Kremlin Guards and Zaporizhzhia Steelworkers: The 1964 Youth Delegation from the Dniprospetsstal Plant (Archival Film)

1964 · history · Amateur Film Studio of the Dniprospetsstal Plant · Creators: Ivan Rogalev, Mikhail Vulfovich

An extraordinary archival amateur documentary film produced in 1964 by the workers of the Dniprospetsstal plant, Ivan Stepanovich Rogalev and Mikhail Semenovich Vulfovich. The film captures a unique historical event: the 1964 visit of a delegation of young steelworkers and Komsomol members from Zaporizhzhia to Moscow to meet surviving "Kremlin Cadets" (Kremlin Guards)—veterans of the Russian Civil War who fought on Khortytsia Island and in Zaporizhzhia in 1920. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND & SYNOPSIS (Based on the written memoirs of the former Factory Komsomol Secretary, V.G. Onopko): 1. THE UNEXPECTED LETTER (October 1963) The initiative began in October 1963 when V.G. Onopko, then the Secretary of the Factory Komsomol Committee, received a letter from Moscow signed by old Bolsheviks and Civil War veterans L.V. Kharitonov, G.V. Gamarin, A.A. Bulychev, and P.I. Golin. The veterans wrote after seeing a photograph in the "Pravda" newspaper showing the plant’s youth relaxing at the Dniprospetsstal health resort (profilaktorium) on Khortytsia Island. The old guards revealed that in 1920, the Kremlin Cadet Machine-Gun Brigade had fought bitter battles against General Wrangel's White Army forces on that exact soil, where many young cadets perished. 2. THE VISIT OF THE KREMLIN GUARD (December 1963) The young steelworkers invited the veterans to Zaporizhzhia. In December 1963, Alexei Andreevich Bulychev arrived as a delegate. As a direct participant in the events of 1917–1921 and a former guard of "Post No. 27" (the personal sentry post outside Vladimir Lenin's office and apartment in the Kremlin), Bulychev gave over 20 emotional lectures in 5 days across various factory departments (including Steel Melting Shop No. 3 / SPZ-3, Dormitory No. 145, and Boarding School No. 8 on Khortytsia Island). 3. THE WORKERS' COMPETITION & THE MOSCOW TRIP (Spring 1964) Deeply moved by the history, Bulychev requested several rose bushes from Khortytsia Island to plant in the Kremlin near the obelisk dedicated to the fallen cadets. In response, the factory launched a major socialist labor competition among young workers. The right to travel to Moscow, plant the Khortytsia roses at the Kremlin, and lay a wreath at Lenin's Mausoleum had to be earned through outstanding production results. The competition was led by elite youth teams: the steelworkers' brigade of Igor Shvydenko (SPZ-1), the brigade of Dmytro Halushka (SPZ-2, future Hero of Socialist Labor), the rolling mill team of the "550" mill, and the youth organizations of the Forging Shop and the Repair and Mechanical Shop No. 1 (RMZ-1). The film documents this competitive drive, the solemn laying of flowers in Moscow, the planting of Zaporizhzhian roses near the Kremlin walls, and a return visit by the elderly Kremlin cadets to Zaporizhzhia, where they planted spruce trees at the factory's health resort on Khortytsia Island. This documentary stands as a stellar primary visual and textual source for scholars investigating the Soviet Thaw era, the microhistory of heavy industry, social psychology, state-sponsored commemorative practices, and the oral history of early Soviet industrial communities in Ukraine. Original YouTube link: https://youtu.be/5oHD7tdB0Oo Official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JuryRylsky Curator Contact: rylskiju62@gmail.com / rylskii.iurii@dss.com.ua