The Great Citizen

The Great Citizen
(Великий гражданин)
The Great Citizen; (Великий гражданин)
Directed by	Fridrikh Ermler
Written by	Mikhail Bleiman; Manuel Bolshintsov; Fridrikh Ermler
Starring	Nikolay Bogolyubov
Edited by	Ye. Makhankova
Music by	Dmitri Shostakovich
Production; company	Lenfilm
Release dates	13 February 1938; 27 November 1939;
Running time	252 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

The Great Citizen (Russian: Великий гражданин, romanized: Velikiy grazhdanin) is a 1938 Soviet biopic film directed by Fridrikh Ermler.^[1]

A fictionalized biography of Sergei Kirov (the character's name is Shakhov), the film was intended as ideological support for the Great Purges; it depicts life in USSR during the 1920s and 1930s.

Plot

The film follows the life of Pyotr Shakhov (played by Nikolai Bogolyubov), a prominent CPSU(b) leader, across two pivotal time periods: 1925 and 1934 (depicted in the first and second parts, respectively). The story focuses on Shakhov's relentless struggle against members of the Trotskyist-Zinovievite bloc and their leader, Kartashov (Ivan Bersenyev). The narrative is filled with intense dialogues and sharp debates between the ideological adversaries.

Shakhov identifies the director of the "Krasny Metallist" factory, Avdeev, as an opponent of innovation and socialist competition. He replaces Avdeev with a young, committed Bolshevik, Nadya Kolesnikova (Zoya Fyodorova). His instincts prove correct when Avdeev is exposed as a saboteur.

The film reaches its climax with Shakhov's fiery speeches at a factory rally and a conference of labor leaders. His words inspire workers and gain the support of Comrade Maksim, a Central Committee representative (Boris Chirkov). However, Shakhov's enemies within the party are not idle. In the final scene, Shakhov is assassinated by a gunman hiding behind a door in the cultural center he was visiting.

At Shakhov's graveside, Soviet citizens vow to carry on his work and ensure that no enemy will escape justice.

Production

Stalin made direct interventions in Mikhail Bleiman and Manuel Bolshintsov's screenplay. During the making of The Great Citizen four people associated with it were arrested. In the press Ermler and his screenwriters were obliged to condemn the "wrecker" leadership of Lenfilm, most importantly Piotrovski.^[2]

Cast

Nikolay Bogolyubov - Shakhov - the great citizen
Ivan Bersenev - Kartashov - the conspirator
Oleg Zhakov - Borovsky - the accomplice
Zoya Fyodorova - Nadya
Boris Poslavsky - Sizov
Aleksandr Zrazhevsky - Dubok
Boris Chirkov - Maksim, the investigator
Pyotr Kirillov - Briantsev - the assassin
Yefim Altus - Katz - Shakhov's helper
Yelena Yegorova
Yevgeni Pankov
Yevgeni Nemchenko - Dronov
Georgi Semyonov - Kolesnikov
V. Kiselyov - Gladkikh
A. Polibin - Solovyev
Sergei Kurilov
N. Raiskaya-Dore - Shakhov's mother
Natalya Rashevskaya - Olga
K. Ryabinkin - Kryuchkov

References

^ Peter Rollberg (2009). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. US: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 267–268. ISBN 978-0-8108-6072-8.
^ Birgit Beumers. A Companion to Russian Cinema. Wiley. ISBN 1118424700.

External links

The Great Citizen at IMDb

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[1] Peter Rollberg (2009). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. US: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 267–268. ISBN 978-0-8108-6072-8.

[2] Birgit Beumers. A Companion to Russian Cinema. Wiley. ISBN 1118424700.

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