ABSTRACT
First of all, I would like to comment on an expression used in the title of this article. The phrase “gesture of revolution” is not mine. I have borrowed this word combination from Aleksey Nikolaevich Tolstoy’s series of articles “Vozmozhnosti kino” (The Potential of the Cinema) written in 1924, shortly after his return from emigration to Moscow. 2 On his return, the writer concluded that all was not well in the new Soviet literature and the emerging Soviet cinema. Literature was in thrall to an unreflecting fascination with adventure, while cinema was ruled by the febrile American style of editing.
