Transcript of the conversation between Sergei Eisenstein and Joseph Stalin with handwritten edits and 2 autographs

Transcript of the conversation between Sergei Eisenstein and Joseph Stalin with handwritten edits and 2 autographs

Sergei Eisenstein is a Soviet theater and film director, artist, screenwriter, art theorist, and teacher. Professor of the VGIK, Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1935), Doctor of Art History (1939), winner of two Stalin Prizes of the first degree (1941, 1946). He is the author of fundamental works on the theory of cinematography.

Nikolai Cherkasov is a Soviet theater and film actor, People's Artist of the USSR (1947), winner of the Lenin (1964) and five Stalin Prizes (1941, 1946, 1950, 1951 — twice). He starred in historical films of the 1930s and 1940s. He played the main roles in Eisenstein's films "Alexander Nevsky" and "Ivan the Terrible".

"Ivan the Terrible" was conceived as another historical and patriotic film of the Stalin era. Like Vsevolod Pudovkin's Minin and Pozharsky, Vladimir Petrov's Peter the Great and Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky, the picture was supposed to clearly prove the correctness of Stalin's policy — in all these films, a strong leader unites the Russian people and confidently leads them to victory. However, Ivan the Terrible was not such an unambiguous figure in history, and the cinema about him, according to the authorities, should not only broadcast the party's policy, but also contain many allusions to the era, including justifying repression in the person of the proud oprichnina army of the tsar.

The theme of "Grozny" was proposed to Sergei Eisenstein in January 1941 by the Kremlin. He was given the task of praising Ivan the Terrible. At some point, the director realized that he did not fit into the accepted time norm of the picture, and broke the film into three parts. He managed to create only the first two, the final one remained in the script, preparatory notes, drawings and several fragments captured on film.

The first part of the film was released in 1945, received the most laudatory ratings and was awarded the Stalin Prize.

The second part begins as a continuation of the first with the glorification of autocracy and tells about the events of 1560-1569: the creation of the oprichnina, the suppression of the boyar opposition, reprisals and executions. In stark contrast to the first series, it is a denunciation of despotism and state terror.

The second series was sharply criticized by Stalin. The idea of the inevitability of retribution for victory in the struggle for power could not be expressed in a Soviet film of the late forties. It was released only in 1958. After Eisenstein's death in 1948, all the materials of the third series were destroyed (only a few short scenes survived).

In the transcript of the conversation between Sergei Eisenstein and Nikolai Cherkasov with Joseph Stalin presented in the Stargift collection, the Supreme Commander, who remained dissatisfied with the historical authenticity of the film, gives this characteristic to Grozny: "You turned out to be an indecisive Tsar, similar to Hamlet. Everyone tells him what to do, not he makes the decisions himself... Tsar Ivan was a great and wise ruler, and if you compare him with Louis XI (have you read about Louis XI, who prepared absolutism for Louis XIV?), then Ivan the Terrible is in the tenth heaven in relation to Louis."

In his next remark to Eisenstein, Stalin says: "Ivan the Terrible was very cruel. It is possible to show that he was cruel, but it is necessary to show why it is necessary to be cruel.

One of Ivan the Terrible's mistakes was that he did not finish off five large feudal families. If he had destroyed these five boyar families, then there would have been no Time of Troubles at all. And Ivan the Terrible executed someone and then repented and prayed for a long time. God was in his way in this matter... I should have been even more determined."