Alexander Petrovich Dovzhenko or Oleksander Petrovych Dovzhenko
(Ukrainian: ÐžÐ»ÐµÐºÑ Ð°Ð½Ð´Ñ€ Петрович Ð"овженко,
Oleksandr Petrovych Dovzhenko; Russian: Ð Ð»ÐµÐºÑ Ð°Ì Ð½Ð´Ñ€
ÐŸÐµÑ‚Ñ€Ð¾Ì Ð²Ð¸Ñ‡ Ð"Ð¾Ð²Ð¶ÐµÌ Ð½ÐºÐ¾, Aleksandr Petrovich Dovzhenko;
September 10 [O.S. August 29] 1894 â€" November 25, 1956), was a
Ukrainian Soviet screenwriter, film producer and director. He is often
cited as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers, alongside
Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, and Vsevolod Pudovkin, as well as
being a pioneer of Soviet montage theory.Olexandr Dovzhenko was born
in the hamlet of Viunyshche located in the Sosnitsky Uyezd of the
Chernigov Governorate of the Russian Empire (now part of Sosnytsia in
Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine), to Petro Semenovych Dovzhenko and Odarka
Yermolayivna Dovzhenko. His paternal ancestors were Ukrainian Cossacks
(Chumaks) who settled in Sosnytsia in the eighteenth century, coming
from the neighbouring province of Poltava. Alexander was the seventh
of fourteen children born to the couple, but due to the deaths of his
siblings he was the oldest child by the time he turned eleven.
Ultimately, only Alexander and his sister Polina, who later becomes a
doctor, survived to adulthood.Although his parents were uneducated,
Dovzhenko's semi-literate grandfather encouraged him to study, leading
him to become a teacher at the age of 19. He avoided military service
during World War I because of a heart condition, but during the
Soviet-Ukrainian War he served a year in the Red Army. In 1919 in
Zhytomyr he was taken prisoner and sent to a concentration camp. In
1920 Dovzhenko joined the Borotbist party. He served as an assistant
to the Ambassador in Warsaw as well as Berlin. Upon his return to USSR
in 1923, he began illustrating books and drawing cartoons in
Kharkiv.Dovzhenko turned to film in 1926 when he landed in Odessa. His
ambitious drive led to the production of his second-ever screenplay,
Vasya the Reformer (which he also co-directed). He gained greater
success with Zvenyhora in 1928, the story of a young adventurer who
becomes a bandit and counter-revolutionary and comes to a bad end,
while his virtuous brother spends the film fighting for the
revolution, which established him as a major filmmaker of his era. His
following "Ukraine Trilogy" (Zvenigora, Arsenal, and Earth), are his
most well-known works in the West. Arsenal was badly received by the
communist authorities in Ukraine, who began harassing Dovzhenko - but,
fortunately for him, Stalin watched it and liked it.
(Ukrainian: ÐžÐ»ÐµÐºÑ Ð°Ð½Ð´Ñ€ Петрович Ð"овженко,
Oleksandr Petrovych Dovzhenko; Russian: Ð Ð»ÐµÐºÑ Ð°Ì Ð½Ð´Ñ€
ÐŸÐµÑ‚Ñ€Ð¾Ì Ð²Ð¸Ñ‡ Ð"Ð¾Ð²Ð¶ÐµÌ Ð½ÐºÐ¾, Aleksandr Petrovich Dovzhenko;
September 10 [O.S. August 29] 1894 â€" November 25, 1956), was a
Ukrainian Soviet screenwriter, film producer and director. He is often
cited as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers, alongside
Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, and Vsevolod Pudovkin, as well as
being a pioneer of Soviet montage theory.Olexandr Dovzhenko was born
in the hamlet of Viunyshche located in the Sosnitsky Uyezd of the
Chernigov Governorate of the Russian Empire (now part of Sosnytsia in
Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine), to Petro Semenovych Dovzhenko and Odarka
Yermolayivna Dovzhenko. His paternal ancestors were Ukrainian Cossacks
(Chumaks) who settled in Sosnytsia in the eighteenth century, coming
from the neighbouring province of Poltava. Alexander was the seventh
of fourteen children born to the couple, but due to the deaths of his
siblings he was the oldest child by the time he turned eleven.
Ultimately, only Alexander and his sister Polina, who later becomes a
doctor, survived to adulthood.Although his parents were uneducated,
Dovzhenko's semi-literate grandfather encouraged him to study, leading
him to become a teacher at the age of 19. He avoided military service
during World War I because of a heart condition, but during the
Soviet-Ukrainian War he served a year in the Red Army. In 1919 in
Zhytomyr he was taken prisoner and sent to a concentration camp. In
1920 Dovzhenko joined the Borotbist party. He served as an assistant
to the Ambassador in Warsaw as well as Berlin. Upon his return to USSR
in 1923, he began illustrating books and drawing cartoons in
Kharkiv.Dovzhenko turned to film in 1926 when he landed in Odessa. His
ambitious drive led to the production of his second-ever screenplay,
Vasya the Reformer (which he also co-directed). He gained greater
success with Zvenyhora in 1928, the story of a young adventurer who
becomes a bandit and counter-revolutionary and comes to a bad end,
while his virtuous brother spends the film fighting for the
revolution, which established him as a major filmmaker of his era. His
following "Ukraine Trilogy" (Zvenigora, Arsenal, and Earth), are his
most well-known works in the West. Arsenal was badly received by the
communist authorities in Ukraine, who began harassing Dovzhenko - but,
fortunately for him, Stalin watched it and liked it.
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