His story, Her story

Oleksandr Dovzhenko

The man I would like to tell you about made a breakthrough in the film industry and won the respect of the whole world. Needless to say that he also made useful contributions to the development of Ukrainian literature and cinema. Serhiy Eisenstein said that he was a new man of cinema, a master of his genre, a master of his individuality. It was Oleksandr Dovzhenko.

Oleksandr Dovzhenko was born on September 10, 1894 in the village Viunyshche, Sosnytsia district, Chernihiv Governorate in the Russian Empire. In 1911 he applied to Hlukhiv Teachers’ Institute, and after graduation in 1914 he worked as a teacher.  That time he also became an activist of Ukrainian independence movement. In 1917 he wanted to serve in the army but he didn’t go to the war because he had military service exemption certificate. That’s why, he decided to apply to Kyiv Commercial Institute where he had the ability to get a scholarship. However, his hopes were dashed because he didn’t gain good marks there and his attempts to study failed miserably. In 1918 he also took part in anti-conscription protest with other students who didn’t want to join the army of Ukrainian Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky. He assisted in civil unrests and military operations against the Bolsheviks, was the prisoner of concentration camp, and then was taken prisoner during the Polish-Soviet War in 1920. For 2 years Dovzhenko was working as a diplomat and had a lot of influence. His job encompassed diverse activities such as meeting with councillors, signing treaties, negotiating agreement for the exchange of prisoners of war, etc.

When Oleksandr Dovzhenko was thirty-three years old, he decided to try and become a film director.  His film Zvenyhora came out in 1928 and attracted interest of critics. The next one was Arsenal which made a bad impression on Ukrainians because it looked like pro-communist publicity campaign. However, his masterpiece Earth (1930) caused a sensation and European film makers took Dovzhenko seriously. Unfortunately, it produced the opposite effect on Soviet critics who found the film Earth counter-revolutionary. Dovzhenko suffered the consequences and it was difficult not to lose his nerve because he had to make films about Soviet industrialisation. The outcome was predictable and his film Ivan was doomed to failure.

In 1941 Dovzhenko was awarded the Stalin Prize for the film Shchors. During World War II he also served as a wartime journalist for the Red Army. It is my firm conviction that he made a considerable contribution to Ukrainian history because a vast number of his unique shots helped military historians to reconstruct the course of events of World War II. He didn’t miss the point and showed the horror of war, fierce fighting, underlying causes of the dismal failures, etc.

One of his crowning achievements was creating a new genre of literature which was an adapted screenplay. In 1955 Oleksandr Dovzhenko wrote his famous autobiographical novel Zacharovana Desna. Unfortunately, he ran out of time to make a screen version of it and enjoy the fruits of his hard work. Talented Ukrainian writer, film director, and screenwriter passed away on November 25, 1956. A year later, the Kyiv Film Studios was named after him in his honour.