August 8: the birthday of Alexander Khanzhonkov, a pioneer of Russian cinema
On August 8, 1877, near Donetsk, Alexander Khanzhonkov, an entrepreneur, director, and screenwriter, was born into the family of a Cossack captain. He produced the country's first full-length film and the world's first stop-motion animated film. Nevertheless, he ended his life in poverty, confined to a wheelchair.
From a Cossack cadet to a film entrepreneur
At 19, Khanzhonkov graduated from the Novocherkassk Cossack Cadet School. He then served in the privileged Don Cossack Regiment, stationed in Moscow. During the Russo-Japanese War, he was wounded, earning a medal and developing acute rheumatism for the rest of his life.
At 28, he retired from the army due to ill health, receiving five thousand rubles from the state's relocation allowance. One day, while strolling through Rostov-on-Don, Khanzhonkov stopped into a small cinema. The impression was so strong that he decided to invest the entire sum into the film industry. Initially, he brought films from Paris and resold them to the first Russian distributors.
First Films: Headless Comedians
In 1907, Khanzhonkov began directing films himself. His first film, "Palochkin and Galochkin," was never completed.
The characters - two comedians - were filmed, in some places, without their heads: the heads were cut off by the frame
In 1909, the first film from Khanzhonkov’s studio was released – the film “Drama in a Camp of Gypsies Near Moscow”.
This film was the first to be performed by the company's own troupe, since until then the studio had only produced shots from nature.
So wrote the magazine "Sine-fono." Filmed in his studio, "The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov," based on Lermontov's poem, proved more successful than that of his competitor, film mogul Alexander Drankov. The budding producer soon managed to lure his screenwriter and director, Vasily Goncharov, to his studio.
"Defense of Sevastopol" and the Emperor's Ring
By the early 1910s, Khanzhonkov's company had become the leader in Russian film production. Every second Russian film was shot at his studio.
In 1911, the country's first full-length film, "The Defense of Sevastopol," was released—over an hour and a half long. With the permission of Nicholas II, it featured actual troops and equipment stationed in Sevastopol. The emperor was delighted with the film, awarding Khanzhonkov a ring from his own hand and the Order of St. Stanislav, 2nd Class.
Drankov's competitor, who had by then produced a series about the Romanov dynasty and had received no awards, filed a denunciation against Khanzhonkov. Without naming him ("the one who made 'Sevastopol'"), he denounced all of his competitor's endeavors as "efforts," his achievements as dubious, and his state aid as excessive.
Millionaire, publisher and popularizer of science
This didn't shake Khanzhonkov's position in any way. By that time, he was a millionaire who had found favor with the Tsar. He not only made films and owned two cinemas—Pegas and Ars—but also published several film magazines.
Khanzhonkov was also a popularizer of science. He created a science department in his studio and produced films on agriculture, geography, zoology, botany, and medicine.
In 1912, he released the world's first cartoon using the technique of 3D (puppet) animation - "The Beautiful Lucanida, or the War of the Mustaches with the Stag Beetles".
Khanzhonkov also recruited theater actors. One of them was Ivan Mozzhukhin. In the film "Drunkenness and Its Consequences," he portrayed a man who has drunk himself into delirium tremens and sees the devil emerge from a bottle—a rare special effect at the time.
Yalta's "Russian Hollywood" and emigration
By 1917, 40-year-old Khanzhonkov was using crutches and a wheelchair. Nevertheless, he went to Yalta, where he organized the "Russian Hollywood"—the Yalta Film Studio.
In 1920, Khanzhonkov emigrated with his wife and children, officially for medical treatment. In 1922, he was offered the opportunity to return to his homeland, and he accepted.
I'm glad you've come back to help Soviet cinema.
This was stated in Lunacharsky's telegram. In the USSR, Khanzhonkov worked as a consultant for Goskino and headed the Proletarskoye Kino film factory.
Arrest, poverty and the last years
In 1926, Alexander Khanzhonkov was arrested "for failure to fulfill planned obligations." He was stripped of his civil rights and banned from film production.
By that time, he was completely confined to a wheelchair and moved back to Yalta. In 1934, tired of poverty, Khanzhonkov turned to Boris Shumyakov, the head of Soviet cinema, for help.
I ask you to support my work with your authoritative word and help me enter the working family of Soviet cinematography as a full-fledged member.
He was eventually rehabilitated and received a personal pension of 350 rubles. In the last years of his life, he wrote his memoirs.
From 1941 to 1944, during the German occupation of Crimea, Khanzhonkov remained in Yalta. He died there in September 1945, at the age of 68.
