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Mikheil Gelovani

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Mikheil Gelovani
მიხეილ გელოვანი
Gelovani in 1947
Born(1893-01-06)6 January 1893
Lechkhumi, Kutais Governorate, Russian Empire
Died21 December 1956(1956-12-21) (aged 63)
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Resting placeNovodevichy Cemetery
Occupation(s)Actor, director
Years active1913–1956
Familywife: Irina Eristavi, writer and translator; son: Georgy Gelovani, prominent opera director, who worked for the Bolshoy Theatre of the USSR and the Russian Federation for many years

Mikheil Giorgis dze Gelovani[a] (6 January [O.S. 25 December 1892] 1893 – 21 December 1956) was a Soviet and Georgian actor, known for his numerous portrayals of Joseph Stalin in cinema, starring in fifteen historic movies mostly about the early Soviet era.[1] He was recognized as People's Artist of the USSR in 1950.

Biography

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Early life

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Mikheil Gelovani was a descendant of the old Georgian princely house of Gelovani.[2] He made his stage debut in a theater in Batumi during 1913. From 1919 to 1920, he attended the Drama Studio in Tiflis. In the two following years, he was a member of the cast in the city's Rustaveli Theatre. From 1923, he worked as an actor and a director in Georgian SSR's Goskinprom film studio.[3] In 1924, he first appeared on screen in the film Three Lives.[4] He moved to the Armenian SSR's Armenkino production unit in 1927. In addition to his cinematic work, Gelovani continued to appear in theater, and performed on stages in Kutaisi and Baku. In 1936 he returned to the ensemble of the Rustaveli Theatre, and remained there for three years.[5]

Antebellum

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In 1938, Gelovani first portrayed Stalin in Mikheil Chiaureli's The Great Dawn. His performance won him the Order of the Red Banner of Labour on 1 February 1939 and the Stalin Prize during 1941.[3] Afterwards, Gelovani "established a monopoly on the role of Stalin", which he continued to portray in twelve other pictures until the premier's death.[6] Gelovani greatly resembled Stalin physically, except in his stature: he was much taller than the latter.[7] Reportedly, he was not the premier's favorite candidate for depicting himself on screen: since he was Georgian, he mimicked Stalin's accent "to perfection". Therefore, the leader personally preferred Aleksei Dikiy, who used classic Russian pronunciation. However, Gelovani appeared in his role much more than Dikiy.[8] According to The Guinness Book of Movie Facts and Feats, Gelovani had probably portrayed the same historical figure more than any other actor.[9] When the two met, the general secretary told the actor: "you are observing me thoroughly... You do not waste time, do you?"[10]

Soviet cinema played an important part in cultivating Stalin's cult of personality: from 1937 onward, in a gradual process, Stalin's reign was legitimized by depicting him as Vladimir Lenin's most devout follower[11] and by positively presenting historical autocrats - like in Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible.[12]

Later years

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Gelovani as Stalin in The Fall of Berlin (1950)

Due to his identification with Stalin, Gelovani was barred from playing other roles in cinema; he was not allowed to depict "mere mortals".[13] From 1942 to 1948, he was a member of the cast in the Gorky Moscow Art Theatre.[5] During World War II, the personality cult was abandoned in favor of patriotic motifs, but returned already at the war's late stages, and with greater intensity than ever after 1945: Stalin was soon credited as the sole architect of victory.[14] In the postwar films in which he portrayed him – The Vow, The Fall of Berlin and The Unforgettable Year 1919 – Gelovani presented the leader as "a living god".[15]

The actor was awarded three more Stalin Prizes, all of which were granted for his performances of the premier in film: in 1942 for The Defence of Tsaritsyn, in 1947 for The Vow and in 1950 for The Fall of Berlin. On 3 June 1950, he was given the title People's Artist of the USSR.[3]

After Stalin's death in 1953, Gelovani was denied new roles in films, since he was completely identified with the character of the late ruler.[16][17] From 1953 until his death in 1956, he acted in Moscow's State Theater for Film Actors.[5] Andreas Kilb wrote that he ended his life "a pitiful kagemusha" of Stalin.[18]

Gelovani died on 21 December 1956 of Myocardial infarction in Moscow, and was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery, alongside his wife Ludmila.[19]

Following Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech in 1956, most of the pictures he appeared in as Stalin were either banned or had the relevant scenes removed.[16]

