Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

262 reMeMBerING the SpaCe aGe
style that was popular in hollywood flms at that time. the flm features aged
astrophysicist, pavel Ivanovich Sedykh, who bears a remarkable resemblance to
Konstantin tsiolkovskii. the flm opens with Sedykh planning a spacefight to
the Moon on board his space rocket (see illustration), the Iosif Stalin, in spite of
a previous failed test mission with a cat. after a dispute over issues of personal
loyalty and bureaucratic interference, Sedykh balks at concerns over his health
and insists on accompanying his assistant and an adolescent boy, andrushka, on
the fight. the three astronauts successfully land on the Moon, unfortunately
losing fuel and their radio in the process. 27 While en route to the Moon, the trio
experience weightlessness, and on the Moon, they experience diminished gravitational
pull. In the process of making a visual signal for earth about their
successful arrival, they discover the cat from the previous mission has survived
and that frozen remnants of the lunar atmosphere can be used as fuel for their
return mission. Meanwhile on earth, scientists plan to launch a rescue mission.
Just as the launch is about to take place, the Iosif Stalin returns with the jubilant
crew. Sedykh declares that they have “opened the path to space.” during the
late 1950s and early 1960s, Soviet cosmonauts, politicians, and journalists
repeated that phrase again and again.
the KOMSOMOL IN SpaCe
Both science fction flm and literature diminished in prominence in the
Soviet union under Stalin. after Kosmicheskii Reis, there was not another space
science fction flm in Moscow until 1958 when the east German flm based on
the Stanislav Lem science fction story, Der Schweigende stern (Silent Star) opened
28 in theaters in the Soviet union under the russian title Bezmolvnaia zvezda. a
new infusion of science fction flms, beginning with the prescient Soviet flm
Nebo zovët (the Sky Calls), followed in 1960. It predicted a space race between
the united States and the Soviet union to Mars. 29 Like Kosmicheskii reis before
27. Sedykh and andrushka referred to themselves as “astronauts” and not “cosmonauts” throughout
the flm.this was the prevailing name of space travelers at the time,drawing from the Latin-based
language of Verne.the decision to adopt the Greek-root cosmos for cosmonaut was deliberate
and absolute in 1961. Morton Benson,“russianisms in the american press,” american Speech
37, no. 1 (February 1962): 41-47.
28. Kurt Maetzig, Der Schweigende Stern (The Silent Star), (Bezmolvnaia zvezda), tani,Yoko; Lukes,
Oldrich; Machowski, Igancy; Ongewe, Julius (deutsche Film (deFa), 1959), 155 min.
29. Mikhail Kariukov and a. Kozyr,’ Nebo zovët (The Sky Calls), pereverzev, Ivan; Shvorin,aleksandr;
Bartashevich, Konstantin; Borisenko, Larisa; Chernyak,V.; dobrovolsky,Viktor (Gosudarstvenii
komitet po kinematografi (Goskino), 1960), 77 min. american producer roger Corman
purchased the rights to the flm and hired a young Francis Ford Copolla to rework the movie.
Battle Beyond the Stars was an american interplanetary war movie with no reference to Cold
War competition. Jimmy t. Murakami, Battle Beyond the Stars,thomas, richard;Vaughn, robert,
Saxon, John (New World pictures, 1980), 104 min.