(now Ulan-Ude), Trans-Baikal region - July 29, Moscow) - Soviet statesman, participant in the civil war in Siberia, revolutionary, diplomat, journalist. Head of Soviet cinema (1931-1938). Member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
Biography
The beginning of the way
Boris Zakharovich's father worked as a bookbinder in St. Petersburg at the publishing house "Tovarishchestvo A.F. Marx" in the early 1880s. When, in connection with the assassination of Alexander II, Petersburg Jews began to be evicted beyond the Pale of Settlement, Zakhar Shumyatsky, like many others, was assigned a rural area somewhere in Belarus or Ukraine. However, he did not agree with this definition and went to the appropriate authorities, where he claimed that he had a city specialty and in the countryside he would not be able to feed his family and he needed a city. "Ah, the city," they said, "we will find you a city." And his family was sent to Transbaikalia to the city of Verkhneudinsk. "You yourself wanted a city, here's a city for you." The Shumyatsky family traveled to a new place of residence for several months. Upon arrival, they were registered as peasants, allocated land, sometimes involved in bookbinding in the services of local authorities.
Boris Shumyatsky was born in Verkhneudinsk and spent the first years of his life in the city. At school, he practically did not study. He often wrote that his education was "at home", but apparently at home he was taught to read and write in Russian, he mastered colloquial Buryat and, it seems, could explain himself in Yiddish.
Since 1898 - a student, and then a worker of the Chita railway workshops. In 1903, Boris Shumyatsky joined the RSDLP. Since 1904, he has been a worker at the Krasnoyarsk railway depot.
Revolution of 1905-1907
Shumyatsky was the editor-in-chief of the newspapers Pribaikalye, Baikalskaya Volna, Zabaikalets (Verkhneudinsk), Voice of Manchuria, Thought (Harbin). The owner of the newspaper "Pribaikalye" Verkhneudinsky merchant Nodelman was arrested in Irkutsk and the newspaper was closed. After leaving prison on bail, Nodelman agreed to publish a new newspaper, Baikal Wave. The newspaper "Zabaykalets", published in Verkhneudinsk on Naberezhnaya Street, was owned by Reifovich. The newspaper was closed in October 1906 and Shumyatsky fled from Verkhneudinsk to Chita on October 18 or 20. In Chita, he began publishing the newspaper Taiga. He was sent to work in the Vladivostok group of the RSDLP, actively participated in the armed uprising of the sailors of the Pacific squadron in Vladivostok.
He married Liya Isaevna Pandra (1889-1957), who took her husband's surname, a student of a medical assistant's school, the daughter of a wealthy merchant from the city of Kansk. In 1909 their daughter Nora was born, followed in 1922 by Ekaterina.
Revolution of 1917
In the period between the revolutions, fleeing the inevitable arrest in 1911-1913, he was in exile in Argentina. Already in Russia, he carried out active revolutionary work in the organizations of the RSDLP (b) in Siberia. Since 1914, it has been published in the central organ of the RSDLP, the newspaper Pravda.
In 1917, Shumyatsky - Deputy Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Krasnoyarsk Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, an active participant in the publication of the newspapers Izvestia of the Krasnoyarsk Council, Krasnoyarsk Rabochiy, the weekly Sibirskaya Pravda, a delegate to the VII (April) Conference of the Bolsheviks, a participant in the 1st All-Russian Congress Soviets, elected a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, introduced to the editorial board of the Pravda newspaper responsible for organizing the publication.
Conflict with Stalin and transfer to diplomatic work
In 1922, Shumyatsky came into conflict with the Narkomnats and its leader I.V. Stalin on the issue of the autonomy of Buryatia, which had previously received it as part of the Far Eastern Republic. Shumyatsky managed to achieve the creation of an autonomous republic instead of three national districts, but he himself was exiled to an honorable retirement for diplomatic work.
From November 1930 - Chairman of Soyuzkino. Since 1933 - head of the Main Directorate of the film industry and deputy chairman of the Committee for the Arts (since 1935).
Soyuzkino
In 1929, a congress of Soviet filmmakers was held, at which the inconsistency of the management of the industry was revealed and a decision was made to change the leadership of the film and photographic industry. Since November 1930, B. Z. Shumyatsky headed the domestic film industry as chairman of the All-Union Film and Photo Association (“Soyuzkino”). For the reproduction of qualified cinema personnel, he organized on the basis of the film technical school.
GUKF
Since 1933, Shumyatsky - Chairman of the State Directorate of the Film and Photo Industry (GUKF) ("People's Commissariat of Cinema"), then Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Arts under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. During the period of Shumyatsky's leadership of the Soviet film industry, the films "Chapaev", "Merry Fellows", "Maxim's Youth", "Thirteen", "Circus" and many others were created. The success of Soviet films at international film festivals is associated with his name.
Shumyatsky regularly attended film screenings in the Kremlin. He left verbatim records of discussions of films by members of the Politburo and Stalin.
Memory
Streets in Ulan-Ude and Krasnoyarsk are named after Shumyatsky.
The image in the cinema
- - Orlova and Alexandrov (TV series). In the role of B. Z. Shumyatsky - Boris Khvoshnyansky
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Notes
Books and articles
- "Fight for the Russian Far East", Irkutsk, 1922.
- “In the Siberian underground. Essays 1903-1908", "Moscow Worker", M., 1926, 192 p.
- "Siberia on the way to October", M., 1927, 64 p. (2nd edition: Irkutsk, "Vostochno-Sibirskoe izd.", 1989, 411p.)
- "At the post of Soviet diplomacy", M., 1927, (2nd ed.: "Izd. Eastern literature", M., 1960).
- "1905 and the East", M.-L., GIZ, 1930, 80 p.
- "Cinematography of millions", "Kinofotoizdat", M., 1935, 387 p.
- "Ways of Mastery", "Kinofotoizdat", M., 1935, 192 p.
Literature
- "Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Russian Bibliographic Institute Granat", v.41, part 111, M. 1925, stb. 254-258.
- Yakushina A.P. "Boris Zakharovich Shumyatsky", "History of the USSR", 1969, No. 2, pp. 118 - 123.
- Bagaev B. F. “Boris Shumyatsky. Essay on life and activity "Krasnoyarsk, 1974, 204 p.
- Taylor R. "Boris Shumyatsky and the Creation of Soviet Cinematography in the 1930s" (from English) Film Studies Notes 1989, no.
- Richard Taylor , "Ideology as Mass Entertainment: Boris Shumyatsky and Soviet Cinema in the 1930s", in Richard Taylor and Ian Christie , (eds.), Inside the Film Factory, Routledge Ltd., 1991.
- Bernstein, Aaron. "People's Commissar of Cinematography", "LECHAIM" August - September, 1997
- Muzalevsky M. "He dreamed of Soviet Hollywood", "Cavalier", No. 7, 2002.
- Mayakovsky. V. Full. coll. op. M., 1957, v.5, p.120.
- Yesenin S. Full. coll. cit., vol. 4, M: "Science" - "Voice", 1996, p. 494.
- Bulgakova E. S. "Diaries", (January 1938).
- Schumatsky, Boris. "Silver bei Stalin", PHILO, Berlin 1999, 180 pp.
- “Kajarov carpet from Shumyatsky’s apartment in the House on the Embankment”, “Our Heritage”, No. 78, 2006.
- Shumyatsky B. L. "Facts and family legends about Boris Zakharovich Shumyatsky (on the occasion of his 120th birthday)" "Cultural space Eastern Siberia and Mongolia”, Volume 1, pp. 157 - 164, Ulan-Ude, 2006.
- Shumyatsky B. L. “He was talented in everything - a revolutionary, diplomat, people's commissar of cinema. 120 years since the birth of B. Z. Shumyatsky”, newspaper “Buryatia”, No. 231 (3871), December 8, 2006.
- Simacheva T. A. (author-compiler) "Boris Shumyatsky" (bibliography, documents, materials for a biography), "Kinograf", No. 18 p. 94 - 133, 2007, No. 19, 2008
- Shumyatsky Boris Zakharovich. Film organizer.
- Shumyatsky, Boris. Ogonyok No. 13 of 04/06/2015, p. 36
An excerpt characterizing Shumyatsky, Boris Zakharovich
“Dirty,” said Prince Andrei, grimacing.We'll clean it up for you. - And Timokhin, not yet dressed, ran to clean.
The prince wants.
- Which? Our prince? - voices began to speak, and everyone hurried so that Prince Andrei managed to calm them down. He thought it better to pour himself in the barn.
