A LOOK BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN

Year Published: 1959

Format: 16mm

Description: This movie, entitled "A look behind the Iron Curtain: USSR 1959 " was produced either by the Maupin Tour Company, (known today as Maupintour) or by someone who went on a Maupin Tour. The film provides a glimpse of what a tourist could expect if booking a USSR trip in the late 1950s/early 1960s. 0:26 The journey begins in Helsinki, Finland  0:28 Arrival at the newly-opened Helsinki Vantaa Airport 0:40 Port of Helsinki 0:47 Finnish soldiers with their Stahlhelms 1:02 Pan to the busy street by the port. Helsinki City Hall. Port Authority and the Uspenski cathedral 1:22 Esplanadi park 1:28 Monument to Johan Ludvig Runeberg, the Finnish poet 1:40 Central Helsinki 1:56 The Three Smiths Statue 2:00 A drunk, being arrested by the police 2:10 Central Helsinki around Mannerheimmintie 2:25 Maupintour bus, going from Helsinki, through Leningrad and Moscow to Warsaw 2:29 Finnish countryside to the Soviet border 3:22 Market in the Finnish city of Hamina, near the Soviet border 3:56 Road signs in Russian 4:18 Card: Leningrad : window to the West 4:47 Nevsky in Saint Petersburg 4:52 Soviet Army soldiers looking at an open-top Moskvitch 402 5:05 Nevsky in Saint Petersburg. 5:47 The Arch of the Army Headquarters seen from the rear 6:03 Lutheran Church of Saint Peter and Paul at Nevsky 6:20 Saint Isaac's Cathedral 6:29 Military academy cadets 6:40 The Hermitage Museum 7:00 Palaces and parks of the Suburban Imperial Saint Petersburg - Pushkin/Tsarskoye Selo/Peterhof etc. 7:46 A kindergarten group visits the palaces. 8:14 Card : Novgorod 8:24 Port of the Novgorod city and Yuriev Monastery 9:37 The Novgorod Kremlin. 9:50 City watering truck 10:10 Moskvitch riverboat. Demyansk city Various Volga river views. 12:39 Card: Moscow  … Mother of all Russians  12:50 Vorobiovy Gory subway viaduct and pan onto the Luzhniki stadium and Moscow river. 13:25 Sokolniki Central Park. Crowds at the park. Red banners with slogans. 14:14 1959 International Expo in the Soviet Union, USA pavilion 15:00 Crowds, same location. A Lebanese flag in the middle. 15:38 Saint Basil's cathedral, crowded streets. 16:00 Red Square, people queuing for Lenin's Mausoleum 16:20 Facades of the GUM Department store. 17:53 The Kremlin Armory Museum 17:55 Inside the Kremlin. Spasskaya tower at 18:55 18:30 The Kremlin Park 19:47 Arbat and Manezhnaya place, Hotel Moscow, Tchaykovski street. 20:50 Khrushchev Housing program condos under construction 21:28- Parked cars Volga GAZ-21, Pobeda and Moskvitch models 401 and 402. 22:16 House on the Embankment 22:30 Municipal cleaning truck 22:31 Various views of the Volga river. More condos under construction. Kremlin seen from the river. 24:38 VDNKh – All-Union expo grounds 26:42 More construction sites 27:38 driving to Saint Petersburg 28:04 People, having spread hay for drying on the highway, are sitting in the midst of it.28:54 Card: Smolensk  29:09 A Belorussian poster about increase in meat production 29:40 More people drying grain on the highway pavement. 29:59 bus breakdown  ? 30:10 Nacha river in Belarus 30:24 Card: Minsk, capitol of White Russia  30:41 People and sights of Minsk. Francisz Baguszeich place. 31:06 A memorial to Joseph Stalin at the October Square, demolished 3rd of November 1961 31:14 Life in Minsk. 31:20 A curious toddler looks at the bus 31:21-32:55 Minsk Central Stadium, now National Olympic Dynamo Stadium. A football / soccer team training. 32:59 People playing table tennis 33:31 Card: USSR 1959, The end.  » 34:01 Card: Warsaw, Poland Strange contrast to Russian drabness  34:15 Main street 34:46 One of the Stalin's high-rises – Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw 34:59-35:31 Aerial view of Warsaw from the Palace 35:31-37:00 People and streets of Warsaw 37:00 Taking the airplane to Berlin, landing at the now-closed Berlin Tempelhof 37:22 Card: West Berlin  : Oasis in the Red desert  37:30 Kurfürstendamm street sign 37:37 A typical Berliner doubledecker bus 37:40 Berlin's flag and symbol. The Bear Meadow, followed by shots of the Berlin Zoo 39:15-39:40 Children's playground by Sarotti 39:40-40:07 Panorama of Berlin 40:07-40:12 Funkturm Berlin or Berlin Radio Tower, a former radio tower, built in 1926 41:55 Driving on Autobahn 42:00-42:42 Hamburg 42:43-50:15 German countryside and lakeside scenery, picturesque villages. 43:47 A modernized Medieval castle on a mountaintop 44:45 An open gondola-type aerial lift 50:15 Arrival at Munich. Munich cathedral 51:41 People feeding pigeons 52:10-52:55 A local football/soccer match 52:55-end Some more of the famous German Autobahn and villages

