While no one person can be credited with the inception of cinema, the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiere contributed greatly to the commercial spread of the cinema throughout Europe and Asia. Having patented the cinematograph in France in February of 1895, on December 28 of the same year the brothers presented a program including "La Sortie" and "L'Arrivee d'un Train en Gare" in the basement of the Grand Cafe in Paris to the first paying audience. Less than three months later, the cinematograph came to London and the Lumiere brothers continued to travel with their invention all around the Europe.

Like other new ideas, cinema's advent into Russian culture was to be marked by the blood of her people. In May of 1896, massive crowds gathered on Khodynskoye Pole, the usual location for festivities, in honor of the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II. They had been attracted there by the Tsar's promise of a glass of wine, a loaf of bread, half a pound of sweets, and an evening of entertainment. As a result, 2000 died in the crush. "Khodynka" still lives on in the Russian language, synonymous with "death in a crowd". Within the St. Petersburg proper, upon crowded Red Square and inside the Kremlin, the last Romanov posed in elegance while French cameramen filmed the world's first newsreel. The first Russian film "The coronation of Tsar Nicholas II" was marked by Russian blood and issued by the Lumiere.
Leo Tolstoi later wrote: "A coronation was arranged, terrible in its absurdity and insane waste of money: the dreadful misfortune of the deaths of thousands of people resulted from the authorities' impudence and contempt for the people, and the organizers regarded it as a small cloud over the festivities which should not be interrupted because of it..."
Within the month, the Lumiere brothers opened the first Russian film theatre in Leningrad.

Nicholas II himself loved to be photographed, but held disdain for cinema. He did everything in his power to hobble the growing industry. He was of the opinion that cinema was "an empty, useless and even pernicious diversion." Anyway, the first cinema house was open in 1906 by Alexander Hanjonkov, the Russian representative of a foreign firm. And by 1913 Russia had 1412 cinema houses where shows lasted from ten minutes up to an hour.

And in 1907 another Alexander, Drankov, opened the first film production studio in Saint Petersburg and tried to make the film "Boris Godunov". His practice didn't bring any success, even though it was shown under the name "The scenes of Boyars' life" the same year. The critics of silent films ignore this picture and consider Drankov’s Stenka Razin as the first Russian feature film (length - 224 m, 7 scenes). The great Cossack hero, Stenka Razin, was celebrated precisely for his bloodthirstiness.

With the country torn apart by war and ravaged by famine, the industry was ineffective until 1922. Because film stock was limited, propaganda was shown in the form of 5-30 minute "agitki" from trains that traveled about the country. Of special importance at this time was Lev Kuleshov who taught the directors Dziga Vertov, Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin the art of the Soviet Montage. Unlike the Germans who theorized about film, the Russians learned through experience. Kuleshov with his group produced the comedy "Neobychainiye priklucheniya Mistera Vesta v stranye bolshevikov" in 1924. Vertov formed a group of avant-garde enthusiasts called "Kinoki" and perfected the documentary. Eisenstein created his masterpiece, "Bronenosets Potemkin" in 1925. Pudovkin continued his career as Eisenstein's friendly opponent, directing films including "Shakhmatnaya Goryachka, "Mat" (based on a Gorky's novel), "Konyets Sankt Peterburga", and "Potomok Chingis Khana" in 1928. Kohne Gitchel

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