"The old world is shrinking. The ocean is shrinking." And the Soviets are arriving on foot and by plane to build a shining new city, the mythical Aerograd, on the Far Eastern front. The Dovzhenko/Solntseva penchant for the aerial image-the other side of their passion for lowering, cloud-scattered skies-has a particular thematic use in this Dovzhenko classic. It was made with Stalin's blessing, and this is evident in the story which pits rural partisans against Old Believers in the struggle to Sovietize Siberia. Between them is "a foreign beast prowling our woods"-the Japanese, depicted in a manner reflecting Soviet anxieties about Japanese aggression. Cinematographer Eduard Tisse's lyrical images of the Siberian taiga, and some wonderful cinematic conceits-high-speed traveling shots through the forest, characters who appear to address the camera (and one who hides his face in a particularly apt moment), the silent shout of a woodsman about to be shot for treason by his best friend-raise this political tract to a poetic level.