Soviets Want to See Civil War Epic

The Soviet Union has asked for rights to rent Hollywood’s most famous epic, the 1939 classic “Gone With The Wind.”

“We think there’s a hundred million people in the Soviet Union who’d like to see ‘Gone With the Wind,’ ” said Jack Petrik, an executive for Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting System Inc., which owns the film. Petrik said Wednesday night that Soviet authorities had contacted the Turner organization seeking to arrange for release of the movie in Soviet cinemas.

A 3 1/2-hour technically restored version of GWTW was released earlier this year on a limited basis in the United States, Japan, Britain and parts of Asia, Europe and Latin America.