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A place for Aryan (European) Folkish Pagans
Next scene is an important one too as it shows the new, dehumanized process of bread making by the machines, intercut with women and sheaves which represent the old way.
Corrupted by the machines the sacred ritual of human-nature interaction is turned into something automated and industrialized, bordering on surreal.
Speaking of the film’s posters this one is the most popular and here we can see how foolish communist censors were thinking that Vassily is the hero. As mentioned above he is not a villain either, but on this poster he looks intentionally ugly and inhuman depicted with a strange disproportionate body and a mug which doesn’t even look much like the actor. It’s fitting to bring this up now since this is where Vassily commits his greatest crime.
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The shot ended up so good it was even used for the alternative poster.
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The grand event brings all villager out of their homes including this great shot of an old man with his ox. They are manifestations of the old word looks from obese the hill on a machine which will replace them.
This is one of the best shots in the film. My second favorite.
Next we get a couple of good scenes like Petro on his friends grave and Opanas plowing with oxen, but I’d like to highlight this one. Another example of Dovzhenko’s cinematographic language showing the natural coexistence of humanity and Nature as well as the fact that they are equal. Three young bulls and three young men are show one after another.
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The argument escalates and Vassily almost calls his father a fool, which would be an unheard level of disrespect. This shows his views on traditions and the merit based order he considered to be unjust and obsolete.
This falling out between a son and father is a macro level representation of the national New vs Old conflict. Then Vassily’s communist friends come. One of them starts a fiery speech trying to explain to Opanas how the machines will change things for the better, but the old man doesn’t listen and even curses the rotten youth when they leave.
This character will appear later, but we can already see that he represent the communist propagandists with their tales of future utopia.
The next scene shows us a family of farmers who just received a letter of notice from the new government which declares that their livestock will be confiscated. Dovzhenko shows us how different members of the family react to this. Women are crying loudly, the men are mostly silent. Then furious father takes an axe and screams that he’d rather slaughter the horses here and now rather then giving them up to the communists. He is stopped though. This subplot will be very important later so the viewer should keep this scene in mind.
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The weakening of the old world is symbolized by grandfather Semen’s own death in the very beginning of the film, but at the same time it also symbolizes the inevitable rebirth.
On his deathbed (in the garden) the grandfather is surrounded by the entire family, including children. The latter are eating apples and Semen decided to eat one too. He then dies calmly lying among his apples, a physical manifestation of many fruits of his 75 years of hard labor.
The ultimate goal was to break the spine of the village and the old order it represented. Just like how village-dwellers were the ones resisting christianity back in the day. Communists went further than their priestly predecessors who only dared to attack Pagans and their temples in the cities where they had guaranteed support of the king’s militia hence why the villages stayed Pagan. Stalin utilized the chandala elements (the poor drunks who were all to eager to rob their successful neighbors) to realize his plans. Collectivization eventually led to Holodomor.
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Earth (1930)
Tradition and Modernity
Nature, communism and the rise of the machines
Dovzhenko’s silent epic Earth is a drama set in a soviet Ukrainian village which faces the dehumanizing changes and inner division brought by Stalin’s regime just a couple of years before the Holodomor. Widely considered to be one of the greatest films ever made it provides a variety of interpretations. After recently rewatching it I decided too share mine.
My miniature wooden Zbruch idol (all four deities)
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Wooden Zruch idol from Poland (Goddess side)
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The Irish Goddess Brigid
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When Norwegian king Haakon the Good (who was baptized because he was a foster son of the English king), demanded the acceptance of christianity on a thing in Throndhjem Norwegians went harshly against it saying: "…abandon the ancient faith which our fathers and forefathers have held from the oldest times, in the times when the dead were burnt, as well as since that they are laid under mounds, and which, although they were braver than the people of our days, has served us as a faith to the present time."
They pledged to follow the king their entire lives and respect him, but only as long as he didn’t require the impossible. "If, however, thou wilt take up this matter with a high hand, and wilt try thy power and strength against us, we bondes have resolved among ourselves to part with thee, and to take to ourselves some other chief, who will so conduct himself towards us that we can freely and safely enjoy that faith that suits our own inclinations."
Sigrid Hunke
Opposition began as soon as the church has set foot beyond the limes—the border of the Empire. Additionally, it turned out that on the church’s holy mission of bringing salvation to all people it faced such resistance it had to deal with it by destroying identities (of those people). Complains about the rejection of baptism are loud and clear in archbishop Boniface’s letters to the pope. He let’s his disappointment loose in resounding wailings about «stubborn» rejection with which "barbaric heathens" resist his "conversion": Concerns and sorrows are everywhere! Struggles from the outside, fears from within!" he laments and admits that his "heart is depressed" to bishop of Winchester: For us there isn’t just, as the apostle said, struggles from the outside, fears from within, but struggles from within too!"
Sigrid Hunke
When the tractor arrives Vassily is confronted and even gets vaguely threatened by farmer’s son Choma, but he doesn’t care. He gets on top of a newly arrived tractor and destroys the old field. The ease with which the machine does it’s job is contracted with honest, yet tiring labor of Vassily’s father mowing with a scythe.