“Meat, body, chair a canon [cannon fodder]! - he thought, looking at his naked body, and shuddering not so much from the cold, but from disgust and horror, incomprehensible to him, at the sight of this huge number of bodies rinsing in a dirty pond.
On August 7, Prince Bagration wrote the following in his camp at Mikhailovka on the Smolensk road:
“Dear sir, Count Alexei Andreevich.
(He wrote to Arakcheev, but he knew that his letter would be read by the sovereign, and therefore, as far as he was capable of doing so, he considered his every word.)
I think that the Minister has already reported on leaving Smolensk to the enemy. It hurts, sadly, and the whole army is in despair that the most important place was abandoned in vain. I, for my part, asked him personally in the most convincing way, and finally wrote; but nothing agreed with him. I swear to you on my honor that Napoleon was in such a bag as never before, and he could lose half the army, but not take Smolensk. Our troops have fought and are fighting like never before. I held on with 15,000 for over 35 hours and beat them; but he did not want to stay even 14 hours. It's a shame and a stain on our army; and he himself, it seems to me, should not live in the world. If he conveys that the loss is great, it is not true; maybe about 4 thousand, no more, but not even that. At least ten, how to be, war! But the enemy lost the abyss ...
What was it worth to stay two more days? At least they would have left; for they had no water to drink for men and horses. He gave me his word that he would not retreat, but suddenly sent a disposition that he was leaving into the night. Thus, it is impossible to fight, and we can soon bring the enemy to Moscow ...
Rumor has it that you think about the world. To reconcile, God forbid! After all the donations and after such extravagant retreats, make up your mind: you will turn the whole of Russia against you, and each of us, out of shame, will make him wear a uniform. If it has already gone like this, we must fight while Russia can and while people are on their feet ...
You have to lead one, not two. Your minister may be good in the ministry; but the general is not only bad, but trashy, and he was given the fate of our entire Fatherland ... I, really, go crazy with annoyance; Forgive me for writing boldly. It can be seen that he does not love the sovereign and wishes the death of all of us who advise to make peace and command the army to the minister. So, I am writing you the truth: prepare the militia. For the minister in the most skillful way leads the guest to the capital. Adjutant Wolzogen is giving the whole army a big suspicion. He, they say, is more Napoleonic than ours, and he advises everything to the minister. I am not only courteous against him, but I obey like a corporal, although older than him. It hurts; but, loving my benefactor and sovereign, I obey. It’s only a pity for the sovereign that he entrusts such a glorious army. Imagine that with our retreat we lost people from fatigue and more than 15 thousand in hospitals; and if they had attacked, it would not have happened. Say for God's sake that our Russia - our mother - will say that we are so afraid and why we give such a good and zealous Fatherland to bastards and instill hatred and shame in every subject. What to be afraid of and who to be afraid of?. It's not my fault that the minister is indecisive, a coward, stupid, slow and everything has bad qualities. The whole army is crying completely and scolding him to death ... "
Among the innumerable subdivisions that can be made in the phenomena of life, one can subdivide them all into those in which the content predominates, others in which the form predominates. Among these, in contrast to rural, zemstvo, provincial, even Moscow life, one can include life in St. Petersburg, especially salon life. This life is unchangeable.
Since 1805 we have been reconciling and quarreling with Bonaparte, we have made constitutions and butchered them, and the salon of Anna Pavlovna and the salon of Helene were exactly the same as they had been one seven years, the other five years ago. In the same way, Anna Pavlovna spoke with bewilderment about the successes of Bonaparte and saw, both in his successes and in the indulgence of European sovereigns, a malicious conspiracy, with the sole purpose of unpleasantness and anxiety of that court circle, of which Anna Pavlovna was a representative. In the same way, with Helen, whom Rumyantsev himself honored with his visit and considered a remarkably intelligent woman, just as in 1808, so in 1812, they spoke with enthusiasm about a great nation and a great person and looked with regret at the break with France, which, according to the people who gathered in the salon Helen, should have ended in peace.
IN Lately, after the arrival of the sovereign from the army, there was some excitement in these opposing circles in the salons and some demonstrations were made against each other, but the direction of the circles remained the same. Only inveterate legitimists from the French were accepted into Anna Pavlovna's circle, and here the patriotic idea was expressed that there was no need to go to the French theater and that the maintenance of the troupe costs as much as the maintenance of the whole building. The military events were eagerly followed, and the most beneficial rumors for our army were spread. In Helen's circle, Rumyantsev, French, rumors about the cruelty of the enemy and the war were refuted and all Napoleon's attempts at reconciliation were discussed. In this circle, those who advised too hasty orders to prepare for departure to Kazan to court and women's educational institutions, under the patronage of the Empress mother, were reproached. In general, the whole matter of the war was presented in Helen’s salon as empty demonstrations that would very soon end in peace, and the opinion of Bilibin, who was now in St. think they'll solve the problem. In this circle, ironically and very cleverly, although very carefully, they ridiculed the Moscow delight, the news of which arrived with the sovereign in St. Petersburg.
In Anna Pavlovna's circle, on the contrary, they admired these delights and talked about them, as Plutarch says about the ancients. Prince Vasily, who occupied all the same important positions, was the link between the two circles. He went to ma bonne amie [his worthy friend] Anna Pavlovna and went dans le salon diplomatique de ma fille [to his daughter's diplomatic salon] and often, during incessant moving from one camp to another, he got confused and told Anna Pavlovna that it was necessary to speak with Helen, and vice versa.
Shortly after the arrival of the sovereign, Prince Vasily began talking with Anna Pavlovna about the affairs of the war, cruelly condemning Barclay de Tolly and being indecisive about whom to appoint as commander in chief. One of the guests, known as un homme de beaucoup de merite [a man of great merit], told that he had seen Kutuzov, who was now elected chief of the St. that Kutuzov would be the person who would satisfy all the requirements.
Anna Pavlovna smiled sadly and noticed that Kutuzov, apart from troubles, had given nothing to the sovereign.
“I spoke and spoke in the Assembly of the Nobility,” interrupted Prince Vasily, “but they did not listen to me. I said that his election to the head of the militia would not please the sovereign. They didn't listen to me.
“It’s all some kind of mania to frond,” he continued. - And before whom? And all because we want to ape stupid Moscow delights, ”said Prince Vasily, confused for a moment and forgetting that Helen had to laugh at Moscow delights, while Anna Pavlovna had to admire them. But he immediately recovered. - Well, is it proper for Count Kutuzov, the oldest general in Russia, to sit in the chamber, et il en restera pour sa peine! [His troubles will be in vain!] Is it possible to appoint a man who cannot sit on horseback, falls asleep at the council, a man of the most bad morals! He proved himself well in Bucarest! I'm not talking about his qualities as a general, but is it possible at such a moment to appoint a decrepit and blind person, just blind? The blind general will be good! He doesn't see anything. Play blind man's blind man... sees absolutely nothing!
Nobody objected to this.
On the 24th of July it was absolutely right. But on July 29, Kutuzov was granted the princely dignity. Princely dignity could also mean that they wanted to get rid of him - and therefore the judgment of Prince Vasily continued to be correct, although he was in no hurry to express it now. But on August 8, a committee was assembled from General Field Marshal Saltykov, Arakcheev, Vyazmitinov, Lopukhin and Kochubey to discuss the affairs of the war. The committee decided that the failures were due to differences of command, and, despite the fact that the persons who made up the committee knew the sovereign's dislike for Kutuzov, the committee, after a short meeting, proposed appointing Kutuzov commander in chief. And on the same day, Kutuzov was appointed plenipotentiary commander of the armies and the entire region occupied by the troops.
On August 9, Prince Vasily met again at Anna Pavlovna's with l "homme de beaucoup de merite [a person of great dignity]. L" homme de beaucoup de merite courted Anna Pavlovna on the occasion of the desire to appoint Empress Maria Fedorovna as a trustee of the women's educational institution. Prince Vasily entered the room with the air of a happy winner, a man who had achieved the goal of his desires.
– Eh bien, vous savez la grande nouvelle? Le prince Koutouzoff est marechal. [Well s, you know the great news? Kutuzov - field marshal.] All disagreements are over. I'm so happy, so glad! - said Prince Vasily. – Enfin voila un homme, [Finally, this is a man.] – he said, significantly and sternly looking around at everyone in the living room. L "homme de beaucoup de merite, despite his desire to get a place, could not help but remind Prince Vasily of his previous judgment. (This was impolite both in front of Prince Vasily in Anna Pavlovna's drawing room, and in front of Anna Pavlovna, who was just as joyfully received the news; but he could not resist.)
