''Commissar'' (russian: Комиссар,
translit. Komissar) is a 1967 Soviet film directed by
Aleksandr Askoldov based on one of
Vasily Grossman
Vasily Semyonovich Grossman (russian: Васи́лий Семёнович Гро́ссман; 12 December (29 November, Julian calendar) 1905 – 14 September 1964) was a Soviet writer and journalist.
Born to a Jewish family in Ukraine, then pa ...
's first short stories, "In the Town of
Berdychev" (В городе Бердичеве). Berdychev is centrally located in the north of Ukraine. The action takes place during the Russian Civil War (1918–22), when the Red Army, White Army, Polish and Austrian contingents were battling for territory. Of equal importance is the fact that in Berdychev, at that time, the Yiddish language was officially instated and, from 1924, it had a Ukrainian court of law conducting its affairs in Yiddish. The plot is based upon an intimate intersection of revolutionary and Jewish cultural manners and ideals. The main characters were played by two
People's Artists of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR ( rus, Народный артист СССР, Narodny artist SSSR), also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to artists of the Soviet Union.
Nomenclature and significan ...
,
Rolan Bykov
Rolan Antonovich Bykov (russian: Ролан Антонович Быков; October 12, 1929 – October 6, 1998) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor, director, screenwriter and pedagogue. People's Artist of the USSR (1990).
Early life
R ...
and
Nonna Mordyukova
Noyabrina Viktorovna Mordyukova (Russian: Но́нна (Ноябри́на) Ви́кторовна Мордюко́ва; 25 November 1925 – 6 July 2008) was a Soviet and Russian actress and People's Artist of the USSR (1974). She was the star ...
. It was made at
Gorky Film Studio
Gorky Film Studio (russian: Киностудия имени Горького) is a film studio in Moscow, Russian Federation. By the end of the Soviet Union, Gorky Film Studio had produced more than 1,000 films. Many film classics were filmed a ...
.
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...
considered this brief story one of the best about the
Russian Civil War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Russian Civil War
, partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I
, image =
, caption = Clockwise from top left:
{{flatlist,
*Soldiers ...
and encouraged the young writer to dedicate himself to literature. It also drew favourable attention from
Mikhail Bulgakov,
Boris Pilnyak
Boris Andreyevich Pilnyak (''né'' Vogau russian: Бори́с Андре́евич Пильня́к; – April 21, 1938) was a Russian and Soviet writer who was executed by the Soviet Union on false claims of plotting to kill Joseph Stalin and ...
, and
Isaac Babel
Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel (russian: Исаак Эммануилович Бабель, p=ˈbabʲɪlʲ; – 27 January 1940) was a Russian writer, journalist, playwright, and literary translator. He is best known as the author of ''Red Cavalry'' ...
.
History of the film
The film was shot in the political climate of the
Khrushchev Thaw, following the death of Stalin. The period is characterized by a loosening of political oppression and artistic censorship. From the outset of the production,
Goskino
Goskino USSR (russian: link=Yes, Госкино СССР) is the abbreviated name for the USSR State Committee for Cinematography (Государственный комитет по кинематографии СССР) in the Soviet Union. It w ...
censors forced the film director
Aleksandr Askoldov to make major changes; 1967 was the 50th anniversary of the
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...
and the events were to be presented in the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
-mandated style of
heroic realism.
After making the film, Askoldov lost his job, was expelled from the Communist Party, charged with
social parasitism, exiled from
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
, and banned from working on
feature film
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
s for life. He was told that the single copy of the film had been destroyed. Mordyukova and Bykov, major Soviet movie stars, had to plead with the authorities to spare him of even bigger charges. The film was shelved by the
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
for twenty years.
In 1986, due to
glasnost policies, the Conflict Commission of the Soviet Film-makers Union recommended the re-release of the movie, but Goskino refused to act. After a plea from Askoldov at the
Moscow Film Festival, the film was reconstructed and finally released in 1988. The film is set in
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, and those who know the language will spot the
Ukrainisms in Bykov's lines.
The film won the
Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize at the
38th Berlin International Film Festival in 1988,
four professional
Nika Award
The Nika Award (sometimes styled NIKA Award) is the main annual national film award in Russia, presented by the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Science, and seen as the national equivalent of the Oscars.
