietEnd]

@Apocaalyp but it was not only russia!^^

[Apocaalyp]

@TheSovietEnd lol russia was 97% of it all recources are from russia and the other countries was dependent of russia

[xXDEICIDE216Xx]

even though im an american I cant express enough how I love all the russian/former soviet people. The greatness of your people is something america will never understand or achieve. Perhaps one day I should be so lucky to obtain citizenship to your great country.

[Ctbaum24]

The russians pretty much won almost all of the space race but damn u dont gotta be a dick about, everyone knows. Also john glenn wasnt the first american in space and the moon landing was in 1969.

[cubasedoos]

the British lost their family jewels ,Jaguar, Rolls Royce and now their virgins are being lost to Nigerian drug lords...noooooonnnoooooo...noo­ooooo

[PatchesRips]

Gotta admit, though... that opening sequence is DEAD COOL, man. :)

[PatchesRips]

Yaaaaaaaaaaay, a film in Dutch about Russians. Where's the English? Can this be legal? :)

[protfl]

@fuckemandtheirlaw jewish doctors plot involved such a laughable number of jews so isnt even worthy to be mentioned especially in context they all were exonerated, better speak of numbers of jews who suffered of maccarthism or those who werent let to go to palestine by colonial administration. as you are a british you better pay more attention to own history instead of looking for nonsense examples from soviet, you have a beam in your eye.

[protfl]

@fuckemandtheirlaw for example yes, it is whine. jews were as poor as russians in russian empire it is 1st. second if those jews were communists wth on earth they want to be religious, once again speaking about special attention to jews in matters of religion is another example of hypocricy, they were just in same stance as others. sionism? stalin supported jews in creating new israel and they betrayed him becoming allies of our enemies, and later kept whining again about opressing of them only

[fuckemandtheirlaw]

@protfl OK. This is what I know. Jews in imperial pre-bolshevik russia were often poor, often brutalized and subject to pogroms. Possibly for this reason many Jews were bolsheviks and jews played a prominent part in the revolution. As time went on the bolshevik party itself started to clash with jsome jews, partly because some jews wanted to retain their religion and also over the issue of zionism both incompatible with communism, there was the dr's plot etc etc...

Now, what is 'Jewish whine'?