Lost film of Pamir expedition surfaces after Stalin ban
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In Tajikistan, Abdusattor Sayedov of the National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan presented a documentary about a 1928 Soviet-German expedition to the Pamir Mountains, a range in Central Asia, at a scientific conference in Dushanbe on October 16.
The film, which captures the landscapes, glaciers, and people of the region, was banned by Joseph Stalin and believed lost for decades.
A joint Soviet and German team of scientists, including glaciologists, botanists, and zoologists, conducted a six-month expedition, assembling a large caravan with over eight tons of supplies and more than 100 people, plus animals, to travel through the Pamirs. They studied Lake Karakul and the Fedchenko Glacier, a glacier extending over 70 kilometers, and documented the traditions of the Tajik people in Gorno-Badakhshan and the Pamir Kyrgyz communities.
The documentary, directed by Vladimir Shneyderov and filmed by Ilya Dreyer, was initially shown in German cinemas in the early 1930s before Stalin’s ban led to its disappearance from public view. A copy of the film remained in Germany, and it was restored and released online in 2012 with Russian subtitles. Sayedov also noted that Nikolai Gorbunov, the Soviet leader of the expedition, was executed in 1937 during a period of political repression.
Sayedov encouraged people in Tajikistan to view the film, which is available on YouTube, to learn about the history and environment of the Pamirs nearly a century ago.