- Mais on dit qu "il est aveugle, mon prince? [But they say he is blind?] - he said, reminding Prince Vasily of his own words.
- Allez donc, il y voit assez, [Eh, nonsense, he sees enough, believe me.] - said Prince Vasily in his bassy, quick voice with a cough, that voice and cough with which he resolved all difficulties. “Allez, il y voit assez,” he repeated. “And what I am glad about,” he continued, “is that the sovereign has given him complete power over all the armies, over the entire region, a power that no commander in chief has ever had. This is another autocrat,” he concluded with a victorious smile.
“God forbid, God forbid,” said Anna Pavlovna. L "homme de beaucoup de merite, still new to court society, wishing to flatter Anna Pavlovna, shielding her former opinion from this judgment, said.
- They say that the sovereign reluctantly transferred this power to Kutuzov. On dit qu "il rougit comme une demoiselle a laquelle on lirait Joconde, en lui disant: "Le souverain et la patrie vous decernent cet honneur." [They say that he blushed like a young lady who would have read Joconde, while told him: "The sovereign and the fatherland reward you with this honor."]
- Peut etre que la c?ur n "etait pas de la partie, [Maybe the heart did not quite participate,] - said Anna Pavlovna.
“Oh no, no,” Prince Vasily interceded fervently. Now he could not give in to Kutuzov to anyone. According to Prince Vasily, not only Kutuzov was good himself, but everyone adored him. “No, it cannot be, because the sovereign was so able to appreciate him before,” he said.
“God only grant that Prince Kutuzov,” said Anpa Pavlovna, “takes real power and does not allow anyone to put spokes in his wheels – des batons dans les roues.”
Prince Vasily immediately realized who this nobody was. He whispered:
- I know for sure that Kutuzov, as an indispensable condition, said that the heir to the Tsarevich should not be with the army: Vous savez ce qu "il a dit a l" Empereur? [Do you know what he said to the sovereign?] - And Prince Vasily repeated the words, as if said by Kutuzov to the sovereign: “I cannot punish him if he does badly, and reward him if he does well.” ABOUT! this is the smartest man, Prince Kutuzov, et quel caractere. Oh je le connais de longue date. [and what character. Oh, I've known him for a long time.]
“They even say,” said l “homme de beaucoup de merite, who still did not have court tact, “that the most illustrious made it an indispensable condition that the sovereign himself did not come to the army.
As soon as he said this, in an instant Prince Vasily and Anna Pavlovna turned away from him and sadly, with a sigh at his naivety, looked at each other.
While this was happening in Petersburg, the French had already passed Smolensk and were moving closer and closer to Moscow. The historian of Napoleon Thiers, like other historians of Napoleon, says, trying to justify his hero, that Napoleon was unwittingly drawn to the walls of Moscow. He is right, as are all historians who seek an explanation of historical events in the will of one person; he is just as right as the Russian historians who assert that Napoleon was attracted to Moscow by the skill of the Russian generals. Here, in addition to the law of retrospectiveness (recurrence), which represents everything that has passed as a preparation for an accomplished fact, there is also reciprocity that confuses the whole thing. A good player who loses at chess is sincerely convinced that his loss was due to his mistake, and he looks for this mistake at the beginning of his game, but forgets that in his every step, throughout the whole game, there were such mistakes that no one his move was not perfect. The error to which he draws attention is noticeable to him only because the enemy took advantage of it. How much more complicated than this, then, is the game of war taking place under certain conditions of time, and where it is not the will alone that guides lifeless machines, but where everything springs from an innumerable clash of various arbitrarinesses?
After Smolensk, Napoleon was looking for battles for Dorogobuzh at Vyazma, then at Tsarev Zaimishch; but it turned out that due to the innumerable clash of circumstances to Borodino, a hundred and twenty miles from Moscow, the Russians could not accept the battle. From Vyazma, an order was made by Napoleon to move directly to Moscow.
Moscou, la capitale asiatique de ce grand empire, la ville sacree des peuples d "Alexandre, Moscou avec ses innombrables eglises en forme de pagodes chinoises! [Moscow, the Asian capital of this great empire, the sacred city of the peoples of Alexander, Moscow with its countless churches, in the form of Chinese pagodas!] This Moscou haunted Napoleon's imagination.On the passage from Vyazma to Tsarev Zaimishch, Napoleon rode on his solo anglized pacer, accompanied by guards, guards, pages and adjutants. Berthier, the chief of staff, fell behind in order to interrogate what was taken by the cavalry Russian prisoner He galloped, accompanied by the translator Lelorgne d "Ideville, caught up with Napoleon and with a cheerful face stopped the horse.
– Eh bien? [Well?] said Napoleon.
- Un cosaque de Platow [Platov Cossack.] says that Platov's corps is connected with a large army, that Kutuzov has been appointed commander in chief. Tres intelligent et bavard! [Very smart and chatterbox!]
Napoleon smiled, ordered to give this Cossack a horse and bring him to him. He himself wanted to talk to him. Several adjutants galloped, and an hour later the serf Denisov, who had been ceded to Rostov by him, Lavrushka, in a batman's jacket on a French cavalry saddle, with a roguish and drunken, cheerful face, rode up to Napoleon. Napoleon ordered him to ride beside him and began to ask:
- Are you a Cossack?
- Cossack, your honor.
"Le cosaque ignorant la compagnie dans laquelle il se trouvait, car la simplicite de Napoleon n" avait rien qui put reveler a une imagination orientale la presence d "un souverain, s" entretint avec la plus extreme familiarite des affaires de la guerre actuelle" , [The Cossack, not knowing the society in which he was, because the simplicity of Napoleon had nothing that could open the presence of the sovereign to the Eastern imagination, spoke with extreme familiarity about the circumstances of this war.] - says Thiers, telling this episode Indeed, Lavrushka, who got drunk and left the master without lunch, was flogged the day before and sent to the village for chickens, where he became addicted to looting and was taken prisoner by the French. duty to do everything with meanness and cunning, who are ready to do any service to their master and who cunningly guess the master's bad thoughts, especially vanity and pettiness.
It happened often, sometimes a couple of times a month. In the evening, at about nine o'clock, after having suppered in the company of his inner circle, the comrade led his comrades-in-arms to the cinema. “The cinema hall,” the leader’s daughter recalled, “was built in the premises of the former winter garden, connected by passages to the old Kremlin palace.” A long procession marched "to the other end of the deserted Kremlin, and heavy armored vehicles crawled in single file behind and countless guards walked ... The movie ended late, at two in the morning: they watched two films or even more ... ".
For almost ten years, until his arrest in January 1938, the head of the Main Directorate of the Film and Photo Industry under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was responsible for the Kremlin film screenings. Born in 1886 in Verkhneudinsk, a place of hard labor and exile, he went through the school of a professional revolutionary, who, like a military man, was thrown from region to region by fate and the will of his superiors, from appointment to appointment. After October 1917, he happened to work in Mongolia and Persia, performing trade and diplomatic missions, and at the same time more delicate ones, until the nomenklatura lot made Shumyatsky the head of Soviet cinema.
Apparently, Boris Zakharovich had an innate business acumen. He managed (and this can be seen from his notes) to submit the products of his department to the leader's judgment in the most advantageous way and to extract the greatest benefit for the film industry from the goodwill of the top. It was a difficult and dangerous job.
Koba, as Shumyatsky often refers to Stalin in the pre-revolutionary manner (which only a few of his old associates dared to do), who once composed poetry himself, perhaps had a more refined artistic taste than other participants in the Kremlin cult campaigns. In Stalin's perception, the spectacle of a picture could occasionally outweigh its political purpose.
And yet, cinema, like all other genres of art, remained for the leader an instrument of politics, and cinema required special control. However, the Soviet "cinema brethren", despite being trained, sometimes tried to break the harmony of the ranks, more often through thoughtlessness, sometimes because of non-party interpreted freedom of creativity. For the time being, Shumyatsky managed to settle ideological misunderstandings, protecting talented artists, and unsuccessfully begging for the highest blessing and money to create a domestic film industry.
But the life of a courtier is unpredictable. For no apparent reason, the favor was replaced by disgrace, and in July 1938, the life of Boris Zakharovich Shumyatsky was cut short at the infamous firing range in Butovo.
