In First World War, after the October Revolution of November 1917, Communist Party leader Vladimir Lenin overthrew the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, with great sacrifices made by the working class and peasants, the Soviet Union was transformed into the world's second greatest industrial power.

In the later 1930s, faced with the prospect of war with Germany, Stalin signed a non-aggression pact, but Soviet factories turned out armour, aircraft and ships, building up their defences.

With sweeping gains leading them right to the capital city, Moscow, Nazi armies were stalled by an unusually harsh winter and met their first defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad.

"During the early years of the NFB, its creative output was largely informed by the turbulent political and social climate the world was facing.

World War II, Communism, unemployment, the role of labour unions, and working conditions were all subjects featured by the NFB during the period from 1939 to 1946".