The Great Dawn

The Great Dawn (Georgian: დიადი განთიადი, trans. Diadi Gant’iadi; Russian: Великое зарево, trans. Velikoe Zarevo. English-language title: They Wanted Peace.) is a 1938 Soviet Georgian film directed by Mikheil Chiaureli. It is considered a representation of Joseph Stalin's cult of personality. Plot In 1917, the people of the Russian Empire are no longer willing to fight Germany, but the bourgeois government of Alexander Kerensky is unwilling to defy its imperialist allies and stop the war. Only Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party is resolute in calling for peace. In the front, the soldiers of one battalion elect three delegates to travel to St. Petersburg with donations the troops collected for the Pravda newspaper: Gudushauri, Panasiuk and Ershov. The three arrive in the capital and describe the horrendous conditions in which the soldiers live to Joseph Stalin, Lenin's trusted aide and colleague. They join the Bolsheviks and take part in the storming of the Winter Palace, led by Stalin and Lenin. Stalin announces that the great dawn of revolution has broken. Cast as Vladimir Lenin Mikheil Gelovani as Joseph Stalin Spartak Bagashvili as Georgi Gudushauri Tamara Makarova as Svetlana Nutsa Chkheidze as Gudushauri's mother Anna Smirnova as Svetlana's mother Basil Matov as Ershov Dmitry Ivanov as Panasyuk Georgi Sagaradze as Tsereteli Michael Chikhladze as Colonel Mikeladze Ivan Perestiani as general Alexander Zhorzholiani as surgeon Shalva Gambashidze as Karkumidze Georgi Shavgulidze as Paul Gudushauri Piotr Morskoi as Deryugin Boris Poltavtsev as Yakov Sverdlov