Chapayev
About Chapayev
Vasily Chapayev commands a Red division against Colonel Borozdin’s Whites. Commissar Dmitry Furmanov arrives from Moscow, clashes with him, and stays after he stops Chapayev’s men from robbing peasants. Adjutant Petka and machine-gunner Anka help beat off an attack, using information from Borozdin’s defecting aide Petrovich. Moscow then moves Furmanov. At night Borozdin hits the headquarters. Petka and Chapayev are killed. Anka alerts the division, and the counterattack closes the film.
Cast & crew
More about Chapayev
Georgi and Sergei Vasilyev wrote and directed it at Lenfilm from Dmitry Furmanov’s book. The titles also credit Anna Furmanova for the papers the script used, and Yuri Muzykant as co-director. It opened on November 6, 1934, at the Titan cinema in Leningrad.
Themes
Background
The story is set in the Civil War. The real Vasily Chapayev was killed in 1919. The film’s Whites are officers who had served under Kolchak.
In film history
Joseph Stalin called it the best film in Soviet cinema and watched it more than 30 times between 1934 and 1936. Vladimir Putin later named it his favorite film.
Making
Furmanov had been Chapayev’s commissar in the Civil War and died in 1926. The Vasilyevs built the script on his book and on papers credited to him and Anna Furmanova.
Reviews
Pravda’s editorial of November 21, 1934, told readers the whole country would watch it.
Audiences
About 30 million people in the USSR saw it in the first year.
Look
Aleksandr Sigaev and Aleksandr Ksenofontov photographed the film. The camera holds on the officer regiment as it advances in parade order, then on Anka’s gun until the belts run out.
Music
Gavriil Popov wrote the score. Bekker is the sound engineer on the title card.
Preservation
A copy is on the Internet Archive, and another is on Wikimedia Commons as Чапаев (фильм).ogv.
Notes
- Boris Babochkin plays Chapayev. Boris Blinov plays Furmanov. Varvara Myasnikova plays Anka. Leonid Kmit plays Petka. Illarion Pevtsov plays Colonel Borozdin.
- Consultants named on the titles include I. S. Kutyakov, D. M. Kovalyov, and A. I. Furmanova.
- The National Board of Review named it Best Foreign Film in 1935.
- It took a Grand Prix at the Paris World Fair in 1937.
- A 1978 poll of cinema critics placed it among 100 films they ranked at the top.
Awards
- Best Foreign Film, National Board of Review (1935)
- Grand Prix, Paris World Fair (1937)
Scenes
- Furmanov stops Chapayev’s men after they steal from peasants.
- White officers advance in formation. Anka fires until the ammunition is gone.
- Borozdin’s night attack kills Petka and Chapayev.
- Anka brings the rest of the division in for the counterattack.
Influenced by
- Dmitry Furmanov's book Chapayev
Also available
- Internet Archive (Chapaev)
- Wikimedia Commons (Чапаев (фильм).ogv)
