Pugachev
About Pugachev
Singing peasants are marched into the Kazan jail, where the fugitive Don Cossack Yemelyan Pugachev (Konstantin Skorobogatov) talks escape. The nobleman Volotskoy and the old governor pick prisoners for Orenburg labor; the governor’s former serf Filimon gets away. At the market Pugachev begs under guard while Praskovya is flogged for saying Peter III is alive. Yaik Cossacks start a brawl, and both run. On the Yaik they talk him into calling himself the surviving emperor and marrying Ustinya Kuznetsova. He takes a fortress after a speech turns the garrison, uses Volotskoy, then beats Colonel Chernyshov. Salawat Yulayev swears loyalty at Berdskaya Sloboda. The Orenburg siege fails, Volotskoy defects, Salawat leaves, and Pugachev executes the traitor. Defeated at Kazan, he is seized by his own Cossack chiefs and executed in Moscow, with Filimon, Sofya, and the conspirator Tvorogov in the crowd.
Cast & crew
More about Pugachev
Pavel Petrov-Bytov directed Olga Forsh’s script at Lenfilm. Anatoly Nazarov photographed. Vissarion Shebalin wrote the music. L. Yanchenko produced. The Soviet premiere was 5 February 1937. The picture runs 101 minutes.
Themes
Background
The story uses the 1773–1775 rising and the claim that Peter III had not died. Pugachev was the best known of several men who took that name.
Making
Forsh’s script keeps both wives in the camp: Ustinya, the marriage the Yaik men arrange, and Sofya, who arrives from Zimoveyskaya stanitsa and watches Volotskoy flirt. Pugachev lets Ustinya go and stays with Sofya.
Look
Anatoly Nazarov shot the Kazan jail and market, the fortress speech, the review at Berdskaya Sloboda, and the Moscow execution.
Music
Vissarion Shebalin composed the score.
Preservation
A black-and-white Lenfilm print of 101 minutes survives.
Notes
- Kasim Mukhutdinov plays Salawat Yulayev. Yakov Malyutin is Volotskoy. Matvey Pavlikov is Filimon.
- Yelena Maksimova is Praskovya, Yelena Karyakina is Sofya, and Nina Latonina is Ustinya.
- Vladimir Gardin plays a Senate secretary. Ivan Sizov is Chika, Vladimir Uralsky is Khlopusha, and V. Usenko is Ivan Tvorogov.
- Pugachev’s wife Sofya travels toward Orenburg with Praskovya and watches the review at his headquarters.
- Wikidata also lists 3 July 1938 beside the February 1937 premiere.
Scenes
- Filimon faces the Kazan governor in the jail and gets out.
- Praskovya is beaten in the square for the rumor that Peter III lives.
- Pugachev’s speech turns the fortress garrison after Volotskoy’s ambush.
- Salawat swears allegiance at the feast in the “imperial” rooms.
- Cossack chiefs hand Pugachev over, and he is executed in Moscow.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1937. Пугачев.webm)