History
The award was established i ...
s (1989), including one to composer
Alfred Schnittke
Alfred Garrievich Schnittke (russian: Альфре́д Га́рриевич Шни́тке, link=no, Alfred Garriyevich Shnitke; 24 November 1934 – 3 August 1998) was a Russian composer of Jewish-German descent. Among the most performed and re ...
, and other awards. The film was selected as the Soviet entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film at the
61st Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Plot
During the
Russian Civil War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Russian Civil War
, partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I
, image =
, caption = Clockwise from top left:
{{flatlist,
*Soldiers ...
(1918–1922), a female
commissar of the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
cavalry Klavdia Vavilova (Nonna Mordyukova) finds herself pregnant. Until her child is born, she is forced to stay with the family of a poor Jewish blacksmith Yefim Magazannik (Rolan Bykov), his wife, mother-in-law, and six children. At first, both the Magazannik family and "Madame Vavilova", as they call her, are not enthusiastic about living under one roof, but soon they share their rationed food, make her civilian clothes, and help her with the delivery of her newborn son. Vavilova seemingly embraces motherhood, civilian life, and new friends.
Meanwhile, the frontline advances closer to the town and the Jews expect a
pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
by the
White Army
The White Army (russian: Белая армия, Belaya armiya) or White Guard (russian: Бѣлая гвардія/Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya, label=none), also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen (russian: Бѣлогв ...
as the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
retreats. Vavilova attempts to console them with a
Communist dream: "One day people will work in peace and harmony", but the dream is interrupted with a vision of the fate of the Jews in the coming world war. She rushes to the front to rejoin her army regiment, leaving her newborn behind.
Themes
''Commissar'' features strong themes of feminism and motherhood in the backdrop of the Russian Civil War of 1918, and when completed was censored by the Soviet Union due to the subject topic being deemed: "a force that opposes the very essence of human existence, a phenomenon that destroys personal ties by causing alienation, despair, and uncertainty about the future."
In effect the censors saw the subject content and focus too negative for a state mandated heroic realism style, as in the opening scene a singing Madonna is passed by a marching regiment that eclipses the sound of her singing with their march. For the censors at the time, to portray the revolution as anything other than a positive change in society was a dangerous risk. ''Commissar'' was the only film ever made by the director Aleksandr Askoldov, and it nearly had him arrested by the KGB.
In this opening it is clearly foreshadowed that there would be conflicting themes about motherhood and military service, and this is furthered by the protagonist’s internal struggle between her devotion to the Russian revolution and her devotion to her child. The positivity of the feminist themes are reinforced with the witticisms of the Magazannik family, who have six children, and are more concerned with the wellbeing of their family than with the war. This is best conveyed in a scene where Yefim Magazannik (the father of the family and a local blacksmith) responds to an anecdote by Vavilova about the ideal of the soviet utopia where all men are equal in work with "but what about life?" Though the ending of the film features Klavdia Vavilova fleeing the Jewish household and her newborn son, this is due to the state-mandated style of heroic realism in film eclipsing the themes inherent to the overall work. Vavilova leaving may also be influenced by the children's favorite game, portraying the White Army hunting Jews. Immediately prior to Vavilova deciding to leave, there is a particularly brutal scene where the male children chase and bind their sister, ripping her clothes as she calls out for her mother. Their father reprimands them harshly, but Vavilova appears greatly troubled by the event and may feel a responsibility to prevent this type of brutality.
Vavilova is characterized as unquestionably manly, a 1988 film review done by James Lardner calling her "an inconveniently pregnant Bolshevik
nda tough cookie". She is first introduced to viewers as a hardened military commissar, having just sentenced a soldier to death for going AWOL to visit his wife. She is respected by her commanding officer, which is made evident when Vavilova states that her deceased lover "was a good communist" to which her boss replies "you are all good communists". However once Vavilova relieves herself of her riding breeches and Mauser handgun, and is settled into the house of the Magazanniks, she falls out of favor with her once gracious coworkers. Once she embraces civilian life and the caveats that come with it, she seemingly loses her masculine qualities as her gun is replaced with her baby, and her leather pants are traded for civilian clothes made for her by the Magazanniks. Towards the end of the film the frontline of the conflict begins to approach the town of
Berdichev
Berdychiv ( uk, Берди́чів, ; pl, Berdyczów; yi, באַרדיטשעװ, Barditshev; russian: Берди́чев, Berdichev) is a historic city in the Zhytomyr Oblast (province) of northern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center ...
