Agadzhanova first joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (which would later become the CPSU) in 1907 while studying philosophy and history at university in Ekaterinodar.
[2][3][4] From 1907 to 1914 conducted illegal work for the party, helping to create Bolshevik networks between Voronezh, Oryol, Moscow, Iranovo-Voznesensk, and Petersburg.
A semi-autobiographical account of her time infiltrating the White Guard in Novorossiysk and Rostov-on-Don, the screenplay was commissioned for production in the spring of 1925, and was co-directed by Boris Chaikovskii and Ol'ga Rakhmanova.
[6][8][9][10] Initially, The Year 1905 was conceived as a coverage of several events of 1905 including: The Russo-Japanese War; the Bloody Sunday massacre; popular uprisings which occurred in both rural and urban areas across the nation; the general strike and the backlash from the Russian state; a mutiny on the Russian battleship Potemkin; counter-Revolutionary and anti-Jewish pogroms; and the development of a workers' resistance movement in Krasnaya Presnya.
[5][8][9] Agandzhanova took issue with Eisenstein's desire to insert fictitious events into the screenplay, including a general strike among lifeguards, icon painters, and chambermaids.
[8][9] While Eisenstein was a child during the events of 1905, Agadzhanova, ten years his senior, had participated in uprisings in Ekaterinodar as a teenager and joined the Bolsheviks in 1907.
[8][10][11] In an essay written in 1945 for a collection to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of The Battleship Potemkin, Eisenstein wrote: "[Nina] was the first Bolshevik civilian I had met - all the others had sat on military committees or they were 'senior staff'.
The filmmaker also diverged greatly from the original screenplay during production, developing the film's now famous Odessa Steps sequence while on set.