Why in the USSR they could not make a film about Taras Bulba and for which later its distribution was banned in Ukraine

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Few people know that famous Nikolai Gogol's story "Taras Bulba" in the entire history of world cinema, it has been filmed many times. However, until recently, not a single version based on the plot of his immortal creation was filmed in the writer's homeland. And this despite the fact that it was filmed twice in Germany, as well as in France, Great Britain, Italy, the USA and Czechoslovakia. Why did it happen and what prevented the filmmakers of the Soviet era from perpetuating the image of the Cossacks of the times of the Zaporizhzhya Sich on the screen, further in the review.

For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that many domestic directors at various times experienced a great interest in this work. In 1940, Alexander Dovzhenko was the first to try to tackle Gogol's story. Even the first day of shooting was already appointed at the Kiev film studio … But this project was not destined to come true: day after day - June 22, 1941 - the Great Patriotic War began. Most of the film crew then went to the front to capture the chronicle of the terrible real war that hung over the country for four whole years.

Years later, in the late 60s, the classic of Russian cinema Sergei Bondarchuk, who dreamed of filming "Taras Bulba", personally wrote the script and was even ready to play the main character. However, officials of the USSR Ministry of Culture strongly recommended that Bondarchuk find "some other work to be embodied on the screen."

And, finally, not so long ago, or to be more precise, in 2008, the famous Russian director Vladimir Bortko took up the adaptation of Taras Bulba. Unlike the American, French, German and other versions, he decided to bring the film adaptation as close as possible to the original, of course, in the second edition of Gogol.

The premiere of the film took place on April 2, 2009, the day after the anniversary date - the 200th anniversary of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. The film was released with great success in all countries of the post-Soviet space, collecting more than 5 million views in one month of showing.

And everything would have been nothing if not for the foreign policy events that literally broke the friendly relations of the two fraternal peoples - Russia and Ukraine. In 2014, the Ukrainian State Film Agency refused to issue distribution certificates to a Russian film. In the official statement, it was stated that Film A, the press service of the State Film Agency underlined in its statement:

I would like to clarify why the Ukrainian bureaucratic army was so up in arms against Bortko's film version. And for this you need to return to the origins of the history of the creation of the story.

The history of the creation of the story "Taras Bulba"

Gogol's creation has a long and complex history of its creation … Having conceived to write a historical story in the 30s of the 19th century, the writer began to deeply study primary sources and documents. Along with this, Gogol got acquainted with the descriptions of eyewitnesses of that time of troubles, as well as Ukrainian folk art: songs, thoughts, legends. It was they who helped the author to comprehend the spirit of folk life, characteristic features, psychological aspects of the Cossack freemen, and national identity.

The story "Taras Bulba" was first published in 1835 in the collection "Mirgorod". It was at that time that she caused a lot of criticism from the tsarist censorship on the language of her writing and on some aspects related to politics. Editorial author's work on this work lasted for nine years: Gogol added many new episodes, rewriting entire chapters of the story.

And only in 1842, in the second volume of the "Works", the story "Taras Bulba" was published in a new edition. It is this version that is considered the most complete and final. However, sources rarely mention that Gogol himself had many complaints against the editor of this publication. There were too many significant inconsistent edits and changes in the text, in contrast to the original text. The editor removed almost all words and phrases that do not correspond to the norms of the Russian literary language, mostly Ukrainian.

Confirmation that the editor N. Ya. Prokopovich attached to the second version, to some extent, "gag", is the preserved original manuscript of Nikolai Gogol himself, which he personally prepared for the second edition. It was then discovered in the sixties of the 19th century among the gifts to the Nizhyn Lyceum from Count Kushelev-Bezborodko. It was he who bought the priceless manuscript from the Prokopovich family in 1858. Despite the original find, for a long time subsequent editions were still reprinted not from the original manuscript, but from the 1842 edition, with editorial revisions.

By the way, the first attempt to bring together and combine the author's originals of Gogol's manuscripts, and the 1842 edition was made in the Complete Works of Gogol (Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1937-1952). And it should be noted that despite all the excitement around editorial changes, the story has undergone a completely insignificant change.

What is written with a pen - you cannot cut it out with an ax

Summing up the above, the conclusion suggests itself that it is not Bortko's film at all, but a small literary work of fiction by a brilliant writer, which has absorbed an echo of a distant era, historical events of the time of troubles, the life priorities of peoples living in the neighborhood have seriously stirred up the concept of nationality right now, affecting interests of several powers: Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Israel …

And in this interethnic clash of interests there is absolutely no "merit" of the Russian director.

Therefore, Russia's response to the ban on showing Taras Bulba in Ukraine is quite legitimate:

Indeed, Gogol was repeatedly accused of the unreliability of the historical content of the story, as well as the excessive heroization of the Cossacks, ascribing brutal reprisals to the gentry and outrages - to the Jews. So, the story caused its own dissatisfaction among the Polish intelligentsia. The Poles were outraged by the fact that in "Taras Bulba" the Polish nation was presented as aggressive, bloodthirsty and cruel. The Jews were outraged no less, since Gogol portrayed them as petty thieves, traitors and ruthless extortionists, devoid of any human traits.

And on the other hand: a work of fiction, that's why it is fiction … Objectively, you can only judge the film by watching it. I am sure everyone will find something for themselves in it. It is simply impossible to remain indifferent …

About how the film was shot, about the roles and actors, about what was left behind the scenes of "Taras Bulba", read in following review.

Afterword

As mentioned above, N. Gogol's story "Taras Bulba" was filmed 9 times by cinematographs of different countries. You can see a short video announcement of the Ukrainian and American versions at the end of the review.

Curiously, in response to Vladimir Bortko's film, a 63-minute version of Taras Bulba by directors Pyotr Pinchuk and Yevgeny Bereznyak was shot in Ukraine in a short time, which never went out to film distribution, but was shown on television and replicated on DVD. The role of Taras Bulba was played by the Ukrainian actor M. Golubovich.

In 1962, viewers saw the American version of Taras Bulba. The film was shot in collaboration with Yugoslav filmmakers. The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson. American film star Tony Curtis plays Andria. It should be noted that this version looks more comical. Despite the large budget, famous actors, expensive equipment here from Gogol, there is little left.