Filmography

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As actor
Year Film Role
1924 Three Lives Bakhva
1925 Rider from the Wild West N/A
1926 The Ninth Wave Avalov
1927 Two Hunters Turiko
1927 Evil Spirit Crazy Danel
1931 Out of the Way! N/A
1934 Good-bye Spiridon Lomidze
1934 The Last Masquerade Rostomi
1937 The Return of Maxim N/A
1937 Orange Valley Kirile
1938 The Man with the Gun Joseph Stalin
1938 The Great Dawn
1939 Lenin in 1918 (scenes deleted)
1939 The Vyborg Side Platon Vassilievich Dymba
1940 Siberians Joseph Stalin
1941 Valery Chkalov (scenes deleted)
1942 The Defense of Tsaritsyn
1946 The Vow (banned)
1949 The Fall of Berlin (banned)
1950 The Lights of Baku
1953 The Fires of Baku (scenes deleted)
1952 The Miners of Donetsk
1952 The Unforgettable Year 1919 (banned[citation needed])
1953 Jambyl Jabayev
1953 Hostile Whirlwinds (scenes deleted)
As director
Year Film
1927 Evil Spirit
1929 Youth Wins
1931 Deed of Valour
1931 True Caucasian

Notes

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  1. ^
    • Georgian: მიხეილ გიორგის ძე გელოვანი, romanized: Mikheil Giorgis dze Gelovani
    • Russian: Михаил Георгиевич Геловани, romanized: Mikhail Georgiyevich Gelovani

References

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  1. ^ Peter Rollberg (2009). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. US: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 246–248. ISBN 978-0-8108-6072-8.
  2. ^ Dumin, Grebelskii, Lapin. p. 80.
  3. ^ a b c Torchinov, Leontiuk. p. 146.
  4. ^ Yutkevich, Afanaseev. p. 92.
  5. ^ a b c Prokhorov. p. 160.
  6. ^ Rappaport. p. 40.
  7. ^ Beumers. p. 96.
  8. ^ Taylor. p. 228.
  9. ^ Robertsons. p. 105.
  10. ^ Montefiore. p. 517.
  11. ^ Plamper, Heller. pp. 228-229.
  12. ^ Dobrenko. p. 59.
  13. ^ Taylor, Spring. p. 164.
  14. ^ Youngblood. p. 95.
  15. ^ Boobeyer. p. 113
  16. ^ a b A. Bernstein (September 1989). "Mikhail Gelovani: One-Role Actor". Soviet Film. 9: 16–17. ISSN 0201-8373.
  17. ^ Zaleski. p. 146.
  18. ^ Andreas Kilb (20 September 1991). "Die Meister des Abgesangs" [The Masters of the Swan Song]. zeit.de (in German). Die Zeit. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  19. ^ Mikheil Gelovani Archived 2015-07-05 at the Wayback Machine. novodevichiynecropol.ru.

Bibliography

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  • S. V. Dumin, P. Kh Grebelskii, V. V. Lapin. Dvorianskie Rody Rossiiskoi Imperii: Kniazʹia Tsarstva Gruzinskogo. IPK Vesti (1994). ISBN 978-5-86153-005-7.
  • Aleksandr Prokhorov (chief editor). Great Soviet Encyclopedia (Volume 6). Collier Macmillan Publishers (1982). ISBN 978-0-02-880110-0.
  • Valeri Torchinov, Alexei Leontiuk. Vokrug Stalina: Istoriko-Biograficheskii Spravochnik. Filologicheskii Fakultet Sankt-Peterburgskogo Universitet (2000). ISBN 5-8465-0005-6.
  • Helen Rappaport. Joseph Stalin: A Biographical Companion. ABC-CLIO (1999). ISBN 1-57607-084-0.
  • Birgit Beumers. A History of Russian Cinema. Berg Publishers (2009). ISBN 978-1-84520-215-6.
  • Sergei Yutkevich, Yuri Afanaseev. Kino: Entsiklopedicheskii Slovar. Soviet Encyclopedia (1987). ISBN 5-900070-03-4.
  • Klaus Heller, Jan Plamper. Personality Cults in Stalinism. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (2004). ISBN 978-3-89971-191-2
  • Evgeni Dobrenko. Stalinist Cinema and the Production of History: Museum of the Revolution. Edinburgh University Press (2003). ISBN 978-0-7486-3445-3.
  • Denise J. Youngblood. Russian War Films: On the Cinema Front, 1914-2005. University Press of Kansas (2007). ISBN 0-7006-1489-3.
  • Richard Taylor. Film propaganda: Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. I.B. Tauris (1999). ISBN 978-1-86064-167-1.
  • Simon Sebag Montefiore. Stalin - The Court of the Red Tsar. Phoenix London (2004). ISBN 0-7538-1766-7.
  • Philip Boobbyer. The Stalin Era. Springer Verlag (2000). ISBN 978-0-415-18298-0.
  • Richard Taylor, D. W. Spring. Stalinism and Soviet Cinema. Routledg (1993). ISBN 978-0-415-07285-4.
  • Patrick Robertsons. The Guinness Book of Movie Facts & Feats. Abbeville Press (1991). ISBN 978-0-85112-706-4.
  • Konstantin Zaleski. Imperiia Stalina: Biograficheskii entsiklopedicheskii slovar. Veche (2000). ISBN 5-7838-0716-8.
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