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The son of an affluent architect, Eisenstein attended the Institute of Civil Engineering in Petrograd as a young man. With the fall of the tsar in 1917, he worked as an engineer for the Red Army. In the following years, Eisenstein joined up with the Moscow Proletkult Theater as a set designer and then director. The Proletkult's director, Vsevolod Meyerhold, became a big influence on Eisenstein, introducing him to the concept of biomechanics, or conditioned spontaneity. Eisenstein furthered Meyerhold's theory with his own "montage of attractions"--a sequence of pictures whose total emotion effect is greater than the sum of its parts. He later theorized that this style of editing worked in a similar fashion to Marx's dialectic. Though Eisenstein wanted to make films for the common man, his intense use of symbolism and metaphor in what he called "intellectual montage" sometimes lost his audience. Though he made only seven films in his career, he and his theoretical writings demonstrated how film could move beyond its nineteenth-century predecessor--Victorian theatre-- to create abstract concepts with concrete images.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
One of the 20th century's greatest masters of cinema Sergei Parajanov was born in Georgia to Armenian parents and it was always unlikely that his work would conform to the strict socialist realism that Soviet authorities preferred. After studying film and music, Parajanov became an assistant director at the Dovzhenko studios in Kiev, making his directorial debut in 1954, following that with numerous shorts and features, all of which he subsequently dismissed as "garbage". However, in 1964 he was able to make Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965), a rhapsodic celebration of Ukrainian folk culture, and the world discovered a startling and idiosyncratic new talent. He followed this up with the even more innovative The Color of Pomegranates (1969) (which explored the art and poetry of his native Armenia in a series of stunningly beautiful tableaux), but by this stage the authorities had had enough, and Paradjanov spent most of the 1970s in prison on almost certainly rigged charges of "homosexuality and illegal trafficking in religious icons". However, with the coming of perestroika, he was able to make The Legend of Suram Fortress (1985), Ashik Kerib (1988) and The Confession, which survives as Parajanov: The Last Spring (1992), before succumbing to cancer in 1990.- The famous Russian actor was discovered by Andrei Tarkovsky. He was looking for an actor to play the part of Andrei Rublev for his second full-length film and accidentally found the completely unknown Solonitsyn in Chelyabinsk. He worked there as an amateur actor. After Andrei Rublev, he played main parts in many of Russia's best movies.
- Director
- Cinematographer
- Writer
Mikhail Kalatozov was born on 28 December 1903 in Tiflis, Russian Empire [now Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia]. He was a director and cinematographer, known for The Cranes Are Flying (1957), True Friends (1954) and Zagovor obrechyonnykh (1950). He died on 27 March 1973 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Additional Crew
Joseph Stalin (a code name meaning "Man of Steel") was born Iosif (Joseph) Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili in 1878 in Gori, Georgia, the Transcaucasian part of the Russian Empire. His father was a cobbler named Vissarion Dzhugashvili, a drunkard who beat him badly and frequently and left the family when Joseph was young. His mother, Ekaterina Gheladze, supported herself and her son (her other three children died young and Jopseph was effectively an only child) by taking in washing. She managed, despite great hardship, to send Joseph to school and then on to Tiflis Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tbilisi, hoping he would become a priest. However, after three years of studies he was expelled in 1899, for not attending an exam and for propagating communist ideas and the books of Karl Marx.
Since 1898, Stalin became active in the Communist underground as the organizer of a powerful gang involved in a series of armed robberies. After robbing several banks in southern Russia, Stalin delivered the stolen money to Vladimir Lenin to finance the Communist Party. Stalin's gang was also involved in the murders of its political opponents; Stalin himself was arrested seven times, repeatedly imprisoned, and twice exiled to Siberia between 1902 and 1913. During those years he changed his name twice and became more closely identified with revolutionary Marxism. He escaped many times from prison and was shuttling money between Lenin and other communists in hiding, where his intimacy with Lenin and Bukharin grew, as did his dissatisfaction with fellow Communist leader Lev Trotskiy. In 1912 he was co-opted on to the illegal Communist Central Committee. At that time he wrote propaganda articles, and later edited the Communist paper, "Pravda" (Truth). As Lenin's apprentice he joined the Communist majority (Bolsheviks), and was responsible for the consolidation of several secret communist cells into a larger ring. Stalin's Communist ring in St. Petersburg and across Russia played the leading role in the Russian Revolution of 1917. After the revolution the Bolsheviks Communists grabbed the power, then Communists murdered the Tsar and the Russian royal family. Stalin and Lenin took over the Tsar's palaces and used the main one in Kremlin as their private residence.
Lenin appointed Stalin the People's Commissar for Nationalities in the first Soviet government and a member of the Communist Politburo, thus giving him unlimited power. Stalin led the "Reds" against anti-Communist forces known as the "Whites" and also in the war with Poland. He also organized "Red Terror" in Tsaritsin (later renamed Stalingrad). With his appointment as General Secretary to the Party Central Committee in 1922, a post he held for the next 30 years, until his death, he consolidated the power that would ensure his control of the country after Lenin's death in 1924. He also took, or gave himself, other key positions that enabled him to amass total power in the Party and Soviet government.
Stalin was known for his piercing eyes and terrifying stare, which he used to cow his opponents into submission during private discussions. In 1927 Stalin requested medical help for his insomnia, anger and severe anxiety disorder. His doctors diagnosed him as having "typical clinical paranoia" and recommended medical treatment. Instead, Stalin became angry and summoned his secret service agents. The next day the chief psychiatrist, Dr. Bekhterev, and his assistants died of poisoning. In addition, before the doctors' diagnosis about Stalin's mental condition could become known, he ordered the executions of intellectuals, resulting in the murders of hundreds of thousands of doctors, professors, writers, and others.
Stalin's policy of amassing dictatorial power under the guise of building "socialism in the country" resulted in brutal extermination of all real and perceived anti-Communist opposition. His purges of the Soviet military brought about the execution of tens of thousands of army officers, many of them experienced combat veterans of the Revolution, the Civil War, the Polish campaigns and other military operations (this decimation of the Russian officer corps would result in the Soviet Union's initial defeats at the hands of Nazi invaders at the beginning of World War II). He also isolated and disgraced his political rivals, notably Trotsky. Stalin's economic policies of strict centralized planning (i.e., the "five-year plans") resulted in the near ruination of the Soviet economy and mass famines in many areas of the Soviet Union, notably in Central Russia and the Ukraine. Popular resistance to Stalin's policies, such as nationalization of private lands and collective farming, by independent farmers ("kulaks"), brought about brutal retaliation, in which millions of kulaks were either forced off their land or executed outright. Altogether Stalin's economic and political policies resulted in the deaths of up to 10 million peasants during 1926-1934. Between 1934 and 1939 he organized and led massive purge (known as "The Great Terror") of the party, government, armed forces and intelligentsia, in which millions of so-called "enemies of the Soviet people" were imprisoned, exiled or executed. In the late 1930s, Stalin sent some Red Army forces and material to support the Spanish Republican government in its fight against the rebels led by Gen. Francisco Franco and aided by troops and material from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
Stalin made the Non-Aggression Pact with Adolf Hitler in 1939, which bought the Soviet Union two years' respite from involvement in World War 2. After the German invasion in 1941, the USSR became a member of the Grand Alliance and Stalin, as war leader, assumed the title of Generalissimus. He had no formal military training and scorned the advice of his senior officers, due to suspicion and his rising paranoia, actions that resulted in horrific losses to the Russian military in both men and material (not to mention civilian losses). He rejected military plans made by such experienced officers as Marshal Georgi Zhukov, and insisted they be replaced by his own plans, which led to even more horrific losses. Towards the end of WWII he took part in the conferences of Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Clement Attlee. The agreements reached in those conferences resulted in Soviet military and political control over the liberated countries of postwar Castern and Central Europe.
From 1945 until his death Stalin resumed his repressive measures at home, resulting in censorship of the arts, literature and cinema, forced exiles of hundreds of thousands and the executions of intellectuals and other potential "enemies of the state". At that time he conducted foreign policies that contributed to the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. Stalin had little interest in family life, although he was married twice and had several mistresses. His first wife (Ekaterina Svanidze, married c. 1904) died three years after their marriage and left a son, Jacob (also known as Yacov), an officer in the Russian army during World War II who was captured by the Nazis and died in a POW camp (his father refused German offers to exchange him for captured German officers). His second wife (Nadezhda Alliluyeva, married 1919) attempted to moderate his politics, but she died by suicide, leaving a daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, and an alcoholic son, Vasili Stalin, who later died in exile. Increasingly paranoid, Stalin launched attacks on such intellectuals as Osip Mandelstam, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Anna Akhmatova, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Boris Pasternak, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and many other cultural luminaries. Stalin personally intervened in the fate of "counterrevolutionary" Yiddish writers and changed their sentences from exile to execution. Thirteen of them were executed by the Soviet secret police; their leader, Perets Markish, was executed in the typical KGB manner by a single gunshot to the head on August 12, 1952, in Moscow.
Stalin died suddenly on March 5, 1953, under somewhat mysterious circumstances, after announcing his intention to arrest Jewish doctors, whom he believed were plotting to kill him. The "official" cause of death was announced as brain hemorrhage. Stalin's apprentice, Georgi Malenkov, took the power, but was soon ousted by Nikita Khrushchev. Three years after death, Stalin was posthumously denounced by Nikita Khrushchev at the 20th Party Congress in 1956 for crimes against the Party and for building a "cult of personality." In 1961 Stalin's body was removed from Lenin's Mausoleum, where it had been displayed since his death, and buried near the Kremlin wall. In 1964 Leonid Brezhnev dismissed Khrushchev and brought back some of Stalin's hard-line policies. After 1986 Mikhail Gorbachev initiated a series of liberal political reforms known as "glasnost" and "perstroika", and many of Stalin's victims were posthumously rehabilitated, and the whole phenomenon of "Stalinism" was officially condemned by the Russian authorities.- Director
- Writer
- Actress
Larisa Shepitko was born on 6 January 1938 in Bakhmut, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine]. She was a director and writer, known for The Ascent (1977), Heat (1963) and You and Me (1971). She was married to Elem Klimov. She died on 2 July 1979 in near Redkino, Kalinin Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR.- Actor
- Director
- Music Department
Andrei Mironov was a Soviet comedian known for The Diamond Arm (1969)
He was born Andrei Aleksandrovich Menaker on March 8, 1941, in Moscow. His father, Aleksandr Semenovich Menaker, and his mother, Mariya Mironova, were famous actors in the Soviet Union. From 1958-1962 he studied acting at the Moscow Shchukin School. From 1962-1987 Mironov was a permanent member of the trope at the Moscow Theatre of Satire.
In 1961, while being a student of acting school, Mironov made his film debut in 'A esli eto lyubov?', by director Yuli Raizman. He became famous after his roles in My Younger Brother (1962), written by Vasiliy Aksyonov and directed by Aleksandr Zarkhi, and in '3+2' (1962), directed by Genrikh Oganisyan. Mironov did a nice performance in a supporting role in Watch Out for the Automobile (1966) (Watch Out for the Automobile 1966), by director Eldar Ryazanov. In it Mironov worked with the stellar acting ensemble, including such actors, as Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy, Oleg Efremov, Anatoliy Papanov, Georgi Zhzhyonov, Evgeniy Evstigneev, Olga Aroseva, Donatas Banionis, and others.
Andrei Mironov is best known for his brilliant performance in supporting role as Kozodoev, a sloppy tourist turned involuntary jewel-smuggler in popular comedy The Diamond Arm (1969) (The Diamond Arm 1968), by director Leonid Gaidai. After this film Mironov became a superstar in the Soviet Union. He worked with an outstanding ensemble of stars, such as Yuriy Nikulin, Anatoliy Papanov, Nina Grebeshkova, Nonna Mordyukova, and other popular Russian actors. The film became the biggest box-office hit ever in the Soviet Union with theatrical admissions over 76,000,000 in the year 1969. It still remains popular after many decades. In the 1995 national poll The Diamond Arm (1969) (The Diamond Arm 1968) was voted the best Russian-Soviet film of all time.
