A documentary film that sheds light on the consequences of the activities of the GubChK (All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage under the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR) in Kyiv and Kharkiv following the retreat of Bolshevik forces. The material was commissioned by the command of Anton Denikin’s army for ideological and propaganda purposes. Alongside graphic scenes demonstrating the aftermath of crimes, the footage also captures everyday life in Kyiv and Kharkiv in 1919.

Despite the absence of authorial credits in the surviving copy, the film is likely the work of Aksel Lundin. It is also known under the titles “Bolshevik Atrocities Before the Surrender of Kyiv on August 21, 1919,” “Through Blood to Revival,” “Human Slaughter. A Living Shooting Range in the Dungeons of Soviet Extraordinary Commissions,” and “The Kyiv Extraordinary Commission.” Later that same year, after Soviet power was established in Kyiv, Lundin began producing propaganda films of the opposite, pro-Soviet orientation (“In the Realm of the Executioner Denikin,” “Aid to Red Kharkiv,” “Universal Military Training,” etc.).

A film copy was preserved in the collection of the Bundesarchiv and was digitized and transferred in 2024 with the support of Adelheid Heftberger and the Bundesarchiv team, as well as Ivan Kozlenko.