Zhuravlev, Vasily Nikolaevich

Born on August 2, 1904 in Ryazan in the family of an accountant and a housewife. With the outbreak of World War I, his father was drafted into the army, and after the October Revolution, soldiers elected him company commander. Vasily himself at that time studied at the gymnasium, tried several times to escape to the front, but he was returned home. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he again fled to the front line, joined the ranks of the Red Guard and until the end of the war served under the command of his father.

In 1923, Zhuravlev moved to Moscow to continue his studies. On the advice of a friend, he entered the State College of Cinematography at the acting faculty (by the time there were no more places on the director's board).

In 1924 he published the screenplay "The Conquest of the Moon by Mr. Fox and Mr. Trott", which then formed the basis of one of the first Soviet cartoons, " Interplanetary Revolution ", directed by Nikolai Khodatayev , Zenon Komissarenko and Yuri Merkulov , also students of the State Customs Committee ^[2] . The cartoon was created as an animated insert for Yakov Protazanov ’s science-fiction film Aelita , but as a result it didn’t enter it and was released separately as a parody ^[3] .

In 1927, Zhuravlev graduated from college. Not wanting to connect his life with the acting profession, in 1928 he joined the group of Sergey Yutkevich to work as an assistant director on the set of the film "Lace".

In 1929, he made his first independent film - a short comedy for children "Priyumysh". A year later, he put on two films, one of which - “Revenge” - was very successful as the first historical and revolutionary children's film dedicated to the events of 1905 ^[2] . The script for him was the debut work in the movie of Mikhail Romm .

In 1936, the science-fiction film " Space Flight " about the flight of the Soviet expedition to the moon was released . The film was shot over two years and was extremely difficult to produce. As a consultant, the director was involved Konstantin Tsiolkovsky , who happily agreed, calling the production “highly desirable and modern” ^[2] . Especially for filming, he made thirty drawings of the rocket plane, in 1947, combined into the "Space Travel Album" ^[4] . Thanks to his participation in the finalization of the scenario and consultations on cosmonautics, the team was able to ensure almost impeccable scientific reliability of everything that happens ^[5] . The film also became the debut in the movie actor Sergei Stolyarov .

In the 1940s, Zhuravlev immediately put on two popular marine-themed tapes: The Death of the Eagle (1940) based on the short story by K. D. Zolotovsky “Captain Lace” and “The Fifteen Years Captain ” (1945) based on the novel of the same name by Jules Verne . picture for underwater filming was specially equipped with a swimming pool in Yalta , in the walls of which are staged five concrete shafts with square portholes. it was also made cab, which moves along the bottom on the truck and shoot panoramas and close-ups, which together with field personnel gave the desired effect etc. isutstviya. participated in shootings sailors epronovtsy ^[2] .

Work on the "Fifteen-year-old Captain" began immediately after the war . The film covers only the main storyline of the novel - the adventures of the young Dick Sand, whose role was the first in the filmography of the famous actor Vsevolod Larionov . The shooting took place in Transcaucasia , on the Primorsky Boulevard in Batumi and in the vicinity of the city.

The film was released on April 9, 1946 and was a resounding success.

In the 1960s, Zhuravlev moved away from children's topics. He shot heroic revolutionary and war films, films about scouts, as well as documentaries.

He died on November 16, 1987 in Moscow. He was buried at Vvedensky cemetery ^[6] .

Director

Screenwriter

• 1942 - Forest brothers (in Boevoy / sb. "Forest brothers")
• 1945 - Fifteen - year - old captain (together with G. Grebner )
• 1965 - Black business (together with N. Zhukov)
• 1970 - Marine character (together with L. Sobolev , O. Mikhaltseva)
• 1973 - A man in civilian clothes (together with D. Bystroletov )

• Order of the Badge of Honor (04/12/1974)
• Laureate of the Republican Prize named after Salavat Yulaev (1981) for the production of the film "The Rider on the Golden Horse"
• Received the title of People's Artist of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic for the production of the film "Avalanche from the Mountains" (1958)

• Bagumanov A.I., Faizova F.A. Vasily Zhuravlev // Laureates of the Salavat Yulaev Prize. - Ufa: Kitap, 1999 .-- 272 p. - S. 105-107.

• Grave of V.N. Zhuravlev