The first Soviet film shot in CinemaScope with four-track stereo sound.
According to Mosfilm, this production used 106,000 extras and 11,000 horses.
Ilja Moromez is a legendary Russian hero, a man who is said to have started out life as a cripple before being healed by a witch and becoming a warrior.
Mosfilm produced this epic to introduce its own 2X anamorphic wide-screen system, which it dubbed "Sovscope."
In 1960, the film opened theatrically in Seattle, WA. The co-feature was a cheap B&W flick entitled Plan 9 From Outer Space (directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr.).