Andrei Mironov was among the most popular Russian actors during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. He was highly regarded for his distinguished contribution to comedy. Among his best works was his interpretation of the classic character Ostap Bender in _"12 stulev" (1977) (mini)_ (Twelve chairs 1977), by director Mark Zakharov. There his partners were Anatoliy Papanov, Rolan Bykov, Georgiy Vitsin, Oleg Tabakov, Aleksandr Abdulov, and others. Mironov also worked with Mark Zakharov in An Ordinary Miracle (1979) (An Ordinary Miracle 1978), where his partners were Aleksandr Abdulov, Irina Kupchenko, Evgeniy Leonov, Evgeniya Simonova, Yekaterina Vasilyeva, and Oleg Yankovskiy.
Andrei Mironov was designated People's Artist of Russia, and also received awards at Soviet film festivals. He had a apoplexy and collapsed during his performance on stage, in the arms of his friend and partner Aleksandr Shirvindt, just minutes before the end of the show. Mironov died of a brain hemorrhage aged 46, on August 16, 1987, only thirteen days after the death of his best film partner Anatoliy Papanov. Andrei Mironov was laid to rest in the Vagankovo Cemetery in Moscow, Russia. He was survived by his wife, actress Ekaterina Golubkina, and their daughter, actress Maria Mironova.- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Dmitri Shostakovich, one of Russian culture's most acclaimed intellectuals who was censored under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, was an internationally recognized composer whose music was in over 100 films.
He was born Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich on September 25, 1906, in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was the second of three children of Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich, a chemical engineer, and Sofia Kokaoulina, a pianist. Young Shostakovich studied piano under his mother tutelage and at a private school in St. Petersburg. His greatest influences were Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Modest Mussorgsky. From 1919-1925 he studied piano and composition at St. Petersburg (Leningrad) Conservatory. He wrote his First "Classical" symphony as his graduation piece. In 1927 he won an "honorable mention diploma" at the 1st International Piano Competition in Warsaw. In 1929 he collaborated with writer Vladimir Mayakovsky, artist Alexander Rodchenko and director Vsevolod Meyerhold.
In 1934 Shostakovich collaborated with Aleksei Dikij on the legendary opera Katerina Izmailova" (aka Lady Makbeth of Mtsensk). Dikij's production of "Katerina Izmailova" had over 100 performances in Leningrad and Moscow, and was considered a highlight in his directing career. However, in 1936, the opera was severely criticized by some critics on the Pravda, the Communist Party's official newspaper, and accused of formalism and intellectualism.
In the summer of 1941 Nazi Germany and its allies invaded the Soviet Union, and German and Finnish forces and encircled Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Defenders and civilians in besieged Leningrad were doomed, because the besieging forces cut supplies of food and energy to the surrounded city. It wasn't long before the city's population of birds, pets and even rats were eaten, and not long after there were reports of cannibalism brought about by starvation. The siege of Leningrad was so impenetrable that by December of that year an average of 4000 to 6000 residents a day were dying of starvation, disease, shellfire, bombardment and a variety of other causes.
During the first months of the siege Shostakovich was in Leningrad. He survived the first bombardments and joined the "night watch" patrol, helping to put out fires during massive German air bombardments. Shostakovich personally neutralized several incendiary bombs and was actively involved in firefighting. After aerial and artillery bombardments, during the rare quiet moments, Shostakovich was back to his piano composing new music. He was evacuated from the besieged city in the end of 1941.
The Seventh "Leningrad" Symphony, which Shostakovich started composing during the Nazi aerial and artillery attacks during the siege, was the masterpiece that won him national and international recognition. His music helped lift the spirits of Leningrad citizens in a time when they were struggling to survive.
On August 9, 1942, Karl Eliasberg gave a premiere performance of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony in Leningrad. That famous concert was made possible because Eliasberg specially created an orchestra of survivors who were still able to perform in spite of starvation and dystrophy.
Eliasberg, who was also extremely emaciated, spent some time in the hospital in the Astoria hotel and came to the rehearsals straight from the sick ward. On the score of one of the musicians of that legendary orchestra you can still see a drawing showing hollow-cheeked Eliasberg conducting his orchestra sitting on a chair. The legendary performance was broadcast live from the Radio Hall in Leningrad, so millions of civilians and defenders of the besieged city were able to hear the powerful music. The symphony written in the conventional four movements is Shostakovich's longest, and one of the longest in the repertoire, with performances taking approximately one hour and fifteen minutes. The scale and scope of the work is consistent with Shostakovich's other symphonies as well as with those of composers considered to be his strongest influences, including Bruckner, Gustav Mahler and Igor Stravinsky.
Before they tackled Shostakovich's work, Eliasberg had the players go through pieces from the standard repertoire - Ludwig van Beethoven, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - which they also performed for broadcast. Because the city was still blockaded at the time, the score was flown by night in early July for rehearsal. The concert was given on 9 August 1942. Whether this date was chosen intentionally, it was the day Hitler had chosen previously to celebrate the fall of Leningrad with a lavish reception for the top Nazi commanders. But instead of Hitler's plan, all loudspeakers delivered the live broadcast of the symphony performance throughout the city as well as to the German forces in a move of psychological warfare. The Russian commander of the Leningrad front, General Govorov, ordered a bombardment of German artillery positions in advance of the broadcast to ensure their silence during the performance of the symphony; a special operation, code-named "Squall," was executed for precisely this purpose. Three thousand high-caliber shells were lobbed onto the enemy. Then the music of Shostakovich came out of the speakers all over the siege perimeter, so the Nazis had to face the music. The music of Shostakovich brought the much needed support and catharsis to survivors who loved the symphony and applauded to Eliasberg and his orchestra. General Govorov with his staff came backstage to thank Eliasberg and his musicians for their art and courage.
The news about Dmitry Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony premiere in besieged Leningrad spread all over the world. It was an important message to all nations that Hitler's attack on Leningrad failed. Shostakovich who began to write his famous symphony before evacuation from besieged Leningrad in 1941, could not go back to attend its premier performance in 1942. The composer sent the conductor and the musicians who performed his work in the besieged city a telegram with words of gratitude.
After WWII Shostakovich was again accused of formalism in 1948. At that time, Shostakovich gained international recognition in the free world, and received several invitations to participate in music festivals and other cultural events. He was awarded the International Peace Prize (1954), State Prize five times (in 1941-1952), State Prizes of Russia and the USSR, and was designated People's Artist of the USSR. From 1957-1975 he was secretary of the Union of Composers of Russia and the USSR. He taught and promoted many talented musicians, such as Andrey Petrov, Georgi Sviridov, Karen Khachaturyan, and Boris Tishchenko among others.
Shostakovich and Yevgeniy Yevtushenko worked together on the famous Symphony No. 13 titled "Babi Yar", a vocal setting of poems by Yevtushenko. It was first performed in Moscow on December 18, 1962 under the baton of Kirill Kondrashin. Yevtushenko and Shostakovich toured many countries with the performances of "Babi Yar", and made several recordings of the Symphony No. 13. Among Shostakovich's best known film scores are 'Suite from The Gadfly' from The Gadfly (1955), and the score for director Grigoriy Kozintsev's acclaimed film Hamlet (1964) starring Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy.
In 1965 Shostakovich raised his voice in defense of poet Joseph Brodsky, who was sentenced to five years of exile and hard labor. Shostakovich co-signed protests together with such prominent figures as Korney Ivanovich Chukovskiy, Anna Akhmatova, Samuil Marshak, Yevgeniy Yevtushenko, and the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. After the protests his sentence was commuted, and Brodsky returned to Leningrad. At that time, Shostakovich joined the group of 25 distinguished intellectuals in signing the letter to Leonid Brezhnev asking not to rehabilitate Joseph Stalin.
Dmitri Shostakovich was a towering figure in Russian music of the 20th century along with 'Sergei Prokofiev (I)' and Aram Khachaturyan. He wrote 15 symphonies, of which the Fifth (1937), the Sevenths "Leningrad" (1942), and the Thurteenth "Baby Yar" (1968) are the best known. His other compositions include cantatas and oratorios, seven operas and operettas, four ballets, twelve musical comedies and other music for stage plays, 36 original motion picture scores, fifteen quartets and other chamber music for, piano, violin, and cello. Shostakovich, who was an awarded pianist himself, had composed outstanding works for piano, such as his Piano concertos No1 and No2. His 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano received numerous awards and recognitions, and were recorded in critically acclaimed performance by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Shostakovich died of a heart attack on august 9, 1975, in Moscow, and was laid to rest in Novodevichi Convent Cemetery in Moscow, Russia. His legacy is continued by his son, conductor Maxim Shostakovich, and his grandson, pianist Dmitri Shostakovich Jr.- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Dziga Vertov was born on 2 January 1896 in Bialystok, Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire [now Podlaskie, Poland]. He was a director and writer, known for Man with a Movie Camera (1929), Three Songs About Lenin (1934) and The Sixth Part of the World (1926). He was married to Elizaveta Svilova. He died on 12 February 1954 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Director
- Additional Crew
Konstantin Stanislavski was a wealthy Russian businessman turned director who founded the Moscow Art Theatre, and originated the Stanislavski's System of acting which was spread over the world by his students, such as Michael Chekhov, Aleksei Dikij, Stella Adler, Viktor Tourjansky, and Richard Boleslawski among many others.
He was born Konstantin Sergeevich Alekseev on January 5, 1863, in Moscow, Russia. His father, Sergei Alekseev, was a wealthy Russian merchant. His mother, Elisaveta Vasilevna (nee Yakovleva) was French-Russian and his grandmother was a notable actress in Paris. Young Stanislavski grew up in a bilingual environment. He was fond of theatre and arts, studied piano and singing, and performed amateur plays at home with his elder brother and two sisters. He studied business and languages at Lasarevsky Institute, the most prestigious private school in Moscow. He did not graduate, instead he continued self-education while traveling in several European countries and studying at libraries and museums. Eventually Stanislavski joined his father's company, became a successful businessman, and the head of his father's business, the Alekseev's factory and other assets. During the 1880s Stanislavski made a fortune in international business and trade, he was awarded the Gold Medal at the World's Fair in Paris. At the same time, he was an active patron of arts and theatre in Russia. In 1885 he studied acting and directing at the Maly Theatre in Moscow, and took a stage name Stanislavski. In 1888 he founded the "Society for Arts and Literature" in Moscow.
In 1898 Stanislavski together with his partner, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded the Moscow Art Theatre, which made a profound influence on theatrical art all over the world. They opened with staging of "Tsar Feodor" a play by Aleksei Tolstoy, then staged "The Seagull" written by Anton Chekhov specially for the Moscow Art Theatre. In 1900 Stanislavski brought the Moscow Art Theatre on tour in Sebastopol and Yalta in Crimea, where he invited then ailing Anton Chekhov to see several plays. Chekhov admired the company's stage production of his plays, and respected the theatrical achievements of Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. Chekhov's legendary collaboration with the Moscow Art Theatre was fruitful for both sides: it resulted in creation of such classics as 'The Seagull', 'Uncle Vanya', 'The Three Sisters', and 'The Cherry Orchard', the four big plays which remained in the repertoire ever since.
Stanislavski's system was developed through his own cross-cultural experience as actor, director, and businessman. He constantly updated his method through inter-disciplinary studies, absorbing from a range of sources and influences, such as the modernist developments, yoga and Pavlovian behaviorist psychology. He introduced group rehearsals and relaxation techniques to achieve better spiritual connections between actors. Pavlovian approach worked well by conditioning actors through discipline in longer, organized rehearsals, and using a thorough analysis of characters. Stanislavski himself was involved in a long and arduous practice making every actor better prepared for stage performance and eventually producing a less rigid acting style. In his own words, Stanislavski described his early approach as "Spiritual Realism." His actors worked hard to deliver perfectly believable performances, as none of his actors wanted to hear his famous verdict, "I don't believe."
