The unique life path and creative activity of Ukrainian documentary director O.M. Shopin

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THE UNIQUE LIFE PATH AND CREATIVE ACTIVITY OF UKRAINIAN DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR O.M. SHOPIN

Bezruchko Oleksandr

Problem formulation. This actual investigation of this topic was caused by the demand to learn more about some not very well known pages of Ukrainian cinematography and its personalities, who were left out of view of national historians of Art. Among them, there is a student of O.P. Dovzhenko, Ukrainian film director of documental films Oleksiy Mykhailovych Shopin (1911-2005).

Analysis of recent research and publications. Despite the mention of O. Shopin in the publications of L. Goseiko [6], S. Trymbach [16], and O. Bezruchko [2], we can admit that Oleksiy Mykhailovych Shopin actually remained beyond vision of Ukrainian cinema researchers.

The scientific tasks of this article are to investigate the life and creative path of the Ukrainian director of documental films Oleksii Shopin, to remember his studies at the Film director's Laboratory of Oleksandr Dovzhenko in Kyiv Film Factory, to analyze the reasons for leaving the Film director's Laboratory, to describe the situation with pre-war and post-war life of O.M. Shopin and his return to the cinematography and to reconstruct his creative activity in Ukrainian cinematography as the documentary director at the Kyiv Film Studio of documental films "Ukrkinokhronika".

Research methodology consists in application of methods of personology, theory of personality and historical-biographic method. The marked methodological approaches allow collecting and investigating unknown and not popular facts from life and creative activity of a film director Shopin.

The purpose of the article is to study and analyze the life and creative path of the most unknown director-laboratorian of the Film director's Laboratory (workshop) of Oleksandr Dovzhenko in Kyiv Film Factory, the Ukrainian director of documental films Oleksiy M. Shopin.

Summary. The most unknown director-laboratorian of Film director's Laboratory of Oleksandr Dovzhenko in Kyiv Film Factory was the Ukrainian documentary director Oleksiy Mykhailovych Shopin (March 8, 1911, Nyzhnya Slobidka village of Korochan district, Kursk region, Russia, - January 10, 2005, Borova village, Fastov district, Kyiv region, Ukraine).

Oleksiy Shopin became a student of Film director's Laboratory (workshop) of Oleksandr Dovzhenko in Kyiv Film Factory in 1935. This fact proves the evidence discovered by the author in the archival document, in which in August 1936 during his speech at the Kyiv Film Factory Oleksandr Dovzhenko said: "I accepted such people as: <...> Shopin (Oleksiy Mykhailovych)" [8, 5-6].

The director-laboratorian O. Shopin received a rather good salary for that time - 157 rubles, 70 kopecks [14, 102], and like other young film directors, was in line for housing, built by the Kiev Film Factory for its employees on Gorky Street.

The main task of the Film director's Laboratory of Oleksandr Dovzhenko in Kyiv Film Factory was not only to obtain knowledge, but also the writing of screenplays after which the directors-laboratorians could shoot films. Therefore, thanks to O. Dovzhenko his students O. Shopin, M. Sasim and others who listened to the Kyiv State Institute of Cinematography course would have been able to obtain real diplomas of a film director, by means of which they could work in the Ukrainian cinema not as assistants, but as film directors.

But Dovzhenko's plans and hopes of Shopin were ruined by the "Trotskyist purge" of 1936, after which on September 29, 1936, Oleksiy Shopin, Theodosius Ferents and Mykola Sasim were dismissed "from the staff of the laboratory of the Film director's Laboratory of Oleksandr Dovzhenko in Kyiv Film Factory as the people who, due to their past activities and by their true ideology are enemies" [1, 173]. The newspaper of the Kyiv Film Factory published some accusatory articles like "More vigilance!" ("In the Film director's Laboratory of Oleksandr Dovzhenko in Kyiv Film Factory and in the cinema group "Shchors" a Trotskyist group of Sasim, Ferents and Shopin was found" [3]); "Clear the Film director's Laboratory from the Trotskyist elements" ("For more than a year many people had been selected and checked for the studio stuff. Dozens of people were tested and at last the top ten were picked out. And among these top ten there were the three apparent Trotskyist elements - Sasim, Ferents, Shopin" [13]).