Film lovers can be grateful to Shumyatsky for "Merry Fellows", "Chapaev", "Peter I" and many other classic films, the appearance of which he contributed to the best of his ability. Historians have another reason for gratitude. For several years, Shumyatsky kept records, almost verbatim, of conversations and remarks that were exchanged between viewers of the elite Kremlin cinema. It is difficult to say whether he took notes during the sessions or reproduced from memory what he heard later, but Boris Zakharovich managed to convey not only the essence of what was said, but sometimes even the stylistic features of speech. Moreover, unlike the transcripts of the speeches of great leaders at official events, when each word was weighed before being uttered, and, if necessary, later corrected or replaced, Shumyatsky's recordings recorded a lively, non-protocol speech of people gathered in their narrow circle, so that a little unwind. But what can you do if the craft of a ruler makes him think about politics and notice the class background of even the most banal scene even in moments of rest?
63 records have come down to us, if you like - laid-back sketches of Stalin and his entourage. Some of the notes have not survived, and sometimes the "session" was not captured on paper. Shumyatsky's materials were kept in the so-called Stalin's personal fund, where they ended up, most likely, after Shumyatsky's arrest. Currently, the fund is in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (F. 558. Op. 11). Not all of Shumyatsky's notes are included in this publication, however, the proposed material gives a very clear idea of the nature of the document, its characters, and its creator.
When preparing documents, the spelling of some words (for example, a film) and abbreviations were preserved. Surnames in square brackets are inserted by the compilers, in round brackets - as in the document.
Introductory article by K.M. Anderson, preparation of documentsK.M. Anderson and L.A. Horny.
There is an opinion that in the second half of the 20th century there was no woman in our country who would have reached such political heights and made such an incredible career as Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva. She was the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee, the first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, and for almost 14 years she was the Minister of Culture of the USSR.
Let's remember her life in the format of a biographical photo collection.
Portrait of a candidate member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU E. A. Furtseva
Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva was born on December 7, 1910 in a village near Vyshny Volochkom. Mother Matrena Nikolaevna worked at a weaving factory. Father died in World War I.
Ekaterina Alekseevna with her mother
Ekaterina graduated from the seven-year school, at the age of fifteen she entered the weaving factory where her mother worked. But a different fate awaited her. At the age of twenty, the factory girl joined the party. Soon the first party task follows: she is sent to the Kursk region to raise agriculture. But there she does not stay long, she is “thrown” to the Komsomol-party work in Feodosia.
Portrait of a young Ekaterina Furtseva
She is noticed, summoned to the city committee of the Komsomol and offered a new Komsomol ticket. From the blessed South, she is sent to the North, to the very heart of the revolution, to the capital of October, to Leningrad. At the Higher Courses of Civil Aeroflot.
Nikita Khrushchev, Nina Petrovna, Ekaterina Furtseva (third from left in the front row). Moscow region, early 60s
In the new city, Catherine fell in love with a pilot. His name was Petr Ivanovich Bitkov.
At that time, “pilot” was an almost mystical word. Pilots are not people, but "Stalin's falcons". The pilot is irresistible, like Don Juan. To be married to a pilot meant to keep up with the times. Live almost like a myth. Everything could be shared with the pilot - even love for Comrade Stalin.
Ekaterina Furtseva with her husband Peter Bitkov and daughter Svetlana
In Moscow, Furtseva becomes an instructor in the student department in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Komsomol. A year later, she was sent on a Komsomol ticket to the Moscow Institute of Fine Chemical Technology. The future process engineer plunges headlong into Komsomol work.
Kliment Voroshilov, Anastas Mikoyan, Ekaterina Furtseva
The war began, my husband was mobilized. She was left alone, with her mother, whom by that time she had discharged to Moscow. Land mines are exploding in Moscow, she, along with everyone else, is on duty on the roof, extinguishing incendiary bombs - saving the capital. And suddenly - a protracted news after a meeting with her husband: she is pregnant.
Ekaterina Furtseva with her daughter Svetlana
Svetlana was born in May 1942. Only four months after the birth of her daughter, her husband came on a visit. He announced that he had been living with another for a long time. Disappointment followed disappointment. After graduating from the institute, as a political activist, she was offered to enter graduate school, after a year and a half she was elected party organizer of the institute. Science was done away with forever.
Now they lived together: her mother, Svetlana and she. Ekaterina received a room in a two-room apartment near the Krasnoselskaya metro station. From the institute, she was sent to work in the Frunzensky District Committee of the Party. Furtseva's immediate superior - the first secretary of the district committee - was Pyotr Vladimirovich Boguslavsky. She developed a special relationship with him.
In 1949, during a party concert backstage at the Bolshoi Theater, Nikolai Shvernik gave her an audience with the leader. Stalin liked her. She saw him for the first and last time, but that was enough for her.
Ekaterina Furtseva speaking at the Plenum of Creative Unions. 1967
In December 1949, she speaks at an expanded plenum of the city party committee, where, harshly criticizing herself, she talks about the district committee's shortcomings.
In early 1950, she moved to a building on Staraya Square, to the office of the second secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee. A couple of months later, her faithful friend Pyotr Vladimirovich Boguslavsky fell victim to the struggle against cosmopolitanism - he was removed from all posts and expelled from the party. The novel ended by itself.
The family of Ekaterina Furtseva: daughter Svetlana, granddaughter Marina, son-in-law Igor Kozlov - with cosmonaut Adrian Nikolaev
From 1950 to 1954, Furtseva came into close contact with Khrushchev. There were rumors about their romance. Immediately after Stalin's death, she became the first secretary of the city party committee. Now all of Moscow was under her command.
N.S. Khrushchev, writer K. A. Fedin, Minister of Culture of the USSR E. A. Furtseva (right), and others talking at a country dacha during a meeting of party and government leaders with leaders Soviet culture and art.
She made a strong impression on Khrushchev: both by the fact that she spoke at meetings without a piece of paper, and by the fact that she was not afraid to confess and repent of imaginary sins, and by the fact that she was a “specialist”. It was her favorite word. When meeting new people, the first thing she asked was: “Are you a specialist ?!”
N. S. Khrushchev and E. A. Furtseva at the opening of the exhibition. 1950s
Furtseva, until the end of her life, retained a respectful attitude towards professors and important old men, associate professors, whom she had seen in graduate school. The "specialist" knows more than she does, this conviction was very strong in her. And in her team, she - a former weaver - wanted to see just such people.
It was happy time for Furtseva. And not only in public life. While still working as a secretary in the Moscow City Party Committee, she met Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin, one of her subordinates.
Ekaterina Furtseva with Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin
Nikolai Firyubin was a professional diplomat, a short, slender brown-haired man with a thoroughbred and expressive face. spoke English and French. For those who knew both of them well, it was amazing how such different people could come together.
Outwardly, she behaved inappropriately. At every opportunity, she flew to him in Prague, then to Belgrade, where he was transferred as an ambassador. All this was in front of everyone, but she was not going to hide. It flattered him. Firyubin was looking for a reason to break off the previous marriage, threatened to renounce everything.
Five years later, when he returned to Moscow and became Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, they signed. And only then Ekaterina Alekseevna realized how wrong she was. However, it was no longer possible to change anything.
Khrushchev did not forget what he owed her. Soon, Ekaterina Alekseevna was introduced to the Presidium of the Central Committee and overnight turned from a party Cinderella into a party Queen.
Khrushchev's gratitude, however, was not eternal. The fact that the first time served a good service - the telephone, the second time played against Ekaterina Alekseevna herself.
Participants of the 1st All-Union Congress of Journalists; among those present: 1st row from left to right: General Director of TASS under the Council of Ministers of the USSR N. G. Palgunov (2nd from left), Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Court K. E. Voroshilov, Chief Editor newspaper Pravda P. A. Satyukov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N. S. Khrushchev, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU M. A. Suslov (6th from left), member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU E. A. Furtseva, member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU N A. Mukhitdinov.
It was 1960, the second half of Khrushchev's reign. Many were unhappy with it. Including Furtseva. This discontent was vented on steam. Just washing the bones. Once, in a telephone conversation, Furtseva "walked" on Nikita Sergeevich. The next day he read the transcript of her private conversation with Aristov, a member of the Central Committee. His reaction was lightning fast. At the next, extraordinary, plenum of the Presidium, Ekaterina Alekseevna was removed from the post of secretary.
Her reaction was as open-hearted and sincere as Khrushchev's "trip". On the same day she came home, ordered not to let anyone in, lay down in the bath and opened her veins. But she didn't want to die. That is why she did not cancel the meeting with one of her friends, who was assigned the role of an angel-savior. And this friend played her part.