As an actor, Stanislavski starred in several classical plays. His most notable stage performances, such as Othello in the Shakespeare's 'Othello', and as Gayev in Chekhov's 'The Cherry Orchard', were acclaimed by critics and loved by public. His own students said that Stanislavski was a very comfortable partner on stage, due to his highly professional and truthful acting. At the same time, he could be very demanding off stage, because of his high standards, especially during his lengthy and rigorous rehearsals, requiring nothing less but the full devotion from each actor of his company, the Moscow Art Theatre.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, his factory and all other business property was nationalized by the Soviet Communists, but he was allowed to own his mansion in Moscow. Stanislavski wisely let go of all his wealth and possessions and expressed himself in writing and directing. He remained the principal director of Moscow Art Theatre for the rest of his life. During the turbulent years before and after the Russian Revolution, and later in the 1920s and 30s, he witnessed bitter rivalry among his former students. Some actors emigrated from Russia, others fought for their share of success, and the Moscow Art Theatre was eventually divided into several companies.
In 1928 Stanislavski suffered from a heart attack. He then distanced himself from disputes and competition between his former students Michael Chekhov and Aleksei Dikij, whose individual ambitions resulted in further fragmentation of the original Moscow Art Theatre company. At the same time, his younger apprentice, Nikolay Khmelyov, remained loyal to the teacher, and eventually later filled the position held by Stanislavski at Moscow Art Theatre. However, his other students, such as Vsevolod Meyerhold and Yevgeni Vakhtangov founded their own theatre companies and continued using their versions of the Stanislavski's system. In the 1930s, Stanislavski together with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko formed one more theatrical company in Moscow, the Musical Theatre of Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko.
Stanislavski was a proponent of democratic ideas, such as equal opportunity and equal value of every human being on the planet. At that time Stanislavski's nephew was arrested for political reasons, and died in the Gulag prison-camp. Stanislavsky was also under permanent surveillance, because his Moscow Art Theatre was frequently attended by Joseph Stalin and other Soviet strongmen. However, at that time Moscow Art Theatre became especially popular, because Russian intellectuals needed a cultural oasis to escape from the grim Soviet reality. Under Stanislavski the Moscow Art Theatre produced several brilliant plays by Mikhail A. Bulgakov, and also continued running such classics as 'The Seagull', 'The Cherry Orchard', 'The Lower Bottom' and other original productions of plays by Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky.
In his later years, Stanislavsky wrote a book titled "An Actor Prepares" which, in Charley Chaplin's words, ".. helps all people to reach out for big dramatic art. It tells what an actor needs to rouse the inspiration he requires for expressing profound emotions." Stanislavsky explained how actors may use his System, "Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep braking traditions, I beg you!" And that was exactly what the best of his followers did. Stanislavski's ideas were used by many acting teachers, such as Michael Chekhov, Stella Adler, and Lee Strasberg, among others across the world.
During the 1930s Konstantin Stanislavski directed the original productions of several classic Russian plays, such as "Na Dne" (aka.. The Lower Depths) by Maxim Gorky, "Tsar Fedor Ioannovich" by A.K. Tolstoy, and other plays at the Moscow Art Theatre. After Stanislavski's death his original theatrical productions were adapted to black and white films, where Stanislavsky is credited as the original theatrical director. He died of a heart failure on August 7, 1938, in Moscow and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia.
Stanislavski's mansion in central Moscow is now a public museum and research center displaying a collection of original stage sets and theatrical costumes. Stanislavski's personal library is also part of his museum. It has rare books that he collected in his numerous travels, as well as original manuscripts and letters by Stanislavski.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Nikolay Grinko was born on 22 May 1920 in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR [now Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Stalker (1979), Solaris (1972) and Andrei Rublev (1966). He died on 10 April 1989 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine].- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Vladimir Vysotsky was an iconic Russian actor, singer-songwriter and public figure, who wrote over 700 songs and gave over 2000 public and private performances as an anti-establishment singer of the 60s and 70s in the former Soviet Union. He was one of the Soviet Union's boldest and most celebrated actors who promoted individual freedom and helped lift Russian youth out of the state of apathy and fear under the Soviet dictator Brezhnev. In the movies, Vysotsky was best known as nifty detective Zheglov in The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (1979) by director Stanislav Govorukhin.
He was born Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky on 25 January 1938, in Moscow, then the capital of the Soviet Union. His father, Semen Volfovich Vysotsky, was Jewish; he served in the Red Army during WWII, and was decorated for his courage rising to the rank of a Colonel. His mother, Nina Maximovna Seregina, was Russian; she worked as Russian-German interpreter. During WWII, Vladimir Vysotsky with his mother escaped from the advancing Nazis by evacuation from Moscow to Orenburg province in Siberia. After the war, the parents divorced and he was living with his father and stepmother in a Soviet Military garrison in East Germany. There, from 1947 to 1949, Vladimir Vysotsky was taking piano lessons; he also became an avid movie watcher.
Upon returning to Moscow in the fall of 1949, he settled on Bolshoi Karetny, and went to the all-boys school No 186, from which he graduated in 1955. While at school, he attended the drama class of V. Bogomolov, an actor of the Moscow Art Theatre. From 1956 to 1960, he studied acting under Pavel Massalsky and Boris Vershilov at the Moscow Art Theatre Studio, graduating in 1960 as actor. He briefly worked at Moscow Pushkin Drama, then joined the troupe at the Taganka Theatre. Vysotsky made his film debut in Sverstnitsy (1959).
In 1961, in Leningrad, during filming of 713 prosit posadku (1962) Vladimir Vysotsky met actress Lyudmila Abramova who became his wife and mother of his two sons Arkady Vysotsky (born 1962) and Nikita Vysotskiy (born 1964). He was later married to the French-Russian actress Marina Vlady. During the 70s, he toured all over the former USSR and also made stage appearances in France, USA, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Yugoslavia.
Breaking all traditions, Vysotsky appeared as Hamlet with the guitar in the Shakespare's play directed by Yuriy Lyubimov. Vysotsky's Hamlet, dressed as a contemporary young man and playing his guitar, shook the Moscow establishment by overthrowing the traditional interpretation of the Shakespearean character. Vysotsky's shows was always sold out, and tickets to his performances were the most demanded "currency" in Moscow.
His opposition to Soviet authorities resulted in periodic bans of his songs. In 1968 Vysotsky wrote an open letter to the leading Soviet newspaper "Pravda" asking for fairness and equal rights; he requested that the official ban on his songs shall be lifted. That same year the first official recording of Vysotsky's songs from the film Vertikal (1966) was released on Melodia label and quickly became the best-selling record in the Soviet Union. However, the Soviet authorities stubbornly suppressed Vysotsky's film and music career, causing him much moral pain and suffering.
During the late 60s and 70s Vysotsky had problems with drugs and alcohol and suffered of a severe heart disorder which sent him into cardiac arrests on several occasions. In one case, his wife, Marina Vlady, noticed that he collapsed at home and saved his life by calling an ambulance, so he was hospitalized. He died while asleep at his home in Moscow, on 25 July, 1980. His death caused a considerable mourning in Russia. Thousands lined up to attend his funeral at Vagankovskoe Cemetery in Moscow. His numerous fans across Russia and the world continue the tradition of memorial concerts and gatherings on the 25th of July every year. His flower-adorned grave is a site of pilgrimage for his fans.
Vladimir Vysotsky's remarkable voice and style has been a lasting influence on many of Russia's actors and musicians. Though he was ostracized by the Soviet officialdom, he achieved remarkable fame during his lifetime, and remains a towering figure in Russian popular culture. Among his most notable followers and devotees are Mikhail Boyarskiy and Yuriy Shevchuk.- Music Department
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Prokofiev was a multi-talented man and an innovative composer. He learned piano from his mother and chess from his father. He always had a chess set on his piano, and was able to play against the chess champions of his time. He studied music with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, graduated with highest marks from the St. Petersburg Conservatory (1914), and was rewarded with a grand piano. He emigrated from Russia after the revolution, and made successful concert tours in Europe and the U.S. In 1918 in New York he met Spanish singer Carolina Codina (Lina Llubera), they married in Paris, in 1923, and had two sons.
Prokofiev's radiant optimism and his childlike personality shines in his popular orchestral suite "Peter and the Wolf" and in the "Classical Symphony". His humorous irony and wit is popping up in piano pieces named "Sarcasms", also in his five piano concertos, ballets and film scores, all written in his instantly identifiable musical language. He wrote film scores for The Czar Wants to Sleep (1934), Alexander Nevsky (1938), Cinderella (1961), and the two-part Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1944), directed by Sergei Eisenstein.
All of his music, that he created while outside of the Soviet Union, was sometimes criticized as cosmopolitan and anti-Soviet. Prokofiev divorced his wife in 1948. His ninth sonata, dedicated to Svyatoslav Richter, was welcomed warmly, but another official critic on his music and life started in 1948. He died in 1953, the same day of Joseph Stalin.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Anatoliy Dmitrievich Papanov was born on October 31, 1922, in Vyasma, Smolensk region, USSR. His father, named Dmitri Filippovich Papanov, was a Russian industrial worker. His mother, named Elena Bronislavovna Roskovskaya, was of Polish ancestry. Young Papanov moved to Moscow with his parents in 1929. After graduation from a secondary school in 1939, he worked as a metal worker at the 2nd Moscow Ball-bearing Factory. There Papanov was an amateur actor at the Worker's Club Theatre-studio named "Kauchuk".
In 1941 Papanov was drafted in the Red Army and served as an Artillery Sergeant. He was severely wounded in his legs in 1942, and spent six months in hospitals. At age 21, he became permanently disabled and used a cane for the rest of his life. Papanov was admitted to the acting class of the Moscow Theatre Institute (GITIS), from which he graduated in 1946. While a student, Papanov married his classmate actress Nadezhda Karataeva. From 1946-1948 he worked on stage at the Klaipeda Drama Theatre in Latvia. In 1948 Papanov was invited to the Moscow Theatre of Satire by director Andrei Goncharov. He became permanent member of the troupe and worked on stage for almost 40 years. His regular stage partners were Andrey Mironov, Tatyana Pelttser, Spartak Mishulin, Aleksandr Shirvindt, Mikhail Derzhavin, Vladimir Kozel, Olga Aroseva, Georgi Menglet, and other renown Russian actors.
Papanov made his film debut as an extra in 'Lenin v Oktyabre' (1937) by director Mikhail Romm. He played supporting roles in comedies by director Eldar Ryazanov - 'Chelovek niotkuda' (1961), where his partner was Sergey Yurskiy, and in 'Beregis avtomobilya' (1966), where his partners were Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy, Oleg Efremov, Andrey Mironov, Georgi Zhzhyonov, Donatas Banionis, Evgeniy Evstigneev, and others. Papanov became really famous after his impressive work in the role of General Sepilin in 'Zhivye i myortvye' (1963), for which he was awarded the Brothers Vasilyev State Prize in 1966.
Anatoli Papanov is best known for his roles in the comedies of director Leonid Gaidai. His satirical character - a gangster chief Lyolik in 'Brilliantovaya ruka' (The Diamond Arm, 1968) became one of the most popular characters in the Russian cinema. Papanov made an excellent acting ensemble with his film partners Andrey Mironov, Yuriy Nikulin, Nonna Mordyukova, Nina Grebeshkova, Svetlana Svetlichnaya, Leonid Kanevskiy, and other remarkable actors. 'Brilliantovaya ruka' was the all-time box-office leader with over 76,000,000 admissions in theaters of the Soviet Union. In a 1995 national poll in Russia, 'Brilliantovaya ruka' was voted the best Russian comedy ever.
Anatoli Papanov was awarded the Russian State Prize of Brothers Vasilyev (1966). He was designated People's Actor of the USSR (1973) and was awarded the USSR State Prize (1989, posthumously). Papanov died of a heart attack on August 7, 1987, at his Moscow apartment, a few days before the tragic collapse of his friend and partner Andrey Mironov. Anatoli Papanov's death caused a considerable mourning among his fans in the Soviet Union, he was laid to rest in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia.- Nikita Khruschev was born on April 17, 1894, into a family of peasants in the village of Kalinovka, Kursk region, Russian Empire. He was raised among agricultural and mining workers. He studied for only two years at grammar school as a child. After the Russian Revolution he joined the Red Army, then joined the Communist party in 1918 and made a career as a politician.
