Birth of the Russian "Great Mute" (1898–1917) It is known that the French brought the movies to Russia. It was at the beginning of 1896. However, many Russian photographers were able to quickly learn a new craft. Already in 1898, documentary plots were shot not only by foreign, but also by Russian operators. But still 10 years were before the appearance of Russian feature films. Only in 1908, director and entrepreneur Alexander Drankov made the first Russian film with actors under the title Ponizovaya Volnitsa (Stepan Razin)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmm_CkbqMlM - Добрый вечер, добро пожаловать, - Good evening, welcome, всем большое спасибо, что пришли. thank you all very much for coming. Обычные извинения за то, что ваш любимый The usual apologies for the fact that your favorite alien инопланетянин не будет показан, isn't going to be featured, я подозреваю, что их слишком много, I suspect there are way too many of them out there чтобы я мог просмотреть их всех, for me to get through all of them, но моя тема этим вечером, but my topic this evening, я собираюсь начать с идеей о том, когда, как и почему...