There was surprise at the silence outside the door, then bewilderment. Then fear. Then - a call to the special services and the arrival of a special team, which broke the door and found Ekaterina Alekseevna bleeding. Khrushchev did not respond to this "cry of the soul". The next day, at a meeting of the expanded composition of the Central Committee of the party, of which Furtseva remained a member, he, laughing wryly, explained to the party members that Ekaterina Alekseevna had a banal menopause and should not pay attention to it. These words were carefully conveyed to her. She bit her lip and realized: the second time women's games in a company that plays only men's games do not work.
Gina Lollobrigida, Yuri Gagarin, Marisa Merlini, Ekaterina Furtseva
The procedure for removal from power was worked out to the smallest detail. No one burst into the office, defiantly did not turn off the phone. The renunciation of power was marked by silence. They suddenly stopped greeting you, and most importantly, the turntable fell silent. She was simply turned off. However, a month later a message came that Furtseva was appointed Minister of Culture. And it was then that the nickname that stuck to her for a long time began to walk all over the country - Catherine the Great.
She considered tens of thousands of cultural workers in Moscow and the Moscow region to be her team. And another three or four million ordinary "army of cultural studies" throughout the USSR: modest librarians, museum scientists, arrogant employees of theaters and film studios, etc. All this army called her Great Catherine.
Delegates of the 24th Congress of the CPSU, Minister of Culture of the USSR E. A. Furtseva (right) and soloist of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR, People's Artist of the RSFSR M. Kondratyeva talking during a break between sessions.
Furtseva's office was decorated with a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, with a laconic inscription: "Catherine from Elizabeth." There was a legend that, after talking for half an hour with Furtseva, the queen turned to her with a request: “Catherine, don’t call me Your Highness, just call Comrade Elizabeth.”
Ekaterina Furtseva and Sophia Loren
The Danish Queen Margrethe once said that she would like to do the same for her country as Furtseva did for hers.
Speech by the Minister of Culture of the USSR E. A. Furtseva at the opening of the II International Competition ballet dancers at the Bolshoi Theater USSR.
According to her note addressed to Suslov, the Taganka Theater was established, and at the same time, with her light hand, the reviling of abstract artists took place in the Manege. With her blessing, Shatrov's play Bolsheviks went to Sovremennik. It was she who initiated the construction of a sports complex in Luzhniki and a new building for the choreographic school.
Minister of Culture of the USSR E. A. Furtseva and Hero of Socialist Labor, foreman of shipbuilders of the Baltic Plant named after S. Ordzhonikidze V. A. Smirnov
Everything ended with Firyubin. She didn't get divorced, but she didn't love either. Became closed. It revived, perhaps, only during noisy feasts, with a glass of good wine. In recent years, this tendency has been already noticeable to everyone. Her daughter Svetlana gave birth to Marishka, the granddaughter of Ekaterina Alekseevna.
Ekaterina Alekseevna with her daughter Sveta and granddaughter Katya
Svetlana and her husband really wanted to have a dacha. Furtseva did not want to build it, but under pressure from her daughter, she turned to the Bolshoi Theater - it was possible to buy building materials there inexpensively. The deputy director of the Bolshoi Theater for construction helped her, and then a scandal erupted. She was reprimanded, almost flew out of the party.
E. A. Furtseva, A. I. Mikoyan, L. I. Brezhnev, K. E. Voroshilov
Furtseva has been alone for the last two years. Almost no one was in her house, Firyubin had an affair on the side, and she knew about it.
On the night of October 24-25, 1974, a bell rang in the apartment of Svetlana Furtseva on Kutuzovsky Prospekt. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Nikolai Pavlovich Firyubin, her mother's husband, called. He cried: "Ekaterina Alekseevna is no more."
On the last day of December 1937, early in the morning, Boris Zakharovich Shumyatsky, head of the Main Directorate of Cinematography under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, returned from a business trip to Lenfilm and went straight from the station to a dacha outside Moscow, where he was going to celebrate the new year with his family. In the afternoon, Stalin's assistant T.A. Poskrebyshev called him.
"The Master is calling you," he said laconically.
New Year the head of the GUK had to meet at Stalin's. As the wife of B.Z. Shumyatsky said, at the festive table the first toast was proclaimed to the health of the leader. Boris Zakharovich, who could not even bear the smell of alcohol, only sipped his glass. Stalin, accustomed to closely monitoring the behavior of his guests and drinking companions, shook his head reproachfully and made a remark to his director of cinematography, although he knew about his negative attitude towards alcohol.
"What, you don't want to drink to my health?"
“You know, Koba, that I don’t drink.
“They taught everyone, but you didn’t. You want to be the best!
“It is impossible to teach me this. The body does not accept.
Looking with frank disapproval at his subordinate, Stalin, after a short pause, said
- Nothing ... and they didn’t bend like that.
In the morning, with a heavy feeling in his soul, Shumyatsky returned to his relatives, realizing that he was no longer pleasing to the Master. In the cellars of the Lubyanka, many senior officials of the GUK and close friends - the old Bolsheviks - have already disappeared.
A week after the "meeting" of the new year, the head of the GUK received an order to dismiss, but "above" was silent when he tried to find out something by phone about his future fate, which had already been decided: an enemy of the people.
For many years, the repressed Shumyatsky was remembered with reluctance, even with irony, preferring to associate only negative phenomena in the history of Soviet cinema with his activities. It's not fair.
BZ Shumyatsky lived only 52 years. His father, a bookbinder, having not received the right to reside in the capital, left St. Petersburg and settled with his family in one of the areas of the Pale of Settlement.
Young Shumyatsky was an active participant in the armed struggle against tsarism in Krasnoyarsk in the autumn and winter of 1905, and in January 1906 he escaped from the Krasnoyarsk prison, lived on a false passport, and even headed the party newspaper Baikal Region. Persecuted by the authorities, he left with his family for Argentina, where he lived and worked as a political exile, and returned home in 1913. Since that time, B.Z. Shumyatsky occupies a significant place in the party hierarchy, working in underground Bolshevik organizations.
In October 1917 he is elected Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Siberia.
During the Civil War, B. Shumyatsky performed dangerous tasks in the rear of Kolchak and personally informed Lenin about the state of affairs in this sector of the struggle, fought with the Whites in the 51st division of V. Blucher, and in the summer of 1920. was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Far Eastern Republic. He knew M. Uritsky, Y. Sverdlov, S. Kirov, V. Blucher, N. Podvoisky, P. Postyshev, I. Stalin and others well.
His relationship with Stalin was not easy. Shumyatsky was very critical of some of his personal qualities and, knowing about vindictiveness and exorbitant lust for power, he was frankly afraid of Stalin's unpredictable wrath.
As the wife of B. Shumyatsky said, the transfer of Boris Zakharovich to Iran was caused by a conflict with Stalin, who, being the People's Commissariat for National Affairs, did not share Shumyatsky's idea of \u200b\u200bcreating the Buryat autonomy and was furious when he learned that his political opponent managed to get his way through the Politburo. In those years, Shumyatsky did not attach any importance to these "working" differences. In essence, B. Shumyatsky and I. Stalin until 1925-1926 were equal figures in the Bolshevik Party in importance. The leader, who did not have much sympathy for Shumyatsky, nevertheless did not object to his transfer in November 1930. to the post of head of the All-Union film and photo association "Soyuzkino", reorganized in 1933. to the Main Directorate of the Film and Photo Industry under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. Stalin sought to alienate Shumyatsky from work in high party and state authorities. Probably, the leader assumed that the former party worker, far from art, would not hold out in a new leadership role for a long time, especially since the technical base of the cinema of the USSR was very weak at that time. However, B. Shumyatsky, a man without education, but well-read and not indifferent to art, set to work with great zeal and with a firm conviction that all Soviet films should fit into the framework of Marxist ideology. Soviet cinema, from his point of view, is a planned art, cinema is a field of creativity that requires accessible to the masses artistic language. The success of the film is determined primarily by the "sharp entertaining plot." In his book The Art of Millions, he reinforces his position by referring to the "authoritative judgment" of Stalin, who allegedly told him about the "necessity of an exciting plot." Asserting his artistic demands in the light of party ideology, Shumyatsky easily included in the "sect" of formalists those film workers who preferred the path of search and experimentation. A staunch internationalist, he sharply attacked many Ukrainian films with so-called "national departmental tendencies". In A. Dovzhenko's excellent film "Zvenigora" the head of the State Film and Television Film Directorate saw "a cinematic banner of bourgeois nationalists", "admiration of prosperous rural Ukraine", idealization of the "reactionary" features of its historical past. But he praised such interesting paintings as "Outskirts" by B. Barnet, "Chapaev" by G. and S. Vasilyev, "Merry Fellows" by G. Alexandrov, "Puffy" by M. Romm, "Ragged Shoes" by M. Barskoy, "Three songs about Lenin" by D. Vertov, etc. About "Thunderstorm" by V. Petrov, B. Shumyatsky said, repeating the words of those emotional viewers who need a mandatory happy ending: "I liked the picture, but the end is hard ...".