He was active in the Russian revolution and Civil War, when the intellectual elite was brutally killed as well as the family of Nickolas and Alexandra. The Civil War continued for decades in a form of the "Great Terror" and repressions under Joseph Stalin during the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s. Under orders from Moscow, Khrushchev participated in massive confiscations of food, crops, forage grains, and supplies, that left millions of peasants starving to death in famines of 1920s-30s. Some areas of Ukraine and Russia suffered so much that people later perceived WWII as liberation from the Soviet regime. In 1931 Khrushchev was promoted to Moscow, where he briefly studied at the Soviet Industrial Academy. In 1934 he became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and in 1935 - the 1st Secretary of the Moscow City Committee. In 1938 Khrushchev was appointed the 1st Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party and promoted to Politburo.
During WWII Khrushchev was coordinating the defense of Ukraine, while his family was evacuated to Kuibyshev. In 1942-42 he was a political commissar during the battle of Stalingrad. There, frozen Nazi Armies were stopped and lost the battle to the Russian soldiers, who defended their land. Khrushchev was decorated and promoted in the Communist party. He was later a political commissar of the 1st Ukrainian Front, where his deputy was Leonid Brezhnev. Khrushchev patronized Brezhnev, whom he knew since 1931.
After the death of Joseph Stalin on March 5, 1953, and following the elimination of Stalin's inner circle, Khrushchev became the leader of the Communist Party on September 7, 1953. He completed the takeover after the execution of his main rival Lavrenti Beria in December 1953, with the help of the powerful Marshal Georgi Zhukov. Then Khrushchev promoted Leonid Brezhnev in hopes to have a steady ally in the coming power-struggles against the Stalinist conservatives.
In his historic speech on February 23, 1956, Khrushchev denounced Joseph Stalin for his brutal purges and massive executions of people. Khrushchev spoke behind closed doors at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party. His speech was the "new order" message to the ruling Soviet elite. Not everyone liked it, regardless of its many historic benefits. In 1957 Khrushchev with backing from Leonid Brezhnev and Marshal Georgi Zhukov defeated the Stalinist conservatives Vyacheslav Molotov, Georgi Malenkov, and Lazar Kaganovich. Then Khrushchev exiled the powerful Marshal Georgi Zhukov and became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union.
Khrushchev's speech was designed to liberate people from Stalin's brutal regime based on manipulative methods of control by fear. The speech was addressed to the Soviet leadership as well as to the people of Russia and other republics, however, the Soviet leadership decided to keep the speech secret from the people. At the same time Khrushchev's speech was available in the rest of the world. After reading Khrushchev's speech, Moshe Dayan said that Soviet Union may disappear in 30 years, and he was off only by 5 years. Although Khrushchev was unable to see that far, he made efforts to liberate intellectuals and to clear innocent victims of the "Great Purges" under Stalin's regime.
In the late 1950's Khrushchev initiated the "Thaw" during the Cold War. Hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of Stalin's "Great Purges" were posthumously cleared of all charges and their sentences were reversed to full rehabilitation. Many surviving intellectuals, actors, like Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy, Georgi Zhzhyonov, Vitali Golovin and others were allowed to return from imprisonment and Siberian exile. Film directors such as Sergei Parajanov, Eldar Ryazanov, Georgiy Daneliya made new kind of films. The First International Festival of Students and Youth was held in Moscow, in 1958. The First International Tchaikovsky Competition was held in Moscow, where the Texan pianist Van Cliburn became the first winner, and was praised by Khrushchev. Some performing artists, like Svyatoslav Richter and Mstislav Rostropovich were allowed to go on personal international concert tours.
Khruschev's "Thaw" liberated the Soviet life to a degree, that allowed some foreign books, movies and music, along with the other previously banned art, literature and music of Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturyan, publications of Anna Akhmatova, Mikhail Zoschenko, Yuriy Olesha, and others. The 60's generation emerged during the "Thaw" with Yevgeniy Yevtushenko, Bella Akhmadulina, Andrei Voznesensky, Bulat Okudzhava, Vasiliy Aksyonov and other writers. They played an important role in liberation of the collective consciousness after decades of repressions under Joseph Stalin and in changing of some old bans, what later made possible the publication of Mikhail A. Bulgakov. Khrushchev personally approved the 1962 publication by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn about the Stalin's "Gulag" prison-camps.
Khrushchev attacked those whom he failed to understand, like the Nobel Laureate writer Boris Pasternak, poet Andrei Voznesensky, and avant-garde artists. Khrushchev mismanaged agriculture by banning any private farming. His major mistake was forceful replacing of wheat by corn, which could not grow in Russian climate. This and other mistakes caused serious food shortages and the bloody popular uprising in Novocherkassk, in 1962. Khrushchev showed uncivilized and undiplomatic behavior at the UN conference by insulting other delegates verbally and by banging on the table with his fists and with his shoe. Khrushchev pushed the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. He made risky political moves and was accused of losing control during the Cuban missile crisis, when the world came to the brink of a nuclear war.
Leonid Brezhnev dismissed Khrushchev on October 14, 1964, after Khrushchev's vacation at the Communist Party owned Black Sea resort. He was stripped of all privileges and lived under house arrest outside Moscow. After his death on September 11, 1971, Khrushchev was not buried officially like other Politburo members near the Kremlin. Instead, he was buried without an official ceremony at the Novodevichy Cemetery. The cold war continued. Khrushchev's historic speech denouncing Joseph Stalin was banned from publication until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. - Director
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Vsevolod Pudovkin was born on 28 February 1893 in Penza, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a director and actor, known for Admiral Nakhimov (1947), Zhukovsky (1950) and Minin i Pozharskiy (1939). He was married to Anna Zemtsova. He died on 30 June 1953 in Jurmala, Latvian SSR, USSR [now Latvia].- Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first man to enter deep space on April 12, 1961, when the Soviet cosmonaut made a flight that orbited Earth lasting one hour and 48 minutes in his Vostok 1 spacecraft. This accomplishment made the smiling Soviet pilot internationally famous as the first man to venture into space, the final frontier. The feat beat the Americans, who put Alan Shepherd into space in a sub-orbital flight on May 5, 1961, and did not have an astronaut orbit the earth until John Glenn accomplished the feat on February 20, 1962.
The perpetually smiling Gagarin, who was promoted from senior lieutenant to major in the Soviet Air Force and was awarded the honor Hero of the Soviet Union for his accomplishment, became an international celebrity. He made many trips to foreign lands, including three to the United Kingdom, to publicize the Soviet space program that, since its inception with Sputnik in 1957, had been more advanced than that of the United States. Thus, Gagarin was a prime pawn in the propaganda wars between the two countries at the height of the Cold War.
He was appointed a deputy to the Supreme Soviet in 1962 before he went back to the Soviet cosmonaut training facility, Star City, where the extremely bright Gargarin worked designing reusable spacecraft. He eventually was promoted to the rank of full Colonel of the Soviet Air Force. His celebrity was still so great, the Soviet government refused to let him return to space, though he eventually was chosen as one of the astronauts for the Soviet moon landing program. Though he had been trained as jet fighter pilot, his superiors limited his flight time so as not to lose one of the USSR's greatest heroes of the Cold War period.
Gagarin was chosen as the backup pilot for the Soyuz 1 flight, the first flight of a program that was intended to put a Soviet cosmonaut on the moon by 1968. The flight was made by team leader Vladimir Komarov, and the launch of Soyuz 1 was opposed by Gagarin due to safety concerns. Gararin was right: the Soyyz I capsule crashed after re-entry on April 24, 1967, making Komarov the first person to die during a space flight. After the incident, Gagarin again was banned from participating in the manned space program as an active cosmonaut. He was appointed deputy training director of Star City.
The 34-year-old Gagarin died on March 27, 1968 during a routine training flight in a MiG-15UTI. The ashes of Gagarin and co-pilot Vladimir Seryogin were entombed in the Kremlin and Star City was renamed in his honor.
Soviet space program architect Sergei P. Korolev claimed that Gagarin had a smile "that lit up the Cold War". But for the crash of Soyuz 1 (which signaled the ultimate failure of the Soviet moonshot program), Gagarin, the first man in space, might have been the first on the moon. He was honored by American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first men on the moon, when they left behind a bag containing medals commemorating Gagarin and Komarov on the lunar surface. - Mikhail A. Bulgakov was a Russian writer and medical doctor known for big screen adaptations of his books, such as Beg (1971) and Master i Margarita (2006).
He was born Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov on May 15, 1891, in Kiev, Russia (now Kiev, Ukraine). He was the first of six children in the family of a theology professor. His family belonged to the intellectual elite of Kiev. Bulgakov with his brothers took part in the demonstration commemorating the death of Lev Tolstoy. Bulgakov graduated with honors from the Medical School of Kiev University in 1915. He married his classmate Tatiana Lippa, who became his assistant at surgeries and in his Doctor's office. He practiced medicine, specializing in venereal and other infectious diseases from 1915 to 1919.
Bulgakov wrote about his experiences as a doctor in his early works "Notes of a Young Doctor." In 1917-1919, he suffered from an infection that caused him an unbearable painful itch requiring him to take morphine; which he became addicted to, but he managed to overcome the dependency and quit. He joined the anti-communist White Army in the Russian Civil War. After the Civil War, he tried to emigrate from Russia, to reunite with his brother in Paris. But he became trapped in Soviet Russia. Several times he was almost killed by opposing forces on both sides of the Russian Civil War, but soldiers needed doctors, so Bulgakov was left alive. He provided medical help to the Chehchens, Caucasians, Cossacs, Russians, the Whites, the Reds... Bulgakov was the Doctor to all the sick people.
In 1921, Bulgakov moved to Moscow. There he became a writer and made friends with Valentin Kataev, Yuriy Olesha, Ilya Ilf, Yevgeni Petrov, and Konstantin Paustovsky. Later, he met Mikhail Zoschenko, Anna Akhmatova, Viktor Ardov, Sergey Mikhalkov, and Korney Ivanovich Chukovskiy. Bulgakov's plays at the Moscow Art Theatre were directed by Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. "Days of the Turbins," about the demise of the White Army, was performed more than 200 times at the Moscow Art Theatre, and also at other Soviet theatres until it was banned.
The play was later restored to the repertoire and at least fifteen performances of this play were attended by Joseph Stalin. Stalin liked the play and later, in his official speeches, he used some of the well-written lines that were spoken from the stage by the Bulgakov's characters. In 1941, after the Nazi invasion in Russia during the Second World War, Joseph Stalin started his first radio address to the people of the Soviet Union with Bulgakov's words from the play, "Brothers and Sisters..."
Bulgakov's political independence was expressed in his article on the death of the first Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin, "He killed a river of people..." wrote Bulgakov in 1924.
Bugakov's own way of life and his witty criticism of the ugly realities of life in the Soviet Union caused him much trouble. In 1925 he released 'Heart of a Dog', a bitter satire about the loss of civilized values in Russia under the Soviet system. Soon after, Bulgakov was interrogated by the Soviet secret service, OGPU. After interrogations, his personal diary and several unfinished works were confiscated by the secret service.
His plays were banned in all theaters, which terminated his income. Being financially broke, he wrote to his brother in Paris about his terrible life and poverty in Moscow. Bulgakov distanced himself from the Proletariat Writer's Union because he refused to write about the peasants and proletariat. He made adaptation of the "Dead Souls" by Nikolay Gogol for the stage; it became a success but was abruptly banned.
He took a risk and wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin with an ultimatum: "Let me out of the Soviet Union, or restore my work at the theaters." On the 18th of April of 1930, Bulgakov received a telephone call from Joseph Stalin. The dictator told the writer to fill an employment application at the Moscow Art Theater. Gradually, Bulgakov's plays were back in the repertoire of the Moscow Art Theatre. But most other theatres were in fear and did not stage any of the Bulgakov's plays for many years.
Joseph Stalin, who was increasingly paranoid, ordered massive extermination of intellectuals during the repressions known as the "Great Terror" (aka.. Great Purge). Many of Bulgakov's friends and colleagues, like Vladimir Mayakovsky, Osip Mandelstam, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Anna Akhmatova, Mikhail Zoschenko and many others were censored, banned, prosecuted, exiled, imprisoned, executed, found dead, or just disappeared without a trace.
At that time Bulgakov started his masterpiece - "Master and Margarita." It was slowly evolving from the series of chapters, initially titled "The Black Magician" in 1929. That was changed to "The Prince of Darkness" in 1930. Then it was changed again to "The Great Chancellor" in 1934. Finally, the novel was titled as "Master and Margarita" in 1934 and was rewritten and updated constantly until the writer's death in 1940.
