Youth of Maxim

The idea of ​​the picture appeared in the late 1920s. The filmmakers began to create the script by direct order of the Leningrad film factory and the recommendations of the CPSU (b) . The following storyline was considered by one of the first authors: "a young man from a place on the western edge of the Russian Empire - participation in the October Revolution - the career of an authoritative and world-famous diplomat." To play the main role, the director of the State Jewish Theater in Moscow Solomon Mikhoels could be invited. The biography of the illegal revolutionary, and later the diplomat and people 's commissar Maxim Litvinov (nee Meer-Genokh Moiseevich Wallach), whose life was full of sharp turns and real adventures, became the source of this storyline. However, the authors abandoned this idea, leaving only the name of the hero - Maxim ^{[1] [2]} .

In 1932, newspapers reported that G. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg began to create a “great revolutionary cinema poem in three series” ^[3] . Excerpts from the script "Bolshevik" were published in the magazine "Soviet Cinema" for 1933 (this name served as a worker for almost the entire filming period). In the first edition, Maxim is thin and quiet, a little funny, a young man who owns a letter, does not drink ^[1] . Among the actors who were auditioned for this role, Erast Garin quite satisfied these requirements. Natasha could be Elena Kuzmina . Several episodes were filmed with their participation, but the filming process was stopped ^[4] . The authors made a choice in favor of another character, a character from Russian folklore with a set of traits from the popular Petrushka to the epic hero:

"Maxim's Youth" is a fantastic, folklore, albeit with some tragic elements, story about the victorious Ivan the Fool and Vasilisa the Wise, who fell in the 10s of the 20th century

- Kozintsev Grigory Mikhailovich. Biography ^[5] .

The night of January 1, 1910 . Noble and bourgeois Petersburg widely celebrates the onset of the new year. Among the fun-loving city, the elderly revolutionary underground activist Polivanov , who is also Sedoy (Tarkhanov), continues his struggle: he goes around secret addresses, meeting somewhere with friendly support, and somewhere cowardice and direct betrayal. With difficulty, he manages to get rid of surveillance.

The action continues in the spring of the same year. Three comrades from the proletarian district of St. Petersburg - Maxim (Chirkov), Dema (Kayukov) and Andrei (Kulakov) accidentally rescue underground policeman Natasha (Kibardina) from a police informant. On the same day, Andrei dies, crippled by a faulty machine. Demo from grief chooses the path of revelry and drunkenness, Maxim consciously draws closer to the revolutionary-minded proletariat . In a couple of days, another young worker perishes in the shops of the plant. His funeral spontaneously develops into a demonstration. Maxim and Natasha call for a political strike. The police easily overcomes the resistance of unorganized workers. In an attempt to intercede for Maxim, the drunk Dyom strongly beats the city ​​corporal . All heroes are arrested. In prison, Maxim ends up in the same cell as Sedym. At night, a scream is heard in the prison yard: Dema, in the robes of a convict, goes towards the unknown and says goodbye to his comrades ^[6] . Most prisoners sing Varshavyanka in solidarity.

After some time, Maxim is released from prison. He is actively involved in the work of the underground and provides the work of a secret working conference, which takes place in a suburban forest. Polivanov read out the appeal of Ulyanov-Lenin . The gendarmes of the Security Department interrupt the meeting and arrest all its participants. Thanks to the help of the locomotive crew, Maxim manages to escape, hiding in the heap of coal of the tender car of the locomotive. Together with Natasha, he writes and publishes an emotional proclamation about the continuation of resistance. On the instructions of the RSDLP, under the conspiratorial name of Pavel Agafonovich Malakhanov, he is sent to Nizhny Novgorod to help the struggle of the Sormovsky proletariat .

