Esfir Shub

Shub’s intensive experience at Goskino, reediting pre-revolutionary and foreign productions as well as new Soviet features, helped cultivate the journalistic style of filmmaking she is well-regarded for.

Originally titled February, screenwriter Mark Tseitlin and Esfir Shub collaborated on this documentary-style film centered around the decline of the Russian monarchy.

It is notable for its use of intertitles, which provide historical context and commentary on the events depicted in the footage as well as help guide viewers through the beginning of the end of the Romanov dynasty.

This technique, along with her portrayal of the Romanov family, effectively demonstrates the stark contrast between the lavish lifestyle of the aristocracy and the struggles of the working class.

Historians Jack C. Ellis and Betsy A. McLane note that, “nothing like Shub’s films had existed before them, and her work remains among the finest examples of the compilation technique.

"[13] Eisenstein's October(1928), which was also commissioned for the tenth anniversary of the event, was criticized by LEFists (Soviet art journalists), for being 'too personal,' while deeming the impersonality of Shub's work more exemplary for the Revolution.

Sergei Emolinsky, a constructivist critic associated with Soviet art journal, LEF, praises both Shub and Vertov equally for their different attitudes towards documentary film.

[11] This article was published months following the distribution of the Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927) documentary, which is when Shub was struggling to gain recognition and directional credit for her film.

[7] Esfir Shub took the time to write her own memoirs entitled, Zhizn Moya — Kinematograf (My Life — Cinema) in the latter half of her career.

[6] In her recollections, she is forthcoming about her struggle to win respect as a female theorist and practitioner in the male dominated field of Soviet cinema.