In 2018, IDFA screened Dziga Vertov’s long-lost documentary Anniversary of the Revolution (1918). But there was yet another lost masterpiece by this pioneer of Soviet cinema. In 1921, Vertov edited The History of the Civil War, in which he told the story of the years when the Bolsheviks struggled to defeat domestic opposition to the revolution.
It must have been a great adventure for Vertov. He filmed street fights, attended military tribunals, and lay in trenches. Wherever he went he found devastation, damaged infrastructure, and bodies being collected on the streets. This is an unvarnished record of a country in chaos, marked by unstable alliances and brutal violence. So it’s understandable that the film’s producers decided not to release it at all.
The History of the Civil War has only been screened once before, in 1921. Nikolai Izvolov used historical records to reconstruct the original silent film from archive material and commissioned a new soundtrack.

Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries / Demonstrators carrying banners.

德齐加·韦尔托夫、伊莱扎维塔·斯维洛娃和米哈伊尔·考夫曼的一系列新闻影片，记录了20世纪20年代初的俄罗斯生活。

Peace - relation from Moscow conference with Polish diplomat Janusz Franciszek Radziwiłł and diplomats fom baltic states. Vertov says that USSR sign treaty beacouse they love peace, and forgets to mention that thay do it mainly beacouse they have been defeated by Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
Atheism - we see Pioneers and honest workers taking Orthodox icons out of the walls, and we see alsa manifesting pops and elievers portrayed as freaks and lunatics.
Education - youngsters reading prints and speeches in memory of Russian botanist Kliment Timiryazev.
Health - sport activities - skiing and hockey. Military exercises.
Defence - battleship, military academy, cavalery and skiing troops.
Kino-pravda ends with warning that new war approaches and it will be brought by Germans

Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Hunger and harvest / Alliance between city and country / Agricultural and home industries exhibition: To the exhibition, construction work and preparations, exhibits, map of the exhibition, visitors