While writing the novel, Bulgakov met Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya, who became his wife. She was, in part, the model for Margarita in the novel. Secret service agents were spying on Bulgakov and learned about his new novel. Bulgakov was interrogated again and was ordered to destroy the manuscript under the threat from the government agents. He had to be very cautious. Bulgakov split the manuscript in two parts and destroyed one half in a fire.
Soon, he restored the missing part from memory and continued writing the novel. He was writing the novel in secrecy, hiding its manuscript for many years until his death in 1940. The main character in the novel, Voland, alludes to Stalin, or Beria, or any dictator who plays a semi-god. Voland was modeled after Satan in "Faust" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The novel has many parallels with the Bible and the "Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri. The characters and events in "Master and Margarita" are alluding to Bulgakov's experiences in Moscow under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin.
Five days before his death, Bulgakov accepted an unusual promise from his loving wife. She swore to live a humble life and wait as long as it would take for Bulgakov's masterpiece to be published. The original manuscript of "The Master and Margarita" was preserved by Bulgakov's wife, Elena Sergeevna, until its first publication in 1966. It is a Menippean satire, a cross-genre comedy, drama, and fantasy, regarded by many as the best of the 20th century Russian novels.
Mikhail Bulgakov died of a kidney failure, on March 10, 1940, in Moscow. He was laid to rest in the Novodevichy Monastery Cemetery, next to other Russian cultural luminaries. - Writer
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Aleksandr Dovzhenko was born on 10 September 1894 in Vyunishche, Sosnitsa Ueyzd, Chernigov Governorate, Russian Empire [now Sosnitsa, Sosnitsa Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine]. He was a writer and director, known for Earth (1930), Shors (1939) and Life in Bloom (1949). He was married to Yuliya Solntseva. He died on 25 November 1956 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Vladislav Dvorzhetskiy was born on 26 April 1939 in Omsk, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for Solaris (1972), Captain Nemo (1975) and Krasnoe i chernoe (1976). He died on 28 May 1978 in Gomel, Byelorussian SSR, USSR [now Belarus].
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Boris Barnet was born on 18 June 1902 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a director and actor, known for The Adventures of the Three Reporters (1926), Secret Agent (1947) and Okraina (1933). He was married to Yelena Kuzmina, Natalia Glan, Alla Kazanskaya and Valentina Barnet. He died on 8 January 1965 in Riga, Latvian SSR, USSR [now Latvia].- The preeminent Russian actor, at least in Western eyes, of the first half of the twentieth century. He became interested in the theatre as a teenager and joined the Teatr Mariinskij as a stagehand in 1918. He apprenticed with various traveling companies and therein learned ballet, pantomime, and acrobatics. He studied at the St. Petersburg (Leningrad) Theater Institute and made his stage debut in 1926. The following year, he entered films and his commanding presence soon brought him leading roles and enormous acclaim, as well as the approbation of the Soviet leadership, which elected him a deputy of the Supreme Soviet. His greatest fame world-wide came with his work in the films of Sergei Eisenstein. Following the masterpieces _Aleksandr Nevsky (1938)_ and _Ivan Groznyj I (1945)_ he was named to the Order of Lenin and made People's Artist of the USSR, respectively. He died in 1966. He should not be confused with the actor Nikolay P. Cherkasov who starred in many Russian films.
- Valentin Zubkov was born on 12 May 1923 in Peschanoye, Ryazan Governorate, RSFSR, USSR [now Ryazan Oblast, Russia]. He was an actor, known for Ivan's Childhood (1962), The Cranes Are Flying (1957) and Solntse svetit vsem (1959). He died on 18 January 1979 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
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Zoya Fyodorova was born on 21 December 1907 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire [now Russia]. She was an actress, known for Muzykalnaya istoriya (1940), The Girl from Leningrad (1941) and Zhenitba (1937). She died on 11 December 1981 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Actor
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Pavel Kadochnikov was born on 29 July 1915 in Petrograd, Russian Empire [now St. Petersburg, Russia]. He was an actor and director, known for Secret Agent (1947), Povest o nastoyashchem cheloveke (1948) and A Big Family (1954). He was married to Rozaliya Kotovich. He died on 2 May 1988 in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia].- Additional Crew
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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April 1870 - 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration, Russia, and later the Soviet Union, became a one-party socialist state governed by the Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, his developments to the ideology are called Leninism.- Director
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Aleksandr Ptushko was born on 19 April 1900 in Lugansk, Lugansk uyezd, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire [now Luhansk, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine]. He was a director and writer, known for The Stone Flower (1946), Sadko (1953) and Ruslan i Lyudmila (1972). He died on 6 March 1973 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Composer
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Aram Khachaturyan was born in 1903, in Tiflis, Russian Empire (now Tbilisi, Georgia). He was the fourth son in a modest Armenian family. His father was a book-binder and a craftsman; he noticed the son's musical talent and got him a used piano, but he did not have money for a music teacher. Khachaturyan was self-taught until the age of 19, when he moved to Moscow to join his brother, a theater director. He studied physics and mathematics at the Moscow University for one year before entering the Gnesin School of Music in 1922. At the entrance test he saw a cello and said, "I want to learn to play this big violin." He studied cello under Mikhail Gnesin He graduated with honors from the Gnesin School in 1929 and from the Moscow Conservatory in 1934, where he studied composition under 'Nikolai Miaskovsky'. Sergei Prokofiev promoted Khachaturyan's music in Europe, and his piano trio and the First Piano Concerto (1936) has won him international acclaim.
His Ballet "Gayane" (1942), with the brilliant "Sabre Dance", became an international sensation. But his second ballet, "Spartacus", written in 1945, was not staged for 11 years. Khachaturyan was among the Soviet artists and intellectuals affected by official attacks on culture under Joseph Stalin in 1940s and 50s. His music was denounced as being 'formalistic'. Khachaturyan suffered from official attacks along with Sergei Prokofiev, Boris Pasternak, Anna Akhmatova and many other distinguished intellectuals in the Soviet Union. Only in December of 1956 "Spartacus" had it's premiere on the stage of Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, and soon it gained international success. The "Adagio" from the ballet "Spartacus" and the "Sabre Dance" from the ballet "Gayane" became the signature themes of Khachaturyan. He also wrote an acclaimed score for "Masquerade", a drama by Mikhail Lermontov. Khachaturyan was a recipient of many Soviet and International awards. As professor of composition at the Moscow Conservatory he promoted innovative and inter-cultural approach to music education. He cherished his Armenian heritage. He also included in his compositions a taste of the world music and various oriental influences. Aram Khachaturyan died in Moscow in 1978 and was buried in Armenia.- Director
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Yuliya Solntseva was born on 7 August 1901 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. She was a director and actress, known for Chronicle of Flaming Years (1961), Aelita, the Queen of Mars (1924) and Poem of the Sea (1958). She was married to Aleksandr Dovzhenko. She died on 29 October 1989 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Nikita Mikhaylovsky was born on 8 April 1964. He was an actor, known for Love and Lies (1981), Vyyti zamuzh za kapitana (1986) and Zontik dlya novobrachnykh (1986). He died on 24 April 1991 in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia].
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Mark Bernes was born on 8 October 1911 in Nezhin, Chernigov Governorate, Russian Empire [now Nizhyn, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Far from Moscow (1950), Two Soldiers (1943) and Istrebiteli (1939). He was married to Ludmila Bodrova. He died on 16 August 1969 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Izolda Izvitskaya was born on 21 June 1932 in Dzerzhinsk, Nizhegorodskiy kray, RSFSR, USSR [now Nizhegorodskaya oblast, Russia]. She was an actress, known for The Forty-First (1956), Ottsy i deti (1959) and Po tonkomu ldu (1966). She was married to Eduard Bredun. She died on 1 March 1971 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
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Lev Kuleshov was a Russian director who used the editing technique known as the "Kuleshov effect." Although some of the editing innovations, such as crosscutting were used by other directors before him, Kuleshov was the first to use it in the Soviet Russia. he was driving a Ford sports car amidst hard situation in the post-Civil war USSR, and remained a controversial figure who joined the Soviet communist party and destroyed archives of rare silent movies during his experiments, thus clearing way for his own works: documentaries and feature films ranging from political cinema to timeless gems.
He was born Lev Vladimirovich Kuleshov on 1 January, 1899, in Tambov, Russia. His father, Vladimir Kuleshov, belonged to Russian landed gentry, was a patron of arts and owner of a private estate in Central Russia. His mother, Pelagea Shubina, was a teacher before she married his father. His parents understood his weaknesses (poor speaking ability and bouts of depression) and strengths (a sharp eye, persistence and determination). His forte was the ability to see what for others remained unseen. Young Kuleshov received exclusive private education at the home of his father who had a degree from Moscow Art College. After the death of his father, 15-year-old Kuleshov and his mother moved to Moscow. There he studied art and history at the prestigious Stroganov School, then continued his studies at Moscow School of Painting, Architecture and Sculpture focusing on oil painting.
In 1916 he started his film career as a set designer at the Moscow film studio of Aleksandr Khanzhonkov and occasionally acted in some of its productions. He played a young lover opposite Emma Bauer, a stunning beauty, whom he truly fell in love with even before the filming started. That was the silent film Za schastem (1917). Watching himself on the silver screen, young Kuleshov was disappointed with the comic effect of his acting conflicting with naturalism of his true feelings. He decided to focus on directing and developing the style of his own. His new friend, experienced film-maker Akhramovich-Ashmarin, introduced him to American school of film-making, which also influenced his work.
With the help from Khanzhonkov's leading cinematographer, Yevgeny Bauer, Kuleshov made his first experimental works in editing. In 1917, he made his first publication in 'Vestnik Kinematografii': in three consecutive articles Kuleshov trashed the "salon" traditions of his employer by writing about an artist's role in converting film industry into a new form of art. His directorial career began under the patronage of Bauer, with whom Kuleshov worked as art director on such films, as Nabat (1917) and Za schastem (1917), and completed the latter as director after the original director Bauer died. In 1918, Kuleshov made his directorial debut with 'Project of Engineer Prite', and the film brought him attention of film studio executives who gave the 19-year-old beginner a chance to participate in documenting the early history of the Civil War-era Russia.
Following the Russian revolution of 1917, Kuleshov joined the Bolsheviks and sided with the Red Army in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1919, which was a continuation of the First World War. He covered the war on the Eastern front with a documentary crew. After the end of the Civil War, the Communist Party solidified control of the country, thus helping Kuleshov's career. His friend, Vladimir Gardin, appointed him instructor at the Moscow Film School. There he made a career as director and teacher. In 1920, he directed a war film Na krasnom fronte (1920), a government sponsored film about the Red Army. For some time Kuleshov continued wearing the Red Army uniform, to show his loyalty to the new government.
He studied the techniques of Hollywood directors, particularly D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett and introduced such innovations as crosscutting in editing and montage into Russian cinema. For his experiments Kuleshov was cutting old silent films from the archives of Khanzhonkov, Bauer and other private studios nationalized by the socialist govenment. Kuleshov used the archives of old silent movies for his own cutting experiments and thus most of the film archives was destroyed. Kuleshov remained quiet about this part of his career when he experimented with editing technique. He focused on putting two shots together to achieve a new meaning.
The "Kuleshov effect" is using the Pavlovian physiology to manipulate the impression made by an image and thus to spin the viewer's perception of that image. To demonstrate such manipulation, Kuleshov took a shot of popular Russian actor Ivan Mozzhukhin's expressionless face from an early silent film. He then edited the face together with three different endings: a plate of soup, a seductive woman, a dead child in a coffin. The audiences believed that Ivan Mozzhukhin acted differently looking at the food, the girl, or the coffin, showing an expression of hunger, desire, or grief respectively. Actually the face of Ivan Mozzhukhin in all three cases was one and the same shot repeated over and over again. Viewers own emotional reactions become involved in manipulation. Images spin those who are prone to be spun. Although editing and montage have already been used in art, architecture, fashion, politics, book publishing, theatrical productions and religious events (just look at placement of icons in churches, or photos in books, or pictures at exhibitions), the use of such editing in silent films was innovative and eventually led to more advanced visual effects.