Shumyatsky organized screenings of films for high authorities and the leader, delivered to the Kremlin for consideration by Stalin himself a thematic plan for the production of films, brought to him for approval scripts and screen tests for the most important historical-revolutionary and historical films. Stalin's communication with filmmakers was carried out mainly through the head of the GUKF, who, on behalf of the leader, conveyed his comments, wishes and demands to the directors and screenwriters.
One day in 1934 B. Shumyatsky called director M. Romm and screenwriter I. Prut and said that "one comrade, who exactly - does not matter, would like to see a Soviet film about border guards, made in the spirit of one American film showing a fierce battle in the desert between English soldiers and Arabs. The patrol detachment, lost in the sand, perishes, but fulfills its military duty. It was, of course, a personal order of Stalin, who liked John Ford's film "The Lost Patrol". M. Romm and I. Prut did not see this pictures, but made the film "Thirteen" about the heroic struggle against the Basmachis in the desert.
B. Shumyatsky was very flexible in judging films. Often a situation developed that forced not to express or resolutely change one's opinion about the film after a negative or positive assessment of it by the leader and members of the Politburo. He liked M. Dubson's tape "The Border", but "above" it was considered "erroneous", and Shumyatsky's attitude changed dramatically. "Chapaev" before the official screenings in Moscow was received by Shumyatsky at "Lenfilm" rather reservedly. In private conversations, as a participant in the civil war, he criticized some scenes of this tape, seeing, for example, the "unnecessary glorification" of the white officers in the episode of the psychic attack of the Kappelites. This episode and the scene with the song "The storm roared, the rain was noisy" he demanded to be removed from the film. After the Kremlin screening and the success of the film with the audience, Shumyatsky, in full agreement with the leader's point of view, proclaimed the film "Chapaev" as the beacon by which Soviet cinema should be measured.
In the summer of 1933 On the screens of the country there was a film by A. Zarkhi and I. Kheifits "My Motherland", which Shumyatsky liked. Confident in the good fate of the film, the head of the GUKF showed it to Stalin. After viewing, the leader categorically and with a formidable hint said: "This picture ... was made ... by other people's hands!"
A day later, Pravda printed: "The painting" My Motherland "is forbidden as harmful." What made Stalin so angry? In the picture about the military conflict on the CER in 1927. he did not see a powerful army ready for a victorious war in any territory. Shumyatsky did not dare to argue with the leader, calling the tape of Zarkha and Kheyfits harmful. "It's my fault that I missed the picture," he repented in one of his public speeches.
With big internal stress the head of the GUKF expected in the fall of 1937. completion of work on the film "Lenin in October", realizing that he would have to answer for all the artistic and political miscalculations of the film. He created all the conditions for director M. Romm to ensure that the picture was made in the shortest possible time. B. Shumyatsky often visited the shooting and constantly reminded M. Romm that the artist N. Okhlopkov was not approved for the role of Vasily. Soon he resigned himself to the choice of the director, but for reinsurance, he attached an editor to the film crew, who recorded everything that happened on the set in a special diary.
B. Shumyatsky defended the idea of "direct creative participation of the leadership in the film." Not a single film studio in the USSR had the right to accept independent decision not on any significant issue. In his works and speeches, Shumyatsky more than once quoted Stalin's statements about cinema, calling them "the most valuable instructions", "the sharpest weapon", "creative wealth", but this was, of course, dictated not by sincere feeling, but by the perverse concepts that had developed in those days about cinema. party discipline. Shumyatsky, as it were, modeled Stalin's reaction to various films and sometimes made mistakes.
The head of the GUKF did not spare the vanity of creative workers, accusing many of them of "rotten liberalism", "petty-bourgeois intelligence", and "objective hostility to Soviet cinema art".
On his initiative, significant changes were made to the content of such films as "The Last Night" by Y. Raizman, "Party Ticket" by I. Pyryev, "Generation of Winners" by V. Stroeva. In The Last Night, the young high school student Kuzma went over to the side of the opponents of the revolution, and in this B. Shumyatsky saw the idea of the breakup of a working-class family, harmful to the film.
Proud, touchy, sometimes very unexpected in his reactions and sharp in his assessments, Shumyatsky did not always reach mutual understanding with the creators.
His relationship with Sergei Eisenstein was especially difficult. The hostility that arose between them was to some extent determined by the cold and wary perception of the director by Stalin himself. Eisenstein was offended not only by Eisenstein's frank denial of his professional competence as the leader of Soviet cinematography, but also by not always correct joking at him. It is known that Shumyatsky's portrait at one time hung in the director's home toilet.
S. Eisenstein, known throughout the world, was a "tough nut" for the head of the GUKF, a man of a complex and incomprehensible intellect, an artist who most of all valued his independence. And Shumyatsky answered him with sharp and often unfair criticism, accusing him of formalism, ignorance of Marxism. Unfortunately, the head of the GUKF played a significant role in the destruction of Eisenstein's film "Bezhin Meadow", attributing to it harmful "formalist exercises", "interest in religious mythology", "amnesty for class enemies", etc. However, he felt Eisenstein's hidden thought: "He began to show the pathos of creating a new collective-farm village as the pathos of spontaneous destruction." At the first All-Union Congress of the Trade Union of Film and Photo Workers, Shumyatsky presented Eisenstein with political accusations that sounded like a denunciation. He called him a "god", who played a prominent role in a certain "bohemian, formalist group where the best films of Soviet cinema were condemned", and Eisenstein himself, who created the "hostile" film "Bezhin Meadow", allegedly called the film "Oncoming" a "red hack" .
However, one cannot perceive B.Z. Shumyatsky one-sidedly, only from the positions of his opponents. Many people, including filmmakers, treated him with deep respect. Quite often, Boris Zakharovich visited Leningrad, where, according to L. Arnshtam, he had good creative relations with the majority of Lenfilm employees, workers, employees, directors A. Zarkhi, I. Kheifits, F. Ermler, L. Trauberg and G. Kozintsev. Kozintsev recalled that the meeting with Shumyatsky became "the impetus for the formation of the concept of a historical-revolutionary film without a pathetic tone." The head of the GUKF willingly and enthusiastically told Kozintsev and Trauberg about life, the daily existence of a professional revolutionary, life in prisons, the work of underground printing houses, etc., and the listeners were struck by the calm irony, the playful form of narration, the clarity of words and thoughts. And this is what helped the directors. Some features of Maxim gradually began to appear in their imagination.
G. Kozintsev left us a surprisingly warm characterization of B. Shumyatsky and even a short description of his appearance: “He was no longer a young man, walking in a warm out-of-season coat, an awkwardly pulled down hat and galoshes. There was something deeply prosaic and ordinary in his whole appearance this smart man, who knew a lot, who was fully endowed with a sense of humor. With a calm irony, he understood all our film affairs. " The head of the GUKF could not protect many employees of his institution from repressions and, apparently in self-defense, publicly condemned them as "spies" and "Trotskyites". But he secretly did not believe in the labels that were generously placed on innocent people. Shumyatsky made friends with a young talented cameraman Vladimir Nielsen, made him a consultant for the GUKF, knowing full well that Nielsen was in Butyrka prison and spent two years in exile. In a letter to V. Nielsen dated August 8, 1936. B. Shumyatsky shared with him his thoughts about the "petty rubbish", careerists penetrating the Soviet cinema and thirsting for government awards. Together with the cameraman, who became an associate professor at VGIK, he wrote a book about US cinema, but it has not yet been published (the manuscript is kept at TsGALI). Director-editor T. Likhacheva, whom the Leningrad NKVD considered a socially dangerous element, B. Shumyatsky arranged for Mosfilm and gave her instructions at the GUKF. According to Likhacheva's firm conviction, Shumyatsky was active, modest and kind person, who was always interested in the working conditions of ordinary film workers at film studios. She recalls that the head of the GUKF did not like to appear in front of the camera and left when photojournalists arrived. T. Likhacheva was repeatedly summoned to some high authorities, trying to get dirt on B. Shumyatsky from her, but she always spoke only the best words about her boss.
