Admiral, which had its world premiere last night in Moscow, glorifies Alexander Kolchak, a naval hero who led White Russian forces into battle against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and briefly became Supreme Governor of Russia before dying at the hands of a communist firing squad.

Despised in Soviet times as a Tsarist enemy of the people, Kolchak is back in fashion as the Kremlin tries to reconnect today's resurgent Russia with its glorious imperial past and bury the 74 years of communism that came in between.

"It's very important we talk about our history, our country, our officers," director Andrei Kravchuk said in an interview.

"If we understand that we had such a history, such people... we can fill ourselves with dignity, and the notion of motherland and patriotism, which can seem worn and tarnished, gains new, concrete, visible meaning."

The film's backers hope the epic, which opens across Russia on Thursday, will secure the same success at home and abroad as an earlier hit by the same producers, the 2004 horror fantasy Night Watch.

Boasting an £11 million budget – huge by Russian standards – Admiral portrays Kolchak as a fearless commander, loving father, dashing lover and principled leader of the doomed White Russians as they make a final stand in the snow.

After a fond farewell to his lover, he faces the Bolshevik firing squad bravely in the winter night, standing in front of a cathedral and refusing a blindfold. His executioners wrap his body in a white shroud and throw it into a river through a hole cut in the ice.

Promoters pitch the film as Russia's answer to Titanic, stressing the common theme of doomed love amid tragedy and hoping to enjoy similarly huge box-office success.

Like Titanic, Admiral "is a story of love amid extreme catastrophe but this time it's not a ship which is sinking, it's the entire country", said co-producer Anatoly Maximov.

Mostly funded by state-run First Channel television, Admiral is the latest in a series of epics showing pre-revolutionary Russian heroes battling bravely against the odds, dogged by foreign villains.