Vsevolod Pudovkin, who claimed to have been the co-creator of Kuleshov's experiment, later described how the audience "raved about the acting... the heavy pensiveness of Ivan Mozzhukhin's mood over the soup, the deep sorrow with which he looked on the dead child, and the lust with which he observed the woman. But we knew that in all three cases the face was exactly the same." Kuleshov demonstrated the effect of editing that was successfully used in montage of such films, as Battleship Potemkin (1925) and Konets Sankt-Peterburga (1927) among other Soviet films. Kuleshov's good education, as well as his connections among Russian intellectual elite also helped his career.
At that time, Kuleshov and a group of his students, among them actress Aleksandra Khokhlova, collaborated on several movies that are now generally regarded as seminal films in Russian cinema. Among them are The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924), a satire on clash of civilizations showing naive American Christian pastor who comes to Russia just to be robbed twice, but then helped by exemplary Soviet policeman. In 1926 he produced his most popular film, By the Law (1926), based on a Jack London story. The movie was successful in Russia and especially in Europe. In 1933, he directed The Great Consoler (1933), based on biography of American writer O. Henry. The film was highly praised by Osip Brik and Lilya Brik. It was an interesting advancement in Kuleshov's experimental style.
In 1936, he received his Ph.D and became professor of directing and Moscow Film School. In 1941, Kuleshov's book 'Osnovy kinorezhissury' (aka... Fundamentals of Film Direction) was published in Moscow. Kuleshov was promoted to high position within the Soviet film industry and was designated Doctor of Science for the book, which was translated in several languages and became regarded among filmmakers worldwide.
During WWII, Kuleshov made two films. One, made in collaboration with writer Arkadiy Gaydar, was Klyatva Timura (1942). To complete the film, Kuleshov with his film crew was moved on Soviet government expense from cold Moscow to warm Stalinabad, the capital of Turkmenistan. There, in 1943, together with his wife, Aleksandra Khokhlova, he directed his last movie, We from the Urals (1944), a film about young Soviet boys making heroic efforts in the Eastern Front of WWII. After that, he returned from Central Asia back to Moscow. The Soviet capital was recovering after attacks of Nazi armies. For his contribution to art, and also for his dedication to communist ideas, a prestigious position as Artistic Director of the Moscow Film Institute (VGIK) where he worked for the next 25 years. Over the course of his career, his students were hundreds of Soviet filmmakers, such as directors Vsevolod Pudovkin, Boris Barnet, Mikhail Kalatozov and many others. His most trusted and devoted friend was Sergei Eisenstein.
Kuleshov visited Paris and presented a retrospective of his films in 1962. There he enjoyed much attention from international media. His friends in the Western world included many celebrities, such as Yves Montand, Louis Aragon, Elsa Triolet among others. Kuleshov was member of the Jury at 1966 Venice Film Festival and attended other film festivals as a special guest. He made several exclusive trips outside of the Soviet Union.Kuleshov was a friend of the State security chief, KGB General V.N. Merkulov.
Kuleshov was awarded Order of Lenin, Order of Red Banner, was designated People's Artist of Russia (1969), and received other decorations and perks from the Soviet government.
Outside of his film career, Lev Kuleshov was fond of hunting, he owned a collection of exclusive hunting guns and often used them to kill game outside of Moscow and in Southern Russia. He also spent much time at Mediterranean resort near Yalta in Crimea and often made hunting trips in that area. Kuleshov was married to his student Aleksandra Khokhlova, and lived with his wife in a prestigious block on Lenin Prospect in central Moscow. There he died in 1970, and was laid to rest in Moscow's most prestigious Novodevichy Cemetery. Kuleshov's funeral took place while the Soviet Union was celebrating the centennial anniversary of the former leader Vladimir Lenin.- Inna Gulaya was born on 9 May 1940 in Kharkov, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Kharkiv, Ukraine]. She was an actress, known for When the Trees Were Tall (1962), Vremya, vperyod! (1965) and Dolgaya schastlivaya zhizn (1966). She was married to Gennady Shpalikov. She died on 27 May 1990 in Moscow, USSR [now Russia].
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Boris Pasternak was born in Moscow on February 10, 1890 into an artistic family of Russian-Jewish heritage. His father was an acclaimed artist named Leonid Pasternak, who converted to Christianity, and his mother was a renown concert pianist named Rosa Kaufman. Their home was open to family friends such as composers Sergei Rachmaninoff and Aleksandr Skryabin as well as writers Rilke and Lev Tolstoy. Pasternak had a happy childhood, being brought up by prominent intellectuals in a cosmopolitan atmosphere. He studied music at the Moscow Conservatory and philosophy at the University of Marburg, Germany. In 1914 he returned to Moscow and published his first collection of poems. His work at a chemical factory in the Urals during WWI was later used as material for his novel "Doctor Zhivago".
In 1917 he fell in love with a Jewish girl and wrote "My Sister Life", a collection of passionate metaphoric poems that brought him international recognition and had an impact upon Russian Symbolist and Futurist poetry. Pasternak cautiously supported the Russian revolution, but was shocked with the brutality of communists. His parents and sisters emigrated to Europe in 1921. During the "Great Terror" of 1930s, Pasternak became disillusioned with the Soviet reality. He came under severe political attack and devoted himself to making translations of classic works: Shakespeare's "Hamlet", "Macbeth", "King Lear", Goethe's "Faust", as well as Paul Verlaine, Rainer Maria Rilke and other Western poets. His translations of Georgian poets favored by Joseph Stalin probably saved his life. Stalin spoke with Pasternak in 1934 over the phone, and questioned his association with poet Osip Mandelstam, who was executed upon Stalin's order. Later Stalin crossed Pasternak's name off the arrest list, quoted as saying "Don't touch this cloud dweller", alluding to his book "The Twin in the Clouds".
During 1940s-50s Pasternak wrote his autobiographic novel "Doctor Zhivago". A model for Lara in the novel was the poet's muse, beautiful and kind Olga Iwinskaja, an editor at "Novy Mir" magazine. In 1949, when she was pregnant by Pasternak, she was arrested by KGB on false accusations of "spying" and spent 4 years in prison-camp. Their unborn baby was lost, and Pasternak suffered a heart attack. After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, Olga Iwinskaja was released and reunited with Pasternak, who completed "Doctor Zhivago". He tried to publish it in the Soviet magazine "Novy Mir", but was rejected. The manuscript of "Doctor Zhivago" was secretly smuggled out of the Soviet Union and was first published in Italy in 1957.
Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958. But Soviet authorities declared him a "traitor" and attacked him with a campaign of persecution, terrorizing Pasternak up until his death in 1960. He was so abused by the Soviet authorities, that he became unable to go to accept the Nobel Prize and was forced to decline the honor. He lived the life of fear and insecurity that was imposed upon him and millions of others under the Soviet totalitarian system. He ended his life in poverty and a virtual exile in an artist's community of Peredelkino near Moscow. His last poems are devoted to love, to freedom, and to reconciliation with God. Pasternak was rehabilitated posthumously in 1987. In 1988, after being banned in the Soviet Union for three decades, "Doctor Zhivago" was published in the same "Novy Mir" magazine as a sign of changing times. In 1989 Pasternak's son accepted his father's Nobel Prize medal in Stockholm.- Actor
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Leonid Bykov was born on 12 December 1928 in Znamenskoye, Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. He was an actor and director, known for Only Old Men Are Going to Battle (1974), Little Hare (1965) and Aty-baty, shli soldaty... (1977). He died on 11 April 1979 in Kiev Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine].- Actor
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Vadim Spiridonov was born on 14 October 1944 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for U ozera (1970), Lyudi v okeane (1980) and Kriminalnyy kvartet (1989). He died on 7 December 1989 in Moscow, USSR.- Vladimir Savelev was born on 29 April 1899 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for The Fall of Berlin (1950), Sekretnaya missiya (1950) and Solntse voskhodit na zapade (1933). He died on 9 April 1956 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
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Grigori Mikhailovich Kozintsev was born on March 22, 1905, in Kiev, Russian Empire (now Kiev, Ukraine). His father, named Mikhail Kozintsev, was a medical doctor. Young Kozintsev studied at the Kiev Gymnazium. There, in 1919, he organized experimental theatre "Arlekin" together with his fellow students Sergei Yutkevich and Aleksei Kapler. During 1919 and 1920 Kozintsev studied art at the Kiev School of Art under the tutelage of Alexandra Exter.
Experiments. In 1920 Kozintsev moved to Petrograd (Leningrad or St. Petersburg). There he studied art at the "VKHUTEMAS" at the Academy of Fine Arts for two years. In 1921 Kozintsev with Sergei Yutkevich, Leonid Trauberg, and Leonid Kryzhitsky organized and led the Factory of Excentric Actors (FEKS). There Kozintsev directed radically avant-garde staging of plays "Zhenitba" (Marriage 1922) by Nikolay Gogol and "Vneshtorg na Eifelevoi Bashne" (Foreign trade on Eiffel Tower 1923). They were based in the former Eliseev Mansion on Gagarinskaya street No. 1 in St. Petersburg. Kozintsev and FEKS collaborated with writer Yuri Tynyanov, cinematographer Andrey Moskvin, young actor-director Sergey Gerasimov, artist Igor Vuskovich, and young composer Dmitri Shostakovich among others. Initially FEKS was the main platform for experimental actors, directors and artists, and was strongly influenced by Vsevolod Meyerhold and Vladimir Mayakovsky.
Artistic position. In 1924 Kozintsev and Trauberg came to "SevZapKino" Studios (now Lenfilm Studios). There Kozintsev continued his FEKS experiments in his first eccentric comedy 'Pokhozhdenie Oktyabriny' (1924). Kozintsev's early films were strongly criticized by official Soviet critics. His film 'Shinel' (1926) was compared to German Expressionism and accused of distortion of the original classic story by Nikolay Gogol. Kozintsev strongly argued against such comparisons with German expressionism; he was unhappy until the end of his life about such criticism of his early experimental works. Kozintsev insisted that his cheerful experiments were essential in the city of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) after the Russian Revolution of 1917, which brought destruction, depression, crime, and degradation of culture.
Early films. Kozintsev made twelve films together with Leonid Trauberg. Their collaboration began in 1921, in Petrograd (St. Petersburg). Their film-trilogy about Russian revolutionary hero Maxim was made from 1935-1941, when people in the Soviet Russia were terrorized under the most brutal dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. In departure from experimental youthfulness and freedom of their FEKS years, the Maxim trilogy was a trade-off blend of experiment and Soviet propaganda. It was still a powerful work and was even banned by censorship in the United States from the 1930s-1950s. For that work Kozintsev and Trauberg were awarded the Stalin's State Prize in 1941. After the Second World War Kozintsev and Trauberg made their last film together: 'Prostye Lyudi (Plain People 1946), which was censored and remained unreleased until 1958, when "Nikita Khrushchev' lifted the ban imposed by Stalin's censorship.
Highlights. Grigori Kozintsev ascended to his best works after the death of Stalin. Then Nikita Khrushchev initiated the "Thaw" which played a role in some liberation of individual creativity in the Soviet film industry. Kozintsev's adaptations of classical literature combined some experimental elements of his earlier silent films with the approach of a mature master. His Don Quixote (1957), King Lear (1969) and especially Hamlet (1963) were recognized worldwide as his highest achievements. In _Korol Lir (1969)_ Kozintsev made a brilliant decision to cast actors from the Baltic States as the Lear's family. Jüri Järvet, Regimantas Adomaitis, Donatas Banionis, Juozas Budraitis, and Elza Radzina together with Oleg Dal, Galina Volchek, Aleksey Petrenko made a powerful acting ensemble.
Hamlet and King Lear. Kozintsev first staged Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and 'King Lear" in 1941. His collaboration with Boris Pasternak began in 1940, when Pasternak was working on his Russian translation of the Shakespeare's originals. Both plays were prepared for stage under direction of Kozintsev. King Lear was staged in 1941, but further work was interrupted because of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Hamlet was staged in 1954. At the same time Kozintsev continued developing the idea of filming _Gamlet (1964)_, until everything came together in his legendary film. The adaptation by Boris Pasternak, the music by Dmitri Shostakovich, the direction by Kozintsev, and the acting talent of Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy produced special creative synergy. Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy was praised as the best Hamlet by Sir Laurence Olivier.
