29.04.2019

Manas in Bishkek/Kyrgyzstan

Bishkek is the capital and largest city of Kyrgyzstan, between 1936 and 1991 named Frunze (like written on the postcard). Manas is a Kyrgyz epic hero.
The Manas cinema was opened in 1966 as the largest widescreen cinema in the USSR. With an auditorium for 740 people. Today it has a big hall with 550 seats and two smaller ones.

Barguzin in Irkutsk/Russia

In 1971, the Barguzin was opened.
Barguzin is the name of a river flowing into the Barguzin Bay of Lake Baikal and also the name of a strong wind on Baikal.
Today there is still a cinema Barguzin in Irkutsk. I am not sure if it is the old building renovated or a new built one.
This cinema is a typical widescreen cinema with 800 seats, found in some cities of former USSR, so for instance
  • Cinema Shipka in Kuibyshew, now Samara
  • Cinema Udogan in Chita
  • Cinema Iskra in Ufa
  • Cinema Krakow and Niwki in Kiev
  • Cinema Iskra in Perm
  • Cinema Komsomoletz in Mariupol
  • Cinema Kosmos in Kaluga
 Whether there is a postcard of every cinema?

28.04.2019

Belarus in Brest/Belarus

Reconstruction of the Cinema Belarus was completed in the winter of 2001. There are three halls - Big (496 seats), Small (232 seats) and VIP (20 seats).
The cinema was opened in 1971. 
And that's all I knew about it.

Oktyabr in Smolensk/Russia

Cinema Oktyabr - October - was opened on November 7, 1948 on the anniversary of the Great Socialist October Revolution. It had about 1.000 seats in two halls. Its construction began in 1938 according to a standard design developed by the architect Viktor Petrovich Kalmykov (1908-1981). He was the chief specialist in the design and construction of cinemas in the USSR. In total, there are four such cinemas left - Zvezda in Tver, Rodina in Elista, Simferopol in Crimea and Oktyabr in Smolensk.
Two years after the start, construction was suspended due to the termination of funding. During the German occupation in the unfinished building on July 16, 1943, the Vozrozhdenie cinema opened.The construction of the cinema was resumed in the autumn of 1945. The opening ceremony was held on November 7, 1948, and until 1970 it was the largest cinema in the city. 

In the early 2000s. the building fell into disrepair. Cinema closed about 2010. Periodically, the halls used for exhibitions - dinosaurs, butterflies, monkeys, wax figures and as a shopping mall.
The postcard is from 1962.
Here you can read more about the history of cinemas in Smolensk (in Russian).

27.04.2019

Moscow Cinema in Yerevan/Armenia

Moscow Cinema is located at the Charles Aznavour Square in Armenian capital Yerevan. Tiran Terkanyan and Gevork Kochar were the architectures. It was opened on 12 December 1936, with the Soviet-Armenian movie Pepo.
The cinema was privated in 1999 and reopened after a major renovation in September 2000. Now it has 4 halls with 491, 350, 49 and 35 seats. And it has also an open-air theatre at the eastern side of the building.
The postcard is from 1960, it is more a drawing than a photo.

Pobeda in Kirov/Russia

Cinema Pobeda - Victory - in the Russian town Kirov was opened in 1955. It was built by Nikita Ivanovich Koslov in the so called Stalinist Empire style.
Today, this place is used for the Musical restaurant Gaudi.
The postcard was published in 1973.
Cinema Burevstnik in Nishni Novgorod nearly looks like Pobeda in Kirov. It was also opened in 1955 and still works.

Nizami Cinema Center in Baku/Azerbaijan

Nizami Cinema Center in Azerbaijan's capital Baku was opened in 1934. Sadig Dadashov and Mikayl Huseynov were the architects. The cinema was named after the poet Nizami Ganjavi, a 12th century Persian poet.
In 2011, the cinema was renovated and reopened. Now it has at all 4 halls with 500, 80, 50 and 24 seats.
The postcard is published in 1960.
Cinema came to Azerbaijan already in 1898. The Russian-French photographer Alexander Mishon has shot several film subjects on the city and has featured on August 2, 1898 - Day of Azerbaijani Cinema today.
In 1915, the Belgian Pirone brothers set up a film production lab in Baku. They invited the Russian director Boris Svetlovu to work on them. Svetlov's film In the Kingdom of Oil and Millions (1916) was the first and very successful Azerbaijan epic film.