Commissar (film)
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Commissar is a 1967 Soviet film directed by Aleksandr Askoldov. The film stars Nonna Mordyukova as Klavdiya Vavilova, a commissar in the Russian Civil War, who falls pregnant and is made to live with
Film poster (1987)
Vasily Grossman
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Vasily Semyonovich Grossman was a Soviet writer and journalist. Born to a Jewish family in Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire, Grossman trained as a chemical engineer at Moscow State University,
Commissar (film)
…Jewish blacksmith (Rolan Bykov). Commissar was the first and only film made by Askoldov. He based the film on In the Town of Berdychev, a short story by Vasily Grossman, as well as Isaac Babel's story cycle Red Cavalry. Upon its release, it was banned for 21 years, and only released fully in 1988. It won several awards…
Photo of Grossman published in Ogonyok (1941)
Grossman with the Red Army in Schwerin, Germany, 1945
Memorial plaque in Donetsk where Grossman worked in the early 1930s.