Kunitsyn, Georgy Ivanovich

Born in 1922 in the village of Kunitsyno (now - Kachugsky district of Irkutsk region ) ^[1] . In June 1941, he graduated from high school number 1 in Kirensk with a gold medal. He was fond of literature. In 1942 he graduated from the Chernigov Military Engineering School, evacuated to Irkutsk . Directed to the front, served in the sapper troops. Member of the Battle of Stalingrad (commander of a sapper platoon of mine-demolition miners), the battle on the Kursk Bulge . He had four frontal wounds (two of them were severe). Member of the CPSU (b) since 1943. He ended the war as commander of a sapper battalion.

After the war, he worked in Tambov in party bodies. In 1951 he graduated in absentia from the historical and philological faculties of the Tambov Pedagogical Institute . From April 1954 to August 1957 , he was the head of the propaganda and agitation department of the Tambov Regional Committee of the CPSU .

Then he entered the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU , which he graduated in 1961 (department of "Theory of Literature and Art"). Candidate of Philology; the topic of the dissertation is “The Teaching of V.I. Lenin on the Partisanship of Literature”.

Since 1961, at work in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the CPSU , deputy head of the department of culture, since December 1962, he was responsible for cinema . Under censorship, he contributed to the “passing” of many famous films - “ Watch Out for the Car ” (directed by E. Ryazanov), “ Wings ” ( Larisa Shepitko ), “ Ordinary Fascism ” ( M. Romm ), “ Chairman ” ( A. Saltykov ; film title instead of the original “Hard Way” by Y. Nagibin it was proposed by G. Kunitsyn), “ Aibolit-66 ” ( R. Bykov ), “ Welcome, or No Trespasser ” ( E. Klimov ), “Our Honest Bread” ( K. Muratova ), “ Running ” ( A. Alov and V. Naumov ), “ Before the court of history ” ( Friedrich Ermler ). He achieved the launch of production and financing of the film by Andrei Tarkovsky “ Andrei Rublev ” (“Passion for Andrei”) ^[2] . Subsequently, G. I. Kunitsyn was accused of endorsing this “ideologically harmful” work ^[3] . Director A.V. Gordon in the book about Andrei Tarkovsky, “Not Quenching Thirst,” writes:

“About the history of the creation of the film“ Andrei Rublev “, aka“ Passion for Andrei “, a lot has been written fairly. I would like, in turn, to begin the story with another - about a man, against the background of the sixties a truly remarkable and unusual. His name was George Ivanovich Kunitsyn (1922-1996). With some reservation, one could say: if there were no Kunitsyn, there would be no “Andrei Rublev”. Or more broadly: at that “thawing” time there would not be people like Georgy Ivanovich, our cinema would have been really bad. No wonder Andrei called him a guardian angel ” ^[4] .

In 1966, G. Kunitsyn was proposed to take the post of chairman of the USSR State Cinema Committee instead of A. V. Romanov , but he refused, because he did not agree with the line on tightening control over filmmakers and screenwriters who were accused of "ideological sabotage against the party." Due to disagreements with the leadership, he was dismissed from the apparatus of the Central Committee of the CPSU and sent as an editor for literature and art to the Pravda newspaper. Since 1968, he worked at the Institute of Art History , holding the post of head of the aesthetics and general theory of art sector. Doctor of Philosophy ( 1971 ), the theme of the dissertation is “Art and Politics”. In 1977, forced to leave the Institute of Art History, lectured at the Institute. Gnesins (until 1988 ), at the Literary Institute (from 1988 to 1993 ) and at the Higher Literary Courses. Professor. Almost all students noted his brilliant oratory.

A staunch supporter of socialist ideas; believed that in the Soviet Union in the construction of socialism gross distortions of the ideals of Marxism-Leninism were allowed, and the theory of socialism-communism was discredited by the "epigones of Marxism". In the 1970s and 80s, he was accused of deviating from the party line and revisionism ; twice prepared materials for the exclusion of Kunitsyn from the Communist Party. The writer Boris Evseev , who studied at the Institute. The Gnesins in the 70s, under the influence of the ideas of Kunitsyn wrote in 1974 a letter in defense of A. I. Solzhenitsyn . A significant part of the books written by Kunitsyn has not been published.

February 26, 1988, appeared in the newspaper Literary Russia with an article provoking heated controversy, “Has the time come?” ^[5] . The article contained harsh criticism of Stalinism. In addition, he was one of the first to draw attention to such issues that are hushed up in modern Russian literature as the genocide of the Russian peasantry and the imposition of servility and nobility (“the guise of truth came instead of truth”). The conclusion proposed by Kunitsyn: “We must get rid of the ocean of bonus literature” ^[6] . There is a version ^[7] that the famous article by Nina Andreeva “ I can’t give up principles ”, published on March 13 of that year in the newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya , appeared as an answer to this article.

Posthumously, in 1996-1997, excerpts from letters of G. I. Kunitsyn to A. N. Yakovlev were published in Literary Russia, where he was accused of unscrupulousness and careerism ^[8] . Kunitsyn was acquainted with Yakovlev since 1957 and often met while working in the Central Committee of the CPSU.

He seriously studied the philosophical foundations of ufology ; collaborated with F. Siegel and V. G. Azhazha. Supporter of the concept of the plurality of civilizations and the constant observation of old civilizations over others ^[9] .

Member of the Union of Writers and the Union of Journalists ; member of the Confederation of the Union of Cinematographers; Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (1991) ^[10] .

He was buried in the cemetery in Peredelkino ^[11] .

• Order of the Red Star
• Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree
• Medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad"
• Medal "For the victory over Germany"

• V.I. Lenin on the class nature and partisanship of literature. - M .: Publishing House of Higher School of Economics and Public Autonomy, 1960.
• The doctrine of V.I. Lenin on the partisanship of literature. - M .: Publishing House of Higher School of Economics and Public Autonomy, 1960.
• Partisanship and truth. - 1967.
• Ways and forms of the impact of politics on the development of fiction. - M., 1968.
• Art and politics. - M., 1970.
• V.I. Lenin on partisanship and freedom of the press. - M.: Politizdat, 1971.
• Politics and literature. - M .: Owls. writer, 1973.
• Once again about the party spirit of fiction. - M.: Khudozh. lit., 1979.
• Universal in literature. - M.: Sov. writer, 1980.
• Partisanship of literature and the personality of the writer. - M .: Owls. Russia, 1988.
• UFO: philosophical aspect. - M., 1991.

• The biographical index on the Chronos website
• Brief Encyclopedia of Literature (Volume 3). M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1966.
• Kunitsyn, Georgy Ivanovich (article on the site "Encyclopedia of Cinema")
• Tambov Regional Scientific Library. Tambov dates 1992. Georgy Ivanovich Kunitsyn (On the occasion of his 70th birthday)
• Alexander Mikhailov Tsekist-rastriga. A man who did not yield to Power.
• Confession of a soldier. An article in the newspaper "First of September" (No. 33, 2001).
• Vyacheslav Ogryzko Wrong Material // Newspaper Literary Russia (No. 44-45, 2011)
• V. Kunitsyn Father // “Siberian Lights”, No. 6, 2012
• Who is who in Russian literary criticism. Directory. M .: publication of the INION and IMLI RAS, 1991-1994.
• Obituary // Literary Russia. - 1996. - No. 41.
• Homeland faithful sons. Russian writers are participants in the Great Patriotic War. - M .: Military Publishing House, 2000.
• Gordon A. V. Not quenching thirst: about Andrei Tarkovsky. - M.: Vagrius, 2007.
• Kondratovich A.I. Novomirsky diary, 1967-1970. - M.: Collection, 2011.