• Boris Chirkov - Maxim, a young worker
• Stepan Kayukov - Dema (Dmitry Savchenko), a young worker
• Alexander Kulakov - Andrey, a young worker
• Valentina Kibardina - Natasha, underground worker, teacher at evening working school
• Mikhail Tarkhanov - a revolutionary underground activist Polivanov, aka Minin, aka Sedoy
• The credits do not indicate :
• Boris Blinov - political prisoner
• Pavel Volkov - Bolshevik worker
• Irina Gosheva - a prisoner
• S. Leontiev - engineer
• Leonid Lyubashevsky - episode
• Vladimir Sladkopevtsev - episode
• M. Schelkovsky - master

• Script and production - Grigory Kozintsev , Leonid Trauberg
• Operator - Andrey Moskvin
• Sound engineer - Ilya Volk
• Assistants - Nadezhda Kosheverova , Khesia Lokshina , M. Nesterov
• Bayan part - Mikhail Makarov
• Artist - Eugene Eney (uncredited)
• Composer - Dmitry Shostakovich (uncredited)
• The sound was recorded on the apparatus “KINAP” system A.F. Shorin
• Printed by the May 1 Copy Factory.
• The film was restored at the Mosfilm studio in 1965

The premiere of the picture took place on January 27, 1935 ^[3] . In the first two weeks in Leningrad alone, more than half a million viewers watched the film ^[7] . Success in other cities was growing like an avalanche. The tape received thousands of laudatory reviews and excellent epithets and almost immediately became a classic of Soviet cinema. Unexpectedly, there were also negative reviews about the movie. The collection of documents of the Organizing Bureau , the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks , Agitprop contains the following “official analysis” of the picture: “the path to Bolshevism of the young worker was invented quite schematically and palely. Natasha’s figure is episodic. The old Bolshevik Polivanov was given in places in an interesting way, but “clogged” with a number of tricks <...> There are a number of small inconsistencies in the text (like a note to the prison about the conference and escape) ” ^[8] .

However, these criticisms were left without consequences, since I. Stalin expressed the opposite opinion about the film. From the recording of his conversation with the head of the cinema B. Shumyatsky about the film “Maxim's Youth” during the film screening on December 18-19, 1934, it follows that all those present <...> greatly praised the director's and cinematography and acting. Stalin “especially highlighted brilliant photographs and good cultural music, especially in the prologue, and solo harmony numbers” ^[9] . Almost literally, the “exemplary” review is repeated many years later by V. Pudovkin :

The picture begins with an explosion of New Year's fun in tsarist Petersburg. Amazing “Moskvinskaya” photography (cameraman Moskvin), Shostakovich’s music, brilliant editing create an example of formal mastery.

- Collected Works, Volume 2 ^[10]

The painting received an unexpected recognition of its high artistic power in capitalist countries. She was banned from showing, for example, in France ^[11] . In Detroit ( USA ), a high-ranking police official stated that "the film is Soviet propaganda and may instill class hatred of the government and the social order of the United States," and on this basis banned the film from showing. Only the State Supreme Court was able to reverse this decision after lengthy proceedings. ^[12]

• First prize at the 1st Soviet IFF in Moscow in 1935.
• The main creators of the trilogy about Maxim were awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree. Prize winners: G. Kozintsev , L. Trauberg , B. Chirkov (1941).
• National Film Critics Council Award for Best Foreign Film ^[13] .

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the film was released on videotapes by the Krupniy plan film association. Also in the 1990s, the film was released on cassettes by the studio “48 Hours”, “Vostok V”, Since 2000 - “Lenfilm Video” and “Master Tap”.

March 17, 2005 the film was released by Soyuz Video studio on DVD. Also, the film was released by distributors "Master Tap", "East V", "Club".

• The film was restored in 1965 at the Lenfilm film studio

• “The Return of Maxim ” ( 1937 ) - the second part of the trilogy;
• The Vyborg Side ( 1938 ) - the final part of the trilogy;
• Spinning, spinning blue ball - a song from the film.

• "Maxim's Youth" in the Lenfilm catalog
• Youth of Maxim on russiancinema.ru
• Youth of Maxim on the website RUSKINO.RU
• Youth of Maxim on the Internet Movie Database