At the meeting devoted to the "Trotskyist exile" at the Film director's Laboratory of Oleksandr Dovzhenko in Kyiv Film Factory the master tried to protect his students: "Now I answer my comrades... how in the Dovzhenko's Film director's Laboratory the people, who were "Trotskysts", like Sasim, Shopin, Ferentz, Shepeliev were studying" [8, 4]. The "vigilant public" demanded from the teacher to expel the students, including O. Shopin: "We know and appreciate the high commitment given by the film-director a comrade Dovzhenko, who is teaching young people preparing a new staff. But we must help Dovzhenko to clear the Film director's Laboratory from the Trotskyists" [13].

The reduction of Dovzhenko pupils went under the guise of reorganization: "Now the group is finally reviewing its composition. For example, the number of assistants is reduced. We need a self-sufficient group that works normally, without unnecessary, disabled people" [4]. The tragedy of the situation was that it was the master, who was forced to exclude from the lines of the Film director's Laboratory the students caught up with the "Trotskyists": "Comrade Dovzhenko reviewed the composition of the Film director's Laboratory and reduced the number of its members in order to put the workshop on production rails" [5].

After the exclusion from the Film director's Laboratory of Oleksandr Dovzhenko in Kyiv Film Factory, and later after the exclusion from Kyiv Film Factory, Shopin disappeared: he was no longer mentioned not only as a Trotskyist, but was not mentioned in any newspapers and reports at all. For example, in the "Statement of the Party Investigator on the Trotskyist Domination and the impurity of the Apparatus of the Kinosystem of Kyiv" [10], on February 1, 1937, the party-leader mentioned Sasim, Ferents, and instead of the name of Shopin, used the neutral "and others".

After several appeals to the Branch State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine an answer was received that there was no case of Shopin in the Security Service of Ukraine. However, such a development did not mean that Oleksiy Shopin could not be arrested, because in the same archive, there was no information on the case of "Trotskyist" by Oleksandr Gavronskyi, and after the search it was found that his case was in the Russian Federation. Therefore, for a long time, the most likely version was that Shopin could be arrested outside Ukraine, and therefore his case was stored in the relevant Russian archives.

However, after years of searching it was possible to find out about the fate of this director-laboratorian. Accused of "Trotskyism" O. Shopin, in order to avoid arrest, in early 1937 was forced to leave secretly the Kyiv Film Factory, Film director's Laboratory of Oleksandr Dovzhenko in Kyiv Film Factory, O.P. Dovzhenko, to pass on foot the half of Ukraine and to hide for almost a quarter of the century. Before the war Shopin worked as a teacher in a small village of Pischana Kosa (Sedovo) on the Azov Sea, near the Russian Federation. Probably, it was O. Dovzhenko who recommended to do so, who himself was temporarily forced to hide from the Ukrainian branch of Secret Service of Soviet Union (so-called NKVD, later KGB) in Russia in the summer of 1932.

In his December lecture to students of the Moscow State Institute of Cinematography in 1932, and then in the interview to the union newspaper "Cinema" O. Dovzhenko recommended to young film directors to gain cinematic experience in real life: "Let them go as sailors to the Arctic. Let them dig gold in Aldan, harvest furs, guard the borders, sow rye, wheat in collective farmers, and eradicate locust from airplanes in Tajikistan.

Pass with scientific expeditions the Far Eastern taiga, fish in the Amur, study tanks. Let them collect all the human movements of a new socialist person at their paths. It will help later" [7].

The same kind of advice Dovzhenko gave to the director-laboratorians including Oleksiy Shopin, whom Oleksandr Dovzhenko sent to collect stories in various regions of Ukraine. However, in this case, Shopin was forced to run away. No wonder that he changed his name and it helped him; at least in one of the documents of 1939 he was recorded not as Oleksiy, but like Oleksandr.

The fate played with Oleksiy Shopin not once: during the Second World War he stayed in the temporarily occupied territory where "on May 20, 1942 he was taken into the labor camp in Germany, where he worked in agriculture" [9].

