Yakov Protazanov - Pikovaya dama AKA The Queen of Spades (1916)

Already in the early years of Russian cinema Protazanov’s name was a hallmark of artistic excellence. "The Queen of Spades" is a brilliant example of his extraordinary talent. The film has not only a first-rate story and ingenious Mozzhukhin’s performance, but also all the tricks that were available to filmmakers in 1916. The use of crosscutting in the film is quite sophisticated for the time; superimposition is yet another important device; and the use of flashbacks here is very effective. Unlike most pictures of that time "The Queen of Spades" made a genuine contribution to the evolution of Russian film art. I think it would be great if more people see one of the best pre-revolutionary Russian films.

--GostaBerling

Aleksandr Razumnyj - Mat aka Mother [Incomplete] (1919)

First screen adaptation of Gorky's " Mother"

Anatoli Dolinov & Aleksandr Panteleyev & Donat Pashkovsky - Uplotneniye (1918)

The first scenario work of Anatoliy Lunacharsky.

The first Soviet kinopostanovka Petrograd kinokomiteta (now - Lenfilm Studio).

November 7, 1918 - the date of the first issue on the screens of Soviet films. On this day it was released four paintings, three of them - campaign.

In order to seal one of the rooms of Professor relocated from raw basement working with his daughter. Flats start attending the factory workers. Guests are becoming more and more, and the professor begins to read popular lectures in the workers' club. Between the younger son of a professor and his daughter working there is a feeling and the characters decide to get married ...

Various - Kino-nedelya 31-35 AKA Kino-Week 31-35 (1919)

Kino-nedelya was directed by Dziga Vertov, Vladimir Gardin, Lev Kuleshov and others

Quote:
In 1918 Mikhail Koltstov, who headed the Moscow Film Committee's newsreel section, hired Vertov as his assistant. Among Vertov's colleagues was Lev Kuleshov, who was conducting his now legendary experiments in montage, as well as Edouard Tissé, Eisenstein's future cameraman was Lev Kuleshov, who was conducting his now legendary experiments in montage, as well as Edouard Tissé, Eisenstein's future cameraman. Vertov began to edit documentary footage and soon was appointed editor of
Kinonedelya, the first Soviet weekly newsreel

Yevgeni Bauer - Umirayushchii Lebed aka The Dying Swan (1917)

Mike Pinsky, DVDVerdict wrote:
Russian film poet Evgeni Bauer combined the technical virtuosity of D.W. Griffith with the haunting terror of Edgar Allan Poe and the artist’s eye of Johannes Vermeer. He is — perhaps — the greatest film director you have never heard of. During his brief four-year career, Evgeni Bauer created macabre masterpieces. They are dramas darkly obsessed with doomed love and death, astonishing for their graceful camera movements, risqué themes, opulent sets and chiaroscuro lighting. Tragically, Bauer died in 1917, succumbing to pneumonia after breaking his leg.

For many decades, Bauer’s films were buried in the Soviet archives — declared too "cosmopolitan" and bizarre for the puritanical Soviet regime. But with the fall of the Iron Curtain, Bauer’s work has risen like a glorious phoenix out of the ashes of time. by MilestoneFilms

Yakov Protazanov - Otets Sergiy AKA Father Sergius (1917)

One of the few pre-Revolution Russian feature films to survive, Father Sergius is an elaborate picturization of a Tolstoy novel. Ivan Mozzhukin plays a young, libertine officer who thinks nothing of committing casual sins while in the service of the Czar. He comes to regret his misdeeds as he grows older, his past debaucheries manifesting themselves in his wizened face and desiccated body. He wanders up and down the countryside, searching for redemption. Director Feodor Protazanov emphasized the high and low points of Mozhukin's life by filming in the actual palaces and private clubs described by Tolstoy in his novel. The overall theme of corruption in high places automatically resulted in Father Sergius being banned by the Czarist censors, though the film found a more receptive audience once the government passed into the hands of the revolutionaries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide