Bulla, Victor Karlovich

The son of the famous photographer Karl Karlovich Bulla . Catholic religion. In 1899 he graduated from the English School in St. Petersburg. Photo education received in Germany. ^[3] He began working at his father’s photo studio with his brother Alexander. ^[four]

He gained independent fame at the age of 19, during the Russo-Japanese War , being seconded as a press photographer to the Siberian Reserve Brigade ^[3] . Victor's front-line reports were published in the magazines Niva and Iskra , and were reprinted by all the newspapers and magazines published in Russia at that time, often also on the pages of foreign publications. Victor was in the very center of events, often assuming the duties of a “brother of mercy”, and was subsequently awarded the silver medal “For Bravery” on the St. George ribbon with the right to wear on his chest ^[3] .

After the war, he returned to work as a photojournalist at a family photo agency , but soon became interested in newsreels. An advertisement appeared in one of the issues of the Kinemo magazine: “The new Bulla factory is preparing for the release of new products.” It was an advertisement of the Apollo partnership for the production and distribution of newsreel and view films, opened jointly with his brother Alexander in 1909, where Victor was simultaneously an operator, director and director. During the two years of the partnership, in addition to the official chronicles, the brothers produced about 40 paintings, among which there are unique ones dedicated to sport: about international competitions of skaters in Vyborg and the St. Petersburg-Rome-St.-Petersburg motor rally (together with brother Alexander and operator F. Verigo-Darovskim , 1910) ^[5] . From 1911, the Apollo partnership transferred the wholesale distribution and sale of films to the film company “Salefilm” , which was engaged in the adaptation of works of classical literature. In just one year, Victor filmed more than 20 shorts. Then the drama of A.N. Ostrovsky was “filmed,” “The Blue Bird ” by M. Meterlink, and even the fairy tale “The Frog Princess ” were filmed. ^[6]

With the beginning of the First World War, Victor resumed work in his father's photo, filmed the revolutionary events of 1917-1918. During these years, he continued to work as a cameraman and took part in the creation of a documentary film about the February Revolution of 1917 (“ Chronicle of the Revolution in Petrograd ”). The dynamic and imaginative shots of the photographer served as the basis for the directors S. Eisenstein and M. Chiaureli when creating films about the 1917 revolution. ^[3]

He photographed the events of the October uprising of 1917 , then directed the photograph of the Petrograd Soviet, which was located in the former atelier of K. K. Bulla (54 Nevsky Prospect). He became one of the founders of cinema and photeninians (he shot V.I. Lenin at the eighth and ninth congresses of the RCP (B.) In 1919-1920; during the second and third congresses of the Comintern , in 1920-1921.). He created photographic portraits of Zinoviev , Kamenev , Stalin and other Soviet and party leaders, actually acting as a full-time photographer of Smolny ^{[7] [8]} .

In 1921 he traveled to Baku , to the oil fields of Bibi-Heybat. ^[3]

In 1928, the exhibition “Soviet Photography for 10 years” was held, at which Alexander and Victor Bulla presented 30 photo reports, surpassing the number and variety of subjects of the other participants. Then the exhibition jury awarded them an honorary diploma, which was considered a very high award.

The photographic collection of the family (132,683 negatives) in 1935 transferred to the Archive of the October Revolution and the socialist construction of the Leningrad Region.

On July 15, 1938 (according to other information on June 23, 1938 ^[9] ), he was arrested under the denunciation of one of the employees of Bulla’s photo salon. It is known that interrogated Victor only two times. After the first one no charges were brought, and during the second interrogation he was forced to “confess” to espionage activities. In 1938, the relatives of the arrested were informed that Viktor Bulla was an “ Enemy of the People ”. Soslan in DCK . "Ten years without the right of correspondence." Subsequently, relatives were informed that V. Bulla died of stomach cancer in 1944 in one of the Far Eastern camps, but Viktor Bulinsky’s grandson, Andrei Leonovich Kaminsky, was able to find the document according to which Viktor Bulla was shot in October 1938 in Levashovo. Repressions of Viktor and Alexander, taking into account the emigration of their father, meant a ban on mentioning the names of all the Bulls anywhere else. Their pictures were printed as anonymous or under other surnames, up to “ perestroika ”. ^{[6] [7]}

In 1958 he was posthumously rehabilitated ^[10] .

Spouse Vera Konstantinovna, daughter K. T. Serebryakova ; the son Yuri (1919-1941) also became a photographer, worked as a press photographer for the Leningrad pioneer newspaper Leninsky Sparks . In 1941 he died (was missing) on ​​the Leningrad front . ^{[6] [11]}

The daughter and grandson of Viktor Bulla, Valentina Viktorovna (1921–2005) and Andrei Leonovich (1948–2009) Kaminsky, lived in St. Petersburg . ^[7] . Andrei Leonovich was a Colonel of Justice, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation, Deputy Head of the Main Investigation Department of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. Viktor Bulla's great-grandson - Dmitry Andreevich Kaminsky was born in St. Petersburg in 2006.

• silver medal "For Bravery" on the St. George ribbon with the right to wear on his chest

• "Anthology of Soviet Photography, 1917-1940" PLANETA Publishing, Moscow 1986

• Russian photography. The middle of the XIX-early XX centuries., M., 1996;
• Nikitin V. A., Stories about photographers and photographs, L., 1991.