According to the memoirs of Ekaterina Borisovna, the daughter of B.Z. Shumyatsky, her father was a complex, often harsh person, who demanded a lot from himself and others.
The smile on his face was a real joy for the whole family. He did not like to tell his family about a difficult childhood, prison, civil war ... At home he spent a lot of time at his desk, absorbed in his cinematic affairs. “Father,” she recalls, “literally liberated himself when colleagues and friends came to his house: cameraman V. Nielsen and his wife, directors V. Weinstock, F. Ermler, G. Aleksandrov, L. Trauberg, G. Kozintsev, screenwriters A. Kapler, I. Prut, employees of the GUKF. Then he spoke a lot and willingly about the need for major changes in Soviet cinema, but emphasized that far from everything depended on him. " Shumyatsky could not stand the exaggerated attention to his person and was a completely non-drinking person. Once he got terribly angry when, having opened a package from Georgia, he found several bottles of dry wine under the top layer of fruit.
One cannot deny the many mistakes and contradictions of B. Shumyatsky, a man who gave the best years of his life to the revolutionary struggle and sincerely devoted to the ideas of Marxism-Leninism. But in general, his activities as head of the All-Union Film and Photo Association, then the GUKF brought considerable benefits to Soviet cinema. Director Yuli Raizman told me: “Like other film directors, I was under fire from the temperamental criticism of the head of the GUKF, but I always saw that Boris Shumyatsky was driven by a great love for cinema, and this was transmitted to others. In essence, he devoted all his time to cinema, strove to understand the intentions of the creators of the tape, he was serious about directing. Probably, in the minutes of such conversations with the masters of cinema, it seemed to him that he was also participating in the creation of the film. "
Already within two or three years after Shumyatsky came to the post of head of Soyuzkino, Soviet film production made a noticeable step forward. Defending his positions, B. Shumyatsky sharply attacked "right-wing opportunists", supporters of "bohemian-anarchist sentiments", convinced that "the area of the spirit of creativity" cannot be planned, and forbade replacing the implementation of a specific production plan with unnecessary discussions. He was absolutely right in arguing that the planned system of work in the cinema is impossible without the presence of interesting and literary-full scripts - the artistic basis of future films. That is why Shumyatsky urged to take the playwright's work more seriously, considering scripts "as an independent type of dramaturgy", the original literary work. The head of the GUKF often recommended the scripts he liked to filmmakers and even tried to determine the direction and nature of the director's work on the future tape. In this sense, the unpublished letter of B. Shumyatsky to M. Romm dated September 16, 1934 is of interest. We are talking about the scenario of K. Vinogradskaya "Anka". He's writing:
“I read “Anka” again. It seems to me that if you work a little more on the script, you can make a good film ... The difficulties lie mainly in the selection of an actress. We need a very talented, bright and at the same time soft actress, something like Babanova, only much younger and prettier. Yes, and Pavel should be played by an actor of great feelings and great skill. If there are no actors for these roles, the film may be ruined. Yes, and other roles need real actors. I would like to get your thoughts on the whole range of issues in working on this tape.
B. Shumyatsky did a lot for the painting by G. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg "Youth of Maxim". The directors were inspired by the stories of the head of the GUKF about his revolutionary past. In them they found the necessary tone of the film narrative and some important material for themselves. Working on the script, G. Kozintsev asks B. Shumyatsky in a letter dated April 20, 1933. "to shave into screenwriters Ilf and Petrov." But most of all, he is interested in B. Shumyatsky coming to Leningrad on May 1 - to read the script and watch "a complete rehearsal of all the characters in costumes." Without a doubt, the advice of B. Shumyatsky helped the creators of the future film. March 20, 1934 G. Kozintsev writes to his high friend that all his amendments have been accepted, and literally calls for help in solving difficult prison scenes: "Help us, while nothing comes to mind." Shumyatsky worried about the fate of the film, which went to the screen very the hard way. The script for the tape called "Bolshevik" was banned by a high commission, then the film was not accepted by Goskino. However, the head of the GUKF, as director L. Arnshtam told me, emphasized more than once in conversations with friends and colleagues that the film was interesting.
The wife of the cameraman V. Nielsen, I. Penzo, who was present during her husband’s conversation with B. Shumyatsky, recalled: “Boris Zakharovich spoke about the Youth of Maxim with great warmth. people of art, but they don’t understand humor.” It was B. Shumyatsky who took G. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg to the decisive screening in the Kremlin, where the picture was slightly criticized, but received the approval of the leader.
Thanks to Shumyatsky, the comedy "Merry Fellows" appeared on the Soviet screen. The merit of the head of the GUKF is that it was he who proposed to create a comedy based on the performance of the Lenmusik Hall "Music Store", invited Utesov and his jazz to act in a new film, offered to direct the film to director G. Aleksandrov with the help of cameraman V. Nielsen. For a long time, B. Shumyatsky supervised the production of this film comedy, seeing it as his brainchild. Despite the fact that the script of "Jolly Fellows" was called "bourgeois", he managed to put it into production. When the persecution of the already finished picture began by high party officials represented by the head of the department of propaganda and agitation of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks A. Stetsky, People's Commissar of Education A. Bubnov, B. Shumyatsky rushed to defend the film. July 28, 1934 he wrote a letter to Stalin himself demanding to curb the party conservatives who ruined a number of good films, to remove the accusation of counter-revolutionary, falsehood, hooliganism from the "Jolly Fellows" and to allow the film to be shown at an international film festival, which he soon achieved. The success of Soviet films at international film festivals in Venice and Moscow is also associated with the name of Shumyatsky. In January 1935 the head of the GUKF managed to organize a festive meeting at the Bolshoi Theater in honor of the 15th anniversary of Soviet cinema. The leader himself with his closest associates honored him with his presence.
As a resolute and enterprising administrator, Shumyatsky achieved that in the USSR they began to produce positive film, created fire-resistant film and designed samples of sound recording equipment that were not bad for that time. He actively supported the cinematographer V. Nielsen, who advocated the introduction into the cinema of one of the most interesting methods of combined filming, which he soon used in Merry Fellows.
Once, the head of the GUKF without hesitation dismissed the leadership of Kinomekhanprom, where a deep technical check of a particular design was replaced by a simple vote. One of the first B. Shumyatsky proposed to train creative youth from the national republics in the Moscow and Kiev GIK and supported the idea of joint productions of republican studios and leading film studios in Moscow and Leningrad. In May 1935 B. Z. Shumyatsky at the head of a group of filmmakers went to Europe and America. After visiting Paris, the head of the GUKF, his consultant cinematographer V. Nielsen, director F. Ermler and the inventor of the Soviet sound film system A. Shorin went to the USA. They spent about two months in America, focusing their attention on the work of Hollywood, met with famous directors F. Capra, L. Milestone, R. Mamulyan, K. Vidor, F. Lang, visited Charlie Chaplin, who showed them all the footage film "New Times". Even before leaving for America, B. Shumyatsky was thinking about serious reforms in Soviet cinema and, above all, about its best technical equipment. In the US, these thoughts have found specific content. He was struck by the “color technique” in a number of American films, and he also liked the fact that US filmmakers shoot outdoors in good weather and only move to the pavilion in bad weather, creating continuity in the production process and avoiding expensive and unnecessary expeditions. He was convinced of the need for Soviet cinema to rationalize the entire system of film production, when each creative and technical worker performs precisely defined functions. The delegation from the USSR spent the whole day on the island of St. Catalina, where there was a base for shooting Hollywood films on location for any climatic zones. Later, repeating some of the thoughts of B. Shumyatsky, V. Nielsen wrote about the need to introduce into Soviet cinema "the latest system of the technological process", "the principles of continuity, assembly line of the entire production complex with maximum differentiation of labor."
B. Shumyatsky, in essence, was the first to openly advocate "a general reconstruction of Soviet cinema on the basis of the" American experience ". In a letter to V. Nielsen, he agrees with A. Montagu, who sharply criticized the technical "beg from Hollywood."
G. Kozintsev wrote: "Shumyatsky brought from Hollywood an honest desire to make both a technical and an organizational revolution. The film town was to be built somewhere in the Crimea near the Baidar Gates. We believed in it, dreamed of moving there as soon as possible not only to work, but also to live" .
B. Z. Shumyatsky was sure that with a constant sunny nature, special pavilions, and effective production methods, the four studios of the film city would be able to release 200 films a year. The producer was supposed to be at the head of the five film crews. Soviet Hollywood was supposed to be built in four years (from 1936 to 1940).