Military wanderings of O. Shopin need a separate story - his repeated attempts to run away to the Motherland for which a recalcitrant worker from Ukraine in 1943 was sent to a concentration camp in Frankfurt. Oleksiy Shopin described in details his arrest and his war hardships in 1942, though only several pages of his memories were left after his death: "It was in 1943 at the concentration camp in Frankfurt. The workers were serving their sentence in the camp: Russians, Frenchmen, Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Balkans, Italians... for escaping to the Motherland, disobedience to the Germans or the owner, by singing national songs, by refusing to enter into abusive work... The regime in the camp was extremely cruel..." [17].

After the liberation by the Americans on April 14, 1945 Shopin did not stay in the West but returned to his homeland. Oleksiy Shopin was not sent to Soviet camps, because the relevant authorities "didn't have any information which proved that O.M. Shopin did anything against the Motherland during the Great Patriotic War" [9]. Although it was an exception to the rules because many innocent Soviet people who survived in German Nazi camps and came back home were forced to "redeem their guilt" in the Soviet camps.

On September 1, 1945 Oleksiy Shopin was enrolled in one of the military units as a freelance engineer-sanitary technician, and nineteen days later he was transferred to the position of the head of the fuel group and the head of the warehouse. Then Shopin worked as a supply agent and a construction technician. Only in 1948, Shopin and his wife, whom he met in Germany, returned to Ukraine. However, he did not go to Kyiv, but to a small railway village Vysok, near Kharkiv.

In this village Oleksiy Shopin worked as the head of the drama group, head of the cultural club, even a manager and a regular electrician. It should be noted that all this time Shopin did not leave hope to contact his teacher O. Dovzhenko. However, Dovzhenko did not receive letters from the Shopin. Most likely, they were destroyed by Y. Solntseva. The reasons for such an assumption is the letter of Mishurin to Shopin, in which he was asked to hand over the letters of Dovzhenko to Solntseva for publication: "If you have any letters to O. Dovzhenko you must find them. They will all be published. Please do not delay it and as soon as you find the materials send them to me by parcel. We will make the photocopies of them" [12].

Oleksiy Shopin sent the original letters of Dovzhenko to Julia Solntseva. Having worked out all available Ukrainian and Russian archives no letters from O. Dovzhenko to O. Shopin, as well as letters of O. Shopin to O. Dovzhenko were found. Y. Solntseva destroyed them as many other archival and epistolary heritage of Dovzhenko, which for her point of view did not fit into the image of "a true Soviet artist".

Only after Stalin's death Oleksiy Shopin dared to move to Kyiv and meet with Oleksiy Mishurin and other friends with whom he studied at the film director's faculty of Kyiv State Institute of Cinematography and worked at the the Kyiv Film Factory. Thanks to their help, O. Shopin began to work first on the Kyiv Film Studio of Feature Films named after Oleksandr Dovzhenko, and later in the Kyiv Film Studio of Documental Films "Ukrkinokhroinka". In order to make up for lost time, Oleksiy Shopin worked as an assistant director, independently studied lectures on film editing, wrote and after three years began to make movies on his own.

In the creative work of Oleksiy Shopin there are eight documentaries: "Kharkiv Zoo Veterinary Institute" (1961), "The Hectare of Native Land" (1962), "Extra feed reserves" (1963), "For the complex mechanization of peas processing" (1963), "Bean is a profitable culture" (1964), "Only half a percent" (1965), "The way Tatarbunartsi live" (1966), "Collective farm service point" (1971).

O.M. Shopin worked at the Kyiv Film Studio of Documetaries "Ukrkinokhronika" from January 1, 1959 to June 15, 1971 after which he retired and for more than thirty years until his death in January 2005 he lived in the village of Borova, in Fastov district of Kyiv region.

Conclusions. Summerizing the above it can be noted that the scientific tasks have been fulfilled: the life and creative path of the Ukrainian director of documental films O.M. Shopin was investigated; his studies at the Film director's Laboratory of Oleksandr Dovzhenko in Kyiv Film Factory were mentioned; the reasons for leaving the Film director's Laboratory were analyzed; the situation with the pre-war and post-war life of O.M. Shopin and his return to the cinema was described; his creative activity in Ukrainian cinema as a documentary director at the Kyiv Film Studio of documental films "Ukrkinokhronika" was restored.

