Name: Strike
Released: 1962
Cast: Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Maksim Shtraukh, Mikhail Gomorov, Yudit Glizer, Boris Yurtsev

Cast & Crew

Film Details

Also Known As

Stachka

Release Date

Jan 1962

Premiere Information

New York opening: 4 Jan 1962

Production Company

Goskino; Proletkult

Distribution Company

Brandon Films

Country

Soviet Union

Synopsis

Intolerable working conditions, including wage reductions and extended work loads, precipitate labor agitation in a factory. The ranks of labor are infiltrated, however, by company provocateurs, among them "Monkey," "Owl," "Bulldog," "Tailor," "Slyboots," "Peasant," "Fox," and "Shepherd." When a company agent steals a micrometer, its loss is blamed on an honest workman. Overwhelmed by the injustice, the laborer hangs himself. His death touches off a general strike, during which company representatives are dunked in a muddy pond. In response to demands for an 8-hour day, wage increases, and restrictions on child labor, the industrialist wipes his shoes with the workers' petition. An activist, photographed by "Owl," is arrested and tortured. Though a dwarf provocateur sets fire to a warehouse, the workers discover his treachery and summon the fire department. The firemen maliciously turn their hoses on the strikers, however, drowning one man in the mud. Frustrated by labor unity and by their inability to incite the strikers to violence, the police slaughter the workers, trampling an infant with their horses, dropping a child from a high building, and firing into the crowd.