The position of B. Shumyatsky and V. Nielsen was supported by well-known American filmmakers - director F. Capra and screenwriter R. Riskin, who came to Moscow in the spring of 1937. F. Capra saw in Soviet paintings "original ideas, realized only half due to technical backwardness." In his opinion, "technique should be ahead of thought - only then can you work quickly and fruitfully."
However, all the innovative aspirations of B. Shumyatsky were met with hostility by the press and government officials, who forgot both about his merits and about the Order of Lenin, which he received in 1935. With their conformist flair, in the heavy atmosphere of the autumn of 1937, they sensed that B. Shumyatsky's position had become almost hopeless. On October 8, according to warrant No. 5965, B. Nielsen was arrested, and four days later, on October 12, 1937, the Kino newspaper accused B. Shumyatsky of considering the opinion of the "saboteur" Nielsen "decisive", sent him to a long foreign business trip, put forward this "arrogant rogue with a criminal record" to a responsible job. This already sounded like a sentence to Shumyatsky himself. The film by M. Barskoy "Father and Son", which he praised, was considered "hostile". Shumyatsky was also blamed for the idea of reconstructing Soviet cinema on the basis of American experience, and the "vicious project" of creating Soviet Hollywood was regarded as "wrecking".
If at first B. Shumyatsky was condemned for bureaucracy, detachment from the masses, creating his own cult among filmmakers, then later, in the summer and autumn of 1937, he was already charged with such accusations that were made against "enemies of the people." It turns out that the head of the GUKF engaged in sabotage, warmed up the already exposed Trotskyists in his institution, criminally squandered huge state funds, was guilty of the failure of many films and, above all, that the country's film studios did not fulfill the production plan in 1935 and 1936. The entire critical campaign against Shumyatsky took place under Stalin's personal control. The leader made the old party member, who knew too much and became too independent, a scapegoat, trying to convince millions of people that it was not cruel party censorship or lack of finances that were to blame for the troubles and shortcomings of Soviet cinema, but the wrecking activities of the head of the GUKF and his employees. Stalin was not interested in expanding film production - it could make cinema difficult to manage. The leader could not approve the project of creating Soviet Hollywood, which required 400 million rubles of expenses, which he needed for completely different purposes ...
On the night of January 17-18, 1938, the NKVD raided Shumyatsky's apartment No. 398 in the notorious house on the embankment on the night of January 17-18, 1938, presenting an arrest warrant for the head of the GUKF with the signature of the Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR M. Frinovsky. That day the house was already half empty. The search went on almost all night. The Chekists took not only papers, notes, letters, documents related to the activities of B. Shumyatsky. A lot of books, valuables, family heirlooms, for example, a unique Iranian carpet of the Qajar dynasty, a bowl of Genghis Khan (a gift to B. Shumyatsky from Sukhe-Bator), a handwritten Koran, Persian miniatures, rare coins, a Schroeder piano, a Ford car, and even a silver badge of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR No. 85. The inventory of the seized contained 261 items.
In the indictment in Case No. 16946, B. Z. Shumyatsky was named an agent of the tsarist secret police, "a member of the anti-Soviet right-wing Trotskyist organization and the creator of the group" wrecking and sabotage work to disrupt the Soviet cinema. "In addition, he learned from the prosecution that he had successfully worked in the Japanese and British intelligence, having received large sums of money in gold for the transfer of Japan and England "of the most important state and military secrets." Judging by this completely false accusation, B. Shumyatsky, starting in 1936, "creates a group of terrorists consisting of projectionist Korolev, engineer Molchanov and other saboteurs, carrying out tasks to organize terrorist attacks against the leaders of the party and government. "The head of the GUKF and imaginary terrorists are credited with poisoning the premises of the viewing cinema in the Kremlin with mercury vapor in order to destroy the leader and members of the Politburo.
The interrogations of the head of the GUKF were very difficult. Within a few months, B. Shumyatsky was broken and "confessed" to all mortal sins. Previously arrested employees of the GUKF V. Zhilin, V. Usievich, Ya. Chuzhin and others testified against him. A specialist in film technology, Professor E. Goldovsky, who was arrested at the same time, recalled a confrontation with B. Shumyatsky: the former head of the GUKF, without looking at him, he confirmed that the professor, who denied his guilt, belonged to a "right-wing Trotskyist organization." "In the protocols of the last interrogations," Boris Lazarevich Shumyatsky, the grandson of Boris Zakharovich, emphasized, "it was clear that my grandfather was drawing out his signature with difficulty, with a helpless hand." July 28, 1938 The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by the notorious military lawyer V. Ulrich, sentenced B. Shumyatsky to death, with the confiscation of all his property, declaring him guilty on all counts. The sentence was carried out on the same day. And only 18 years later BZ Shumyatsky was rehabilitated.
In subsequent years, his relatives: his wife, who served two years in prison, his daughter and grandson wrote to N. Khrushchev, L. Brezhnev, M. Gorbachev with a request to celebrate the 60th, 90th, centenary of the birth of B.Z. Shumyatsky, give a truthful and serious assessment of his activities in the history of the Soviet state. But appeals to high party authorities did not yield any results. However, in 1986 they received a call from the Central Committee, saying that in order to organize the centenary of the birth of B.Z. Shumyatsky, a decision of the first persons of the state was necessary. B. Shumyatsky's relatives were visited by his old friends F. Ermler, G. Kozintsev, L. Trauberg, V. Weinstock and others.
The activities of B.Z. Shumyatsky in Soviet cinema, for all his mistakes, were still very significant. Yes, he followed the basic instructions of Stalin, but did not treat the leader with the servility that was characteristic of the ignorant Chekist S. Dukelsky, who later took the chair of the director of cinema, and the typical party official I. Bolshakov. B. Shumyatsky is the only one of the three directors of cinematography under Stalin who, for the benefit of the cause, showed his personal initiative and took part in the creative process of creating a number of interesting films of the 30s. Friends called him "People's Commissar of Cinematography". Summoned as a witness in the case of the rehabilitation of B. Shumyatsky, the well-known director, VGIK professor M. Romm, said to the military prosecutor of the GVP: “Shumyatsky was an extremely energetic person, he devoted a huge amount of time and effort to cinematography. Under Shumyatsky, the situation in cinematography was much better than in subsequent years".
The masters of the Soviet screen - Eisenstein, Vertov, Romm and others - could hardly bear the Bolshevik directness of Shumyatsky, willingly slandered him. In the eyes of Stalin and his courtiers, the inferiority of Boris Zakharovich was also beyond doubt: he did not like and could not drink. And you were supposed to know. Try not to drink a glass of vodka for the health of the leader at a government reception - they will not invite you to the next reception, you will fall out of the clip, roll down the career ladder. To the cellars of the Gulag.
The life path of the old Bolshevik Boris Zakharovich Shumyatsky is strange and bizarre: he established Soviet power in Siberia, served as the USSR ambassador to Persia, and since 1930 he received a completely awkward appointment - chairman of the film and photo department. Until 1933, this body was listed under the department of the People's Commissariat of Light
industry.
At the height of industrialization, the film industry was considered more important and more prestigious than the art of cinema. Therefore, Shumyatsky did not bother much with aesthetics. Under him - especially in the early thirties - films were planted more instructive than fiction; more agitprop than artistic. Poby
Having arrived in the USA, Boris Zakharovich returned, inspired by the idea of "Soviet Hollywood". He even found a place for him - in the Askania Nova reserve. But he didn't get to build it.
The masters of the Soviet screen - Eisenstein, Vertov, Romm and others - hardly endured the Bolshevik directness of Shumyatsky, willingly about him
slandered. In the eyes of Stalin and his courtiers, the inferiority of Boris Zakharovich was also beyond doubt: he did not like and could not drink. And you were supposed to know. Try not to drink a glass of vodka for the health of the leader at a government reception - they won’t invite you to the next reception, you will fall out of the cage, you will go to work
oh the stairs down. To the cellars of the Gulag.
In 1937, on November 7, the premiere of the film "Lenin in October" took place at the Bolshoi Theater. Its director Mikhail Romm recalled how Shumyatsky personally brought boxes of ribbons to the mechanic. To do this, Boris Zakharovich had to crawl on all fours between the chairs - and
Otherwise, he risked blocking the beam of the projector with his body, and the screen image would be eclipsed for a second in Stalin's eyes.
Did not help. The year was 1937, and the arrest of Shumyatsky, followed by execution, went unnoticed. Only the people of the cinema belatedly regretted him: after all, a Chekist sat in Shumyatsky's chair