Complete Record: This movie, entitled "A look behind the Iron Curtain: USSR 1959 " was produced either by the Maupin Tour Company, (known today as Maupintour) or by someone who went on a Maupin Tour. The film provides a glimpse of what a tourist could expect if booking a USSR trip in the late 1950s/early 1960s. 0:26 The journey begins in Helsinki, Finland  0:28 Arrival at the newly-opened Helsinki Vantaa Airport 0:40 Port of Helsinki 0:47 Finnish soldiers with their Stahlhelms 1:02 Pan to the busy street by the port. Helsinki City Hall. Port Authority and the Uspenski cathedral 1:22 Esplanadi park 1:28 Monument to Johan Ludvig Runeberg, the Finnish poet 1:40 Central Helsinki 1:56 The Three Smiths Statue 2:00 A drunk, being arrested by the police 2:10 Central Helsinki around Mannerheimmintie 2:25 Maupintour bus, going from Helsinki, through Leningrad and Moscow to Warsaw 2:29 Finnish countryside to the Soviet border 3:22 Market in the Finnish city of Hamina, near the Soviet border 3:56 Road signs in Russian 4:18 Card: Leningrad : window to the West 4:47 Nevsky in Saint Petersburg 4:52 Soviet Army soldiers looking at an open-top Moskvitch 402 5:05 Nevsky in Saint Petersburg. 5:47 The Arch of the Army Headquarters seen from the rear 6:03 Lutheran Church of Saint Peter and Paul at Nevsky 6:20 Saint Isaac's Cathedral 6:29 Military academy cadets 6:40 The Hermitage Museum 7:00 Palaces and parks of the Suburban Imperial Saint Petersburg - Pushkin/Tsarskoye Selo/Peterhof etc. 7:46 A kindergarten group visits the palaces. 8:14 Card : Novgorod 8:24 Port of the Novgorod city and Yuriev Monastery 9:37 The Novgorod Kremlin. 9:50 City watering truck 10:10 Moskvitch riverboat. Demyansk city Various Volga river views. 12:39 Card: Moscow  … Mother of all Russians  12:50 Vorobiovy Gory subway viaduct and pan onto the Luzhniki stadium and Moscow river. 13:25 Sokolniki Central Park. Crowds at the park. Red banners with slogans. 14:14 1959 International Expo in the Soviet Union, USA pavilion 15:00 Crowds, same location. A Lebanese flag in the middle. 15:38 Saint Basil's cathedral, crowded streets. 16:00 Red Square, people queuing for Lenin's Mausoleum 16:20 Facades of the GUM Department store. 17:53 The Kremlin Armory Museum 17:55 Inside the Kremlin. Spasskaya tower at 18:55 18:30 The Kremlin Park 19:47 Arbat and Manezhnaya place, Hotel Moscow, Tchaykovski street. 20:50 Khrushchev Housing program condos under construction 21:28- Parked cars Volga GAZ-21, Pobeda and Moskvitch models 401 and 402. 22:16 House on the Embankment 22:30 Municipal cleaning truck 22:31 Various views of the Volga river. More condos under construction. Kremlin seen from the river. 24:38 VDNKh – All-Union expo grounds 26:42 More construction sites 27:38 driving to Saint Petersburg 28:04 People, having spread hay for drying on the highway, are sitting in the midst of it.28:54 Card: Smolensk  29:09 A Belorussian poster about increase in meat production 29:40 More people drying grain on the highway pavement. 29:59 bus breakdown  ? 30:10 Nacha river in Belarus 30:24 Card: Minsk, capitol of White Russia  30:41 People and sights of Minsk. Francisz Baguszeich place. 31:06 A memorial to Joseph Stalin at the October Square, demolished 3rd of November 1961 31:14 Life in Minsk. 31:20 A curious toddler looks at the bus 31:21-32:55 Minsk Central Stadium, now National Olympic Dynamo Stadium. A football / soccer team training. 32:59 People playing table tennis 33:31 Card: USSR 1959, The end.  » 34:01 Card: Warsaw, Poland Strange contrast to Russian drabness  34:15 Main street 34:46 One of the Stalin's high-rises – Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw 34:59-35:31 Aerial view of Warsaw from the Palace 35:31-37:00 People and streets of Warsaw 37:00 Taking the airplane to Berlin, landing at the now-closed Berlin Tempelhof 37:22 Card: West Berlin  : Oasis in the Red desert  37:30 Kurfürstendamm street sign 37:37 A typical Berliner doubledecker bus 37:40 Berlin's flag and symbol. The Bear Meadow, followed by shots of the Berlin Zoo 39:15-39:40 Children's playground by Sarotti 39:40-40:07 Panorama of Berlin 40:07-40:12 Funkturm Berlin or Berlin Radio Tower, a former radio tower, built in 1926 41:55 Driving on Autobahn 42:00-42:42 Hamburg 42:43-50:15 German countryside and lakeside scenery, picturesque villages. 43:47 A modernized Medieval castle on a mountaintop 44:45 An open gondola-type aerial lift 50:15 Arrival at Munich. Munich cathedral 51:41 People feeding pigeons 52:10-52:55 A local football/soccer match 52:55-end Some more of the famous German Autobahn and villages