Legacy. In the 1920s Kozintsev taught at the Leningrad School of Acting. From 1944-1964 Kozintsev led his master-class for film directors at the Soviet State Film Institute (VGIK). Among his students were many prominent Russian directors and actors such as Sergey Gerasimov and others. Kozintsev was the head of master-class for film directors at Lenfilm Studios from 1964-1971. He wrote essays on William Shakespeare, Sergei Eisenstein, Charles Chaplin, and Vsevolod Meyerhold and published theoretical works on film direction. Grigori Kozintsev lived near Lenfilm Stidios in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) for the most part of his life. His work and presence was essential to the status of Lenfilm Studios as well as to the film community in Leningrad during the political and economic domination of Moscow as the Soviet capital. From his early works of the 1920s to his masterpiece _Gamlet (1964)_, Kozintsev was faithful to creative experimental approach.
Kozintsev was designated the People's Artist of the USSR. He was awarded the State Lenin's Prize of the USSR (1965), and received other awards and nominations. He died in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) on May 11, 1973, and was laid to rest in the Necropolis of the Masters of Art in St. Aleksandr Nevsky Convent in St. Petersburg, Russia.- Kim Philby was born on 1 January 1912 in Ambala, Punjab, British India [now Haryana, India]. He was married to Rufina Ivanovna Pukhova, Eleanor Brewer, Aileen Furse and Litzi Friedmann. He died on 11 May 1988 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria, the head of Joseph Stalin's dreaded secret police apparatus, was born in Merkheuli, Russia, on March 29, 1899. He joined the Bolshevik wing of the Communist Party in 1917 and was active in Stalin's native Georgia during the October 1917 Revolution. Beria joined the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (Cheka), the first secret police apparatus of the new Soviet Union that was tasked with liquidating counter-revolutionaries and enemies of the state. Eventually he was appointed chief of the Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) in Georgia.
Stalin summoned Beria to Moscow in 1938, during the height of the Purges, and installed him as second in command to NKVD chief Nikolai Yezhov. Soon afterwards Yezhov was arrested and Beria replaced him. Beria became the driving force behind Stalin's pre-World War II rein of terror, overseeing the purging of the armed forces. Apprioximately one-third of all officers were arrested by the NKVD, and three out of five marshals and 14 out of 16 army commanders were subsequently were executed.
Beria became a favorite of Stalin, and as commissar--and then later minister of internal affairs--he wielded great power. He was appointed to the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and in February 1941 he was named deputy prime minister. He was appointed to the Politburo in 1946, the first secret police chief to be so honored.
Stalin died on March 5, 1953, and Beria tried to succeed him as dictator. With Beria's support, Georgi Malenkov was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Premier); Malenkov then appointed Beria first deputy premier. Beria appeared on the cover of "Time" magazine on July 20, 1953, which was captioned "Enemy of the People".
As the real "power behind the throne", Beria positioned himself as an anti-Stalinist reformer. When an uprising in East Germany led to fears in the Presidium that Beria might allow the reunification of Germany on terms favorable to the West, it was time to act against the secret policeman. Beria's machinations were defeated by a group led by Nikita Khrushchev, who was named First Secretary of the Communist Party and who lead the denunciation of Beria. His ally Malenkov had earlier been forced to resign from the Presidium, and Beria was arrested in July, accused of conducting "anti-state" activities and of conspiracy. He was found guilty and shot on December 23, 1953. - Writer
Maksim Gorky is a pseudonym of Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov, who was born into a poor Russian family in Nizhnii Novgorod on Volga river. Gorky lost his father at an early age, he was beaten by his stepfather and became an orphan at age 9, when his mother died. He was brought up by his grandmother, who helped his development as a storyteller.
He was blessed with a brilliant memory, but failed to enter a University of Kazan. At age 19 he survived a suicide attempt, because the bullet missed his heart. After that Gorky traveled on foot for 5 years all over Central Russia, worked as a sailor on a Volga steamboat, then a salesperson, a railway worker, a salt miller, and a lawyer's clerk. At that time he was arrested for his public criticism of the Tsar and social injustices in Russia. He started writing for newspapers and published his first 'Sketches and Stories' in 1890s. Later he wrote an autobiographic book "My Universities" based on impressions from his travels and jobs. Gorky wrote with sympathy about the simple folks, the outcasts, the gypsies, the hobos and dreamers in the context of social decay in the Russian Empire. He became friends with Anton Chekhov and Lev Tolstoy. His play 'The Lower Depths' (1892) was praised by Chekhov and was successfully played in Europe and the United States. His political activism resulted in cancellation of his membership in the Russian Academy. Anton Chekhov and Vladimir Korolenko left the Academy in protest and solidarity with Gorky. He went to live in Europe and America in 1906-13. In America he started his classic novel, 'The Mother', about a Russian Christian woman and her imprisoned son, who both joined revolutionaries under the illusion that revolution follows Christ's messages.
After the Russian revolution in 1917, Gorky criticized Lenin and communists for their "bloody experiments on the Russian people". He wrote, 'Lenin and Trotsky are corrupted with the dirty poison of power. They are disrespectful of human rights, freedom of speech and all other civil liberties". Soon Gorky received a handwritten warning letter from Lenin. Later his friend Nikolai Gumilev, ex-husband of Anna Akhmatova was executed by communists. In 1921 Gorky emigrated to Europe and settled in Capri. He became careful in his critique of communism. In 1932 after a series of brief visits, he returned to Soviet Russia. He was placed in a rich Moscow mansion of the former railroad tycoon Ryabushinsky. His return from the fascist Italy was a victory for Soviet propaganda. He was made the Chairman of the Soviet Writer's Union, and a figurehead of "socialist realism" . After the murder of Kirov in 1934 Gorky was under a house arrest. His son died in 1935. The following year Gorki Gorky died suddenly at the Lenin's dacha in Moscow.- Actor
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Sergo Zakariadze was born on 1 July 1909 in Baku, Baku Governorate, Russian Empire [now Azerbaijan]. He was an actor, known for Waterloo (1970), Father of a Soldier (1964) and Giorgi Saakadze (1942). He died on 13 April 1971 in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, USSR [now Republic of Georgia].- Vladimir Tikhonov was born on 29 February 1948 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for Put v 'Saturn' (1967), A Ballad of Love (1966) and Dva dnya trevogi (1974). He was married to Natalya Egorova and Natalya Varley. He died in 1990 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia].
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Sergey Stolyarov was born on 1 November 1911 in village Bezzubovo, Venyov uyezd, Tula Governorate, Russian Empire [now Serebryano-Prudsky District, Moscow Oblast, Russia]. He was an actor and writer, known for Far from Moscow (1950), Sadko (1953) and The Sword and the Dragon (1956). He died on 9 December 1969 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Director
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Aleksandr Rou was born on 24 February 1906 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a director and writer, known for Frosty (1965), Kashchei the Immortal (1945) and The Fair Barbara (1970). He was married to Irina Zarubina. He died on 28 December 1973 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Leonid Brezhnev was a communist leader of the Soviet Union who restored a conservative, centralized state, initially raising living standards and bringing the country to its height but ultimately causing economic stagnation and disproportionate military growth. This process exhausted the Soviet economy and eventually led to collapse of the Soviet Union.
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was born on December 19, 1906, in Kamenskoe Russian Empire (now Dniprodzerzhynsk, Ukraine). He went to Dnepropetrovsk Industrial College. There he joined the Communist Party youth union (Komsomol) in 1923, and became a full member of the Communist Party in 1931. He had no adult memories of life under Tsar Nicholas II and was too young to have participated in the leadership feud after the death of Lenin. During the purges of the "Great Terror" under Joseph Stalin Brezhnev proved himself a loyal Stalinist, suitable for the ranks of the Communist hierarchy. In 1935 he was drafted in a tank school. There he started a career as Political Commissar; and in 1936 was transferred to Regional Government, rising to the Party Secretary of Dnepropetrovsk in 1939. On June 22, 1941, the day the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, Brezhnev was assigned to evacuate military industries before the Nazis reached his city. During WWII Brezhnev was assigned as Political Commissar to Transcaucasian Front; then to 1st Ukrainian Front. There chief Political Commissar was Nikita Khrushchev, who patronized Brezhnev's career since 1931. He was promoted to chief Political Commissar of the 4th Ukrainian Front, rising to a Maj. General. He was in Prague on May 9, 1945 when the War ended. Brezhnev took part in the Victory Parade on June 22, 1945, on the Red Square in Moscow, and saluted to Joseph Stalin, who stood atop the mausoleum of Lenin.
Brezhnev was promoted by Nikita Khrushchev to 1st Communist Party Secretary of Moldavia in 1950. In 1952 he was promoted to the candidate member of the Politburo, and had a meeting with Joseph Stalin in the Kremlin. "What a handsome Moldavian", said Stalin of Brezhnev. The death of Stalin on March 5, 1953, was followed by Khrushchev's takeover as the Head of the Communist Party in September, 1953. Main opponents were eliminated in a series of political executions, including that of Lavrenti Beria in December, 1953. Others were exiled, or degraded, like Marshal Georgi Zhukov. The cast of Soviet Leadership was changed. In 1953 Brezhnev was made the Chief of Political Directorate of the Army and the Navy (GPU). In 1955 he was made the 1st Communist Party Secretary of Kazakhstan. In 1956 Nikita Khrushchev denounced the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin in his Secret Speech to the 20th Congress of the Soviet Commuinst Party. In 1957 Brezhnev backed Khrushchev in a power-fight against Vyacheslav Molotov, Georgi Malenkov, and Lazar Kaganovich. In 1959 Brezhnev was promoted to Second Secretary of the Central Committee. In May 1960, he became the President of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal head of the Soviet Union.
Brezhnev, like many Soviet leaders, enjoyed many privileges, such as free villas and beach houses, valuable gifts, hunting and drinking parties. He was also using his secretaries and nurses for sex. But Brezhnev's adultery and alcoholism backfired in his own family - his daughter, Galina Brezhneva, modeled her personal life after her father and turned her life into an endless series of drinking parties and compromising love affairs. In 1961, while being married to a circus acrobat, Galina Brezhneva, then 32, met the 18-year-old actor Igor Kio, so she urgently divorced her husband and, using her name, eloped with the boy to a southern resort of Sochi. Her honeymoon lasted only 9 days. Enraged Soviet leader sent KGB to destroy her new family. Igor Kio was interrogated and pushed away from the Brezhnev's daughter, but she became revengeful and continued the affair with Kio for another three years, and later added more problems to her father's life.
In the late 50s and early 60s, the Soviet Union was undergoing liberalization, called "The Thaw" initiated by Nikita Khrushchev, who also initiated reforms in the Soviet government. While some people supported Khrushchev's reforms, many ranking communists were unhappy with the changes. Khrushchev's Thaw culminated in 1961 with the removal of Joseph Stalin's body from the Lenin's mausoleum on the Red Square, which further angered the hardliners. But at the same time, Khrushchev approved the construction of the Berlin Wall and caused many scandals while visiting foreign nations, which complicated international relations, culminating in Cuban Missile Crisis. Internal situation in the Soviet Union was rapidly deteriorating, because Khrushchev's agricultural reform failed, causing disastrous situation with food supplies, massive food lines triggered public unrest and Khrushchev thoughtlessly ordered the hungry people to be killed by the Red Army forces. Brezhnev used Khrushchev's mistakes to gain support for himself: he plotted a coup against Khrushchev and gathered several top-ranking communists to conspire against Nikita Khrushchev in order to stop his efforts to reform the Soviet Union.