Nevertheless, the perspectives of scientific research remain large since Oleksiy Mykhailovych Shopin's studies the film director's faculty of Kyiv State Institute of Cinematography remain little-studied.

film director shopin art

References

1. Archive case "V.Y. Zorin, O.T. Nikolayenko, T.M. Ferents, M.S. Sasim" (1936). Central State Archives of Public Associations of Ukraine. (F. 263 - Collection of extrajudicial cases rehabilitated. 1919-1953), (Op. 1), (Spr. 58835) [in Ukranian].

2. Bezruchko, O. (2012). Shopin Oleksiy: Archival heritage of Oleksandr Dovzhenko (Vol. 9), (pp. 43-82). [in Ukranian].

3. N.a. (1936). More vigilance! For the Bolshevik film. August, 28. [in Ukranian].

4. Bodik, L. (1937). For a combat group. For the Bolshevik film. May, 1. [in Ukranian].

5. Galytskyi, V. Dovbyshchenko, V. (1937). Two years of promises. More about the fate of young filmmakers. Komsomol member of Ukraine. September, 14. [in Ukranian].

6. Goseyko, L. (2005). History of Ukrainian cinema, 1896-1995. [Trans from fr.: S. Dovganyk, L. Goseyko]. (pp. 461). Kyiv: Kino-Коіо. [in Ukranian].

7. Dovzhenko, A. (1933). Great art - big people. Cinema. August, 22. [in Russian].

8. Dovzhenko, O. (1936). Performance at the Kyiv Film Factory. Central State Archive-Museum of Literature and Arts of Ukraine. (F. 690), (Ор. 4), (Spr. 75: On the Development and Problems of Soviet Cinematography at the 1st Congress of the National Broadcasting Corporation, 2 Congresses of USSR Writers, "Mosfilm" Film Studio and other establishments. 1936-1946). [in Ukranian].

9. N.a. (1994). Reference Department of the Secret Service of Ukraine in Donetsk region. Private archive N.O. Goloveshko. April, 26. [in Ukranian].

10. N.a. (1937). Reports, certificates, information of the Office in the field of art at the RNK of the UkrSSR with trade union organizations, art workers in the field of film production, production of performances, the construction of theaters, clubs, the organization of performances, the awarding of honorary titles, and tours. Information, information on the work of the Radiocommunication Committee of the USSR. Central State Archive of Public Associations of Ukraine. (F. 1: Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine), (Ор. 20: Documents of departments of TKKPU), (Spr. 7099), (pp. 8-14). [in Russian].

11. Kovalenko, M., Mishurin, O. (1984). Son of the Enchanted Desna. Memories and articles. (pp. 271). Kyiv: Soviet writer. [in Ukranian].

12. Mishurin, O. (1957). Letter to Oleksiy Shopin. Private archiv N.O. Goloveshko. December, 1. [in Russian].

13. N.a. (1936). To clean the film studio from the Trotskyist remnants. For the Bolshevik film. August, 28. [in Ukranian].

14. N.a. (1935). Minutes of meetings of the inventory commission, acts, information on the inventory of equipment and material assets of the Kyiv Film Factory. Central State Archive-Museum of Literature and Arts of Ukraine. (F. 670: National Film Studio of Feature Films named after. Oleksandr Dovzhenko), ^p. 1), (Spr. 10). [in Ukranian].

15. N.a. (1932). The instruction on the Ukrainian Film Studio. Central State Archives of the Higher Authorities of Ukraine and the Government of Ukraine. (F. 1238: State Ukrainian Trust of Cinema Industry "Ukrainfilm" of the State All-Union Film and Television Association "Soyuzkino"), ^p. 1), (Spr. 312: Reports and information of the Kyiv Film Factory about occupational safety, safety equipment, states, labor limits; Curricula and instructions of the training company of the trust "Ukrainfilm"; Contracts of the Kyiv State Institute of Cinematography with the Shostka Film Factory on training of personnel), (pp. 282). [in Ukranian].

16. Trymbach, S. (2007). Oleksandr Dovzhenko: Death of gods: identification of the author in the national time- space. (pp. 800). Vinnytsiya: Globus-press. [in Ukranian].

17. Shopin, O. (1991). Memoirs about staying in a German Nazi concentration camp. Private archive of N.O. Goloveshko. [in Russian].

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