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Another alternative poster also features the same man with an ox.
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The three look grand being filmed from such angle, which once again shows the director’s respect of the common man and his work. Also note the human-animal symbiosis once again expressed by the cinematography. The oxen are enslaved under the yoke, but rather stand side to side with the man.
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Arrival
Now we see the great coming of the machine. The people are both scared and excited and it doesn’t go smoothly. The government representatives in the village receive a call from the city which asks them whether the machine arrived. Afraid of higher-up’s they lie that it did even though the tractor stooped having no water in the cooler. Next comes a scene which was originally cut having angered the censors. Having nothing better to do the men driving the tractor take turns pissing into the cooler which actually works and the machine arrives. This is just a comedic scene and the reason it got commies angry is obvious.
It’s important to understand that Vassily is neither a hero, nor a villain, but rather a victim of the new regime and the divide it brings. He just happens to have a strong sense of justice yet doesn’t not have the foresight to see what the communism will really bring (Holodomor).
As a result the entire movie has a very grim and prothetic quality to it. Dovzhenko released it in 1930 and Holodomor officially began in 1932, though many villages were already starving as soon as Stalin began the collectivization.
Next is one of the best and most important scenes in the movie. The quarrel between Vassily and his father Opanas. Vassily (as well as the rest of the village) already heard about the tragedy of the farmer family, but unlike the rest he is pleased. "Now, father, the kulaks are finished." he gleefully says and adds: "We’re getting machines as well". Opanas replies with a back turned to his son: "Vasili, I think, you’re not right in the head". The latter also turns his back on the father and says: "When we have the machines, we’ll take their land away". This line makes clear that Vassily believes communist propaganda and wants to equalize everyone in the village by allowing the state to control everything.
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The old man’s death scene also establishes the split in the family. His grandson Vassily (Basil) is a newly converted communist who eagerly awaits the death of the old order and helps it. There is no direct conflict with the dying grandfather, but he laughs at his other grandfather Petro when he says that Semen deserved a medal of labor.
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As mentioned above Earth is set just before the Holodomor and shows how the new regime fooled people into their own destruction with pretty lies about the equality they will soon enjoy. Dovzhenko also highlights the conflict between the natural, traditional order and the new, industrial and ultimately destructive one.
The opening scene shows us the primordial, natural beauty and the coexistence of human and plant life. Most notably we see a woman and a sunflower in one frame. Neither is in the centre, but rather stand side by side as equals in natural symbiotic relationship. This is the films best frame since it encapsulates the reverence for nature Dovzhenko had. He was even accused of being some Nature-worshipper by some of the film’s critics, but I’ll explore the topic of religion in Earth later.
Earth is a demanding movie since it requires a familiarity with the historical events of it’s time. For this reason it may end up confusing a foreign viewer especially considering how both intentionally and unintentionally ambiguous it ended up. Hence a short historical note is in order.
After communists rose to power via starting the civil war one of the first things they established is a new anti-farming policy. Free farmers (kulaks) were demonized as hoarders of the natural wealth which was used to justify robbing them of livestock and land. This process was called collectivization.
Photo: A wagon full of grain leaves the village. The poster reads: First bread belongs to the state.
Going to write a movie review. It has Pagan elements, but that's not the main theme of the film. It's also an old, silent one in black and white. Will probably be ignored by most of my readers, but I just feel like doing it.
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The first detailed copy of the most famous Slavic sacred object – the Zbruch Idol from the pagan thickets of Bohyt (10-13 centuries).
It was discovered in Zbruch River back in 1848. The original is currently being kept in Krakow museum. Our precise copy is made of so called “liquid marble” and has all the qualities of a real stone. Weight is 375 grams. Height is 23.3 cm, column width – 2.8 cm. Consists of two parts. Order at – shop@militant.zone
Pre-order price 60 EUR. Available in different colors (specify in the comments) - https://heretic.camp/product/zbruch-idol/
More of us are dying than are being born, our children look to other peoples and cultures for their models, our heritage and history are steadily displaced. This is the road to marginalization and extinction. There is an answer to this condition, and it is a spiritual one.
S.McNallen
Desperate archbishop got a response from England full of the same bitter experience with "uncontrollable barbarity of the Angles" as well as some advice: "in my opinion, you should crush the stubbornness of the uneducated people by condemning their own faith as "dirty and criminal" only washed by conversion. This is the fastest and the most efficient methods."
Sigrid Hunke
The church father Tertullian asked "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" and the Anglo-Saxon monk Alcuin asked "What has Ingeld to do with Christ?" Tertullian believed that heresy began with Greek philosophy and likewise Alcuin believed that Germanic heroes such as Ingeld were blasphemous distractions to Christian faith. Both held similar beliefs that pre-Christian teachings and heroic legends should be dismissed and ignored.
However these may be early examples of the 'Celebration Parallax.' Indeed, what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? What does Ingeld have to do with Christ? What does Israel and its history have to do with the European peoples?