, and the Red Army begins retreating, Vavilova is left behind with rationed food. The Magazanniks worry that with the coming shift of power there would bring another pogrom committed by the White Army, and Vavilova begins once again to abandon her motherly persona to relay the communist dream that all men will work in peace and harmony. The conflict inherent to the film being that while the revolution rages in the background, the true conflict is that between Vavilova’s treasured child and her patriotism and devotion to her job. In the end of the film Vavilova flees the home of the Magazanniks to attempt to rejoin her cavalry regiment at the front lines.
This complies with the film style of historic realism which acted to appeal to the masses of communist society, the protagonist acting selflessly, abandoning her child in order to join the forces attempting to save the village exemplifies this, and to a degree eclipses the feminist tone of the film in lieu of state mandated propagandist themes. Moreover, the transition from soldier-to-mother further reinforces the feminist tone of the film, as well as contributing to the thaw in Soviet dogma in the late fifties and sixties. In the journal ''Redressing the Commissar: Thaw Cinema Revises Soviet Structuring Myths,'' Andsell summarizes the lesson learned by the protagonist and the message conveyed by the director simply:
Askoldov symbolically depicts the Thaw’s search in his heroine’s journey of physical and psychological liberation facilitated by her new, small-family environment. The stages of Klavdia’s emotional and spiritual maturation in the film reverse the symbolic "progress toward consciousness" and the ritual initiation into the "big family" that shaped Stalin-era Civil War discourse, reappearing in the late Thaw quasi-Stalinist narratives. Askoldov’s inverted enactment of a conventional Stalinist rite of passage shows Klavdia undergo its three main phases: separation from previous environment, transition to a new system of values and incorporation into the new community.
Socially the film retrospectively propagates a feminine pride in the socialist ideal, as Vavilova is presented as an independent and powerful woman who initially is seemingly unfazed by the death of her lover. She is more inconvenienced by her pregnancy, and is eager to go back into the fray of the Revolution. At the time of the Revolution, a major principle of the initial communist party was the freedom from discrimination based on religion and gender, and suffrage for women.
Cast
*
Nonna Mordyukova
Noyabrina Viktorovna Mordyukova (Russian: Но́нна (Ноябри́на) Ви́кторовна Мордюко́ва; 25 November 1925 – 6 July 2008) was a Soviet and Russian actress and People's Artist of the USSR (1974). She was the star ...
as komissar Klavdia Vavilova
*
Rolan Bykov
Rolan Antonovich Bykov (russian: Ролан Антонович Быков; October 12, 1929 – October 6, 1998) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor, director, screenwriter and pedagogue. People's Artist of the USSR (1990).
Early life
R ...
as Yefim Magazannik
*
Lyudmila Volynskaya as Yefim's mother-in-law
*
Vasily Shukshin
Vasily Makarovich Shukshin (russian: Василий Макарович Шукшин; 25 July 1929 – 2 October 1974) was a Soviet Russian writer, actor, screenwriter and film director from the Altai region who specialized in rural themes. A ...
as Kozyrev, regiment's commander
*
Raisa Nedashkovskaya as Maria, Yefim's wife
*
Otar Koberidze
Otar Leontyevich Koberidze ( ka, ოთარ კობერიძე; 17 December 1924 – 9 March 2015) was a Georgian actor, film director and screenwriter. Biography
Koberidze was born in Tiflis, Georgian SSR (now Tbilisi, Georgia), where he ...
as Kirill, late lover of Klavdia
*
Valery Ryzhakov
Valery Nikolayevich Ryzhakov (russian: Вале́рий Никола́евич Рыжако́в; 23 December 1945, Moscow – 31 December 2015, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian film and theater actor, Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1984), winner of ...
as cadet
See also
*
*
References
External links
*
Review" ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', 1988.
The case of ''Commissar''at
National Coalition Against Censorship
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), founded in 1974, is an alliance of 50 American non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups. NCAC is a New York-bas ...
(NCAC)
{{Alfred Schnittke
1967 films
1960s war drama films
Films about Jews and Judaism
Films based on short fiction
Films directed by Aleksandr Askoldov
Films scored by Alfred Schnittke
Films set in Ukraine
Gorky Film Studio films
Russian Civil War films
1960s Russian-language films
Soviet war drama films
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winners
1967 drama films
Films about antisemitism