On October 14, 1964, Brezhnev with co-conspirators Aleksey Kosygin and Nikolay Podgorny dismissed Nikita Khrushchev from office and denounced him. Khrushchev was forced into retirement under a house arrest on a small farm outside of Moscow. Brezhnev reversed liberalization, ended the "Khrushchev Thaw", and enforced censorship and total control over information, cultural life and education. In his May 1965 speech commemorating the 20th anniversary of Victory in WWII, Brezhnev mentioned Stalin positively. The onset of the "Cold war" caused 'freezing' of the Soviet economy. Entrepreneurial people went underground creating a parallel black market. The official economy relied on cheap labor and subsidies from oil and gas exports. The Soviet Military-Industrial Complex was somewhat efficient due to higher wages and ruthless control by the KGB and Soviet Army. Decay was still creeping into those bastions of communism. The arms race became unaffordable by the mid 1960's. 30% of the Soviet economy was directly or indirectly working for the arms race. Stockpiling of costly weapons undermined living standards that led to a fall in the birth rate, a shortage of labor, and an economic degradation. The country was pushed into a dead end.
Brezhnev played the script of Stalin which led the Soviet Union on a collision course with the world, and eventually to self-destruction. Control by fear and intimidation was back again. People were living hopeless lives having no choice. Workers of collective farms lived without identification documents up until 1970's. Undocumented citizens at collective farms were disposable. Migrants were used as industrial slaves, for symbolic pay. Wages were set by the state and did not depend on productivity or quality. The economy was governed by the state 5-year plan. This mostly ignored the world and domestic market signals; and lacked the incentives for innovation and efficiency. Teachers were forced to indoctrinate children of all ages from kindergartens through schools and universities. Total control and manipulation was demonstrated twice a year at annual May Day parades and Great Revolution parades on November 7. Military parades were accompanied by marching masses of industrial workers and managers, doctors and scientists, as well as teachers and students from all schools and universities. Exemplary obedient people were rewarded with better food and perks. Taming millions to obedience by fear and hunger led to a massive degradation of human rights, poor spirituality, lack of initiative and creativity, and decay of public health and vitality. The country of almost three hundred million people became stuck in stagnation, inefficiency, and apathy. Brighter students were taken into the military-industrial system, brainwashed and locked there for life with little choices. Opponents were locked in labor camps, mostly in Siberia. There, millions were working various hard labor jobs in grand-scale economic projects; like the Baikal-Amur railroad (BAM). Other dissidents were labeled as mentally ill and forcibly confined to mental hospitals. Since the Communist Revolution of 1917, people had been continually stripped of their land and property. Under Khrushchev and Brezhnev the destruction of independent farming was finalized. By the 1960's poverty and anxiety pushed masses to migrate to cities. Mass-construction of cheap panel buildings was lagging behind. Millions of families shared poor housing, hostels, and dorms in cities. Villages were deserted. Collective farms decayed. Agricultural output fell below the levels of the Tsar's age. Seven thousand churches were destroyed across the Soviet Union. Spiritual life was dominated by ugly propaganda. People were blinded by fear and pushed to wrong values. Meaningful human virtues were replaced with fake ideals of ruthless communism. Propaganda idolized members of the Soviet Politburo, their portraits were decorating every school and factory along with countless portraits and statues of Vladimir Lenin.
Political manipulations and brainwashing of millions led to devaluation of life itself. Immoral behavior became a massive problem. In 1966 Brezhnev was asked not to rehabilitate Joseph Stalin, in a letter signed by 25 distinguished intellectuals, including Andrei Sakharov, Igor Tamm, Pyotr Kapitsa, Korney Ivanovich Chukovskiy, Valentin Kataev, Viktor Nekrasov, Petr Korin, Maya Plisetskaya, Oleg Efremov, Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy, Georgi Tovstonogov, Mikhail Romm, Marlen Khutsiev, Boris Slutsky, Konstantin Paustovsky, Vladimir Tendryakov, Dmitri Shostakovich, and other Soviet luminaries. But Brezhnev's government retaliated with massive censorship. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was interrogated and intimidated. His writings were also banned. Trials of intellectuals like Andrey Sinyavskiy, Yuri Daniel, Joseph Brodsky, and others was only the tip of the iceberg. The head of KGB, Vladimir Semichastny, wrote a note on "Anti-Soviet activity of creative intellectuals". It listed the films '33' by director 'Georgi Danelia' and 'Na odnoi planet' by director Ilya Olshvanger. The KGB was angry at actors: "Today they play Lenin, tomorrow a merchant, after tomorrow a drunkard." Neo-Stalinist course was enforced by the leaders who were raised under Stalin and did not learn anything better than to abuse the enslaved people. Blinded leaders only tried to slow the movement to a dead end. Restrictions on travel and studies abroad blocked the learning of the achievements of other nations of the world. Information technology and computers made by Soviet Military Industries were incompatible and obsolete. Total control by the KGB led to stagnation and inefficiency. The brightest people defected and fled the Soviet gloom, causing the "Brain drain" in science and culture. In the 1970s the flow of Jewish emigration was initiated by reuniting families. The KGB caused financial and political obstacles to every emigrating person; but people were leaving at any cost. Aggressive foreign policy manifested in support for revolutionary regimes and spreading the Soviet political and military presence in Third World countries. National resources were wasted on controversial military operations at the expense of growing domestic problems including poverty and frustration of the people.
Brezhnev's regime crushed the Prague Spring of 1968, fought the Chinese Army over a border dispute in 1969, sent Soviet Tanks and Air Force to Egypt and Syria against Israel in the 1970's, as well as in North Vietnam against the French and Americans. The invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 undermined international credibility of the Soviet Union. Andrei Sakharov wrote an open letter to Brezhnev calling for a stop to the war. 50 nations boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Crackdown on intellectual freedom and human rights included the use of psychiatric terror, arrests, and the exile of dissidents. The head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, declared Andrei Sakharov the "enemy No.1." Sakharov was forcefully exiled from Moscow to the militarized 'closed' city of Gorky. He was placed under tight surveillance and restricted from any contacts. His wife Yelena Bonner was also under tight surveillance.
During the 1970s Brezhnev's health declined dramatically as he became increasingly dependent on alcohol and drugs; but on his 70th birthday he made himself a Generalissimus Marshal of the Soviet Union, similar to that of Joseph Stalin. Brezhnev accepted over 200 decorations and awards, including awards from all pro-Soviet governments, except China. Brezhnev accepted countless expensive gifts and amassed a collection of vintage cars and other bribes. His personal vanity and behavior was replicated at all levels of the Communist Party and led to massive corruption. The old Brezhnev lost his acting abilities and couldn't even read the script. People were joking. The ugly reality was reflected in its leader. The youngest Politburo Member Mikhail Gorbachev was contemplating reforms. Brezhnev suffered a stroke in May 1982. He died of a heart attack on November 10, 1982; and was buried by the Kremlin Wall. He was succeeded by Yuri Andropov, who died just 16 months later. He was replaced by Konstantin Chernenko, who died in just 13 months. Then came Mikhail Gorbachev, but the country was already locked in a dying mode.
Brezhnev's daughter, Galina, was married four times and was regarded as a wild-child by the Soviet authorities. Her wild drinking parties often ended in escapades with younger men. In 1982, she was seen wearing jewels previously reported as stolen, she was also connected to jewel smugglers, so she was tried for stealing jewels from a celebrity, but was acquitted, while her powerful father was still the leader of the Soviet Union. Her third husband was convicted of bribery and corruption and sentenced to twelve years correction term in a hard-labor camp. In the 1990s, a British TV filmed a visit to the home of Galina Brezhneva, where she was interviewed while being drunk and demonstrating disgraceful behavior. At that time she was living with a mechanic who was 29 years younger. She remained impossible to deal with, so after numerous complaints from her neighbors and upon request of her own daughter, Galina Brezhneva was placed in a Moscow psychiatric hospital where she died in 1998. She was laid to rest in the prestigious Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow, Russia. Brezhnev's grandson, Andrei Brezhnev, joined the Communist Party of Russia in 2005. Brezhnev's granddaughter, Victoria, was robbed several times and is now divorced and unemployed. - Actor
- Director
Mikheil Gelovani was born on 6 January 1893 in Lasuria, Kutaisi Governorate, Russian Empire [now Tsageri Municipality, Republic of Georgia]. He was an actor and director, known for The Fall of Berlin (1950), The Vow (1946) and Fortress on the Volga (1942). He died on 21 December 1956 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Grigori Aleksandrov was a Soviet-Russian filmmaker best known as director of Volga - Volga (1938), The Circus (1936), and October (Ten Days that Shook the World) (1927), as well as co-star in Battleship Potemkin (1925) by director Sergei Eisenstein.
He was born Grigori Vasilyevich Mormonenko on January 23, 1903 in Ekaterinburg, Russia. His father, Vasili Mormonenko, was a worker. Young Aleksandrov was obsessed with acting and movies. At the age of 9 he was hired as a delivery boy at the Ekaterinburg Opera; there he eventually worked as an assistant dresser, electrician, decorator, and assistant director. He studied violin and piano at the Ekaterinburg School of Music, graduating in 1917. During the Russian Civil War of 1917-1920, he was road manager with the Theatre of Eastern Front of the Red Army. After the Civil War he graduated from the Directors Courses for Proletariat Theatre in Ekaterinburg, and was appointed Inspector of Arts at the Ekaterinburg Regional Administration. His job was to supervise theaters and to select films in compliance with the new ideology.
Aleksandrov met Eisenstein in 1921. They worked together on several stage productions in 1921-24. In 1923 Aleksandrov appeared as Glumov in a stage production of A. Ostrovsky's play at the Moscow Proletkult Theatre, directed by Eisenstein. They worked together on the scenario of their first films: 'Stachka' (1924) and 'Bronenosets Potemkin' (1925). They wrote and directed 'Oktyabr' (1927), a historical film made to look like a documentary about the Russian revolution. In 1929-1933 both Aleksandrov and Eisenstein were sent to study and work in Hollywood. Back in the Soviet Union Aleksandrov made a short documentary film titled 'International' (1932).
In 1933 Aleksandrov had a meeting with Joseph Stalin and Maxim Gorky at the Gorky's State Dacha near Moscow. Stalin offered the oportunity to Aleksandrov to make a musical comedy for the Soviet people. 'Veselye Rebyata' (aka.. Jolly fellows) was completed in 1934, starring Leonid Utyosov and Lyubov Orlova. 'Veselye Rebyata' became the #1 box office hit in Russia and was awarded at the Venice Film Festival. Leonid Utyosov and Lyubov Orlova became instant celebrities, and songs by composer Isaak Dunaevskiy became popular hits in the Soviet Union.
Aleksandrov directed and edited the documentary of Stalin's speech about the Soviet constitution, titled 'Doklad tov. Stalina o proekte Konstitutsii SSSR na VIII Chresvychaynom S'ezde Sovetov' (1937). After that Aleksandrov returned to making comedies. Aleksandrov's wife, Lyubov Orlova, starred in almost all of his feature films, such as 'Tsirk' (1936), 'Volga-Volga' (1938), 'Svetly Put' (1940), 'Vesna' (1947) among his other films. His 1930s comedies remained rather popular among several generations of viewers in the Soviet Union, as well as internationally. In 1942 Joseph Stalin sent a copy of Volga - Volga (1938) to American president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
However, Aleksandrov's success came at a painful price, as he suffered from many attacks by some less fortunate and envious filmmakers, as well as from blackmailing by invisible and anonymous enemy. In 1938 Aleksandrov's colleagues, cinematographer Vladimir Nilsen, and producer Boris Shumyatskiy, were executed by the firing squad for anti-government activities. At the same time both Aleksandrov and Orlova were falsely accused of spying for the Nazi Germany, but were cleared of all charges.
During the 1950s he taught directing at State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). His last films had little success, and some, like 'Skvorets i lira' (1973) were not even released in theaters. Aleksandrov also made a few documentaries, including one about Lenin, and one about his wife, star actress Lyubov Orlova.
Grigori Aleksandrov received the Stalin's Prize twice (1941, 1950), the Order of Lenin twice (1939, 1950), the Order of Red Star (1938), and the Order of the Red Banner twice (1963, 1967). He was designated People's Actor of the USSR. Grigori Aleksandrov died of kidney infection on December 16, 1983, at the Kremlin Hospital in Moscow, and was laid to rest next to his wife, Lyubov Orlova in Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow, Russia.- Vladimir Fogel was born in 1902 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for By the Law (1926), The Adventures of the Three Reporters (1926) and Chess Fever (1925). He died on 8 June 1929 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia].