“For a spoonful of borscht.”
Once again, Eisenstein emphasizes food as a central subject of revolutionary politics. The sign points out that what Vakulinchuk died for was both small and fundamental. The original issue is born from the pettiness of the officers; they are so convinced of their power and safety that they will not even make minimal efforts to improve the sailors’ food situation. It is a small thing, but also completely fundamental to the relationship between the people and their government, and it is a fitting symbol of how the government has failed its citizens.
"Russian POWs in Japan are fed better."
After the doctor inspects the meat and says it is fine to eat, even after seeing maggots on it, one man puts words to the cruelty of the treatment they are receiving from their own people. This comparison specifically calls out the fraudulent nature of Russian national unity at the time. Even their sworn enemy still upholds the basic standards of human dignity and decency that these sailors are denied. In times of war, people are supposed to be bound together by nationalism and comradery; the fact that they are not shows that the social compacts of this society have completely broken down.
"We won't forget!"
In Odessa there is a woman speaking to the people who are gathered around Vakulinchuk's body. She tells everyone that they will not forget what was done to this brave man for standing up for himself and the people. Though his life is gone, the spirit which he died to defend will carry on in the people. Eisenstein wants to emphasize the need to stay connected to the past even as society progresses into the future. The entire purpose of this film, as a piece of propoganda in the early Bolshevik government, is to remind Russians of the unsuccessful revolution of 1905 and the path it laid for the victory of 1917. Though communism is focused on the future, Eisenstein believes that people can also draw strength from the past.
“The spirit of revolution soared over the Russian land. A tremendous, mysterious process was taking place in countless hearts. The individual personality, having hardly had time to become conscious of itself, dissolved in the mass, and the mass itself became dissolved in the revolutionary élan.”
This quote was removed from many editions of the film by the Soviet government after Trotsky went into exile. Eisenstein places this quote at the beginning of the film to imbue the revolution with a mystical and elemental quality. He emphasizes this by juxtaposing the quote against crashing waves. He wants us to think of the revolution as something more than a group of people acting out in their own self-interest. He instead wants us to see it as the people of Russia transcending their differences and perhaps even the human condition itself.
“Whoever is satisfied with the borscht take two steps forward.”
It is notable that Golikov’s first instinct is not to single out his dissenters, but rather his supporters. His mindset is that suffering and discontent is the default position in his crew and in society. He knows that what allows him to maintain control is the support of a small but powerful cohort of people. He knows that the officers can give orders and the armed guards can apply pressure via the threat of violence. This is in keeping with traditional Marxist analysis which holds that small groups of relatively privileged—but not, in reality, particularly powerful—people help maintain traditional power structures against the working class.
“Above the heads of the tsar’s admirals thundered a brotherly hurrah.”
This is the film’s final message to the audience, and perhaps the most significant one. Eisenstein wants to remind the audience that though the entrenched powers of society may seem intractable, they are only allowed to remain in place because of the tacit support of the masses. Once the support of those people is lost, there is no power. Eisenstein wants us to realize that the mutiny of the Potemkin is replicable; it was repeated several times over on the other ships and would be repeated many times over in 1917, bringing about the end of the Tsar’s regime. This is the central tenet of communist beliefs: the people are fundamentally more powerful than the ruling class; they only have to realize this to claim that power.
