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CHAPAEV – Gavriil Popov
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Chapaev was commissioned by the Chief Directorate of the Film and Photo Industry as a propaganda tool to establish a relatable, mythological hero to champion the working class. In the early 1930s, the Soviet government was heavily promoting Socialist Realism, an artistic mandate, that required art to reflect both the realities and the ideological goals of the Communist state. As such, they created a unifying, accessible “people’s hero” in the person of Vasily Chapayev, a charismatic, self-educated peasant commander, who fought valiantly for the Red Army against the loyalist Whites during the Russian Civil War. Lenfilm would manage production, Georgi Vasilyev and Sergei Vasilyev would co-direct, and write the screenplay based on the 1923 novel Chapaev by Dmitry Furmanov. For the cast, Boris Babochkin would star as Vasily Chapaev, joined by Boris Blinov as Dmitry Furmanov, Vavara Myasnikova as Anka, and Leonid Knit as Petka. Read more…
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