Vasilyev G.N. (1899-1946) and S.D. (1900-1959) (the Brothers Vasilyev) film directors

Categories / Art/Fine Arts/Personalia
VASILYEV, pseudo-brothers bearing the same surname), film directors and script writers. Georgy Nikolaevich (1899-1946), Honoured Art Worker of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1940), took part in the Civil War, and studied at the Young Artists Moscow Theatre Studio. Sergey Dmitrievich (1900-1959), People’s Artist of the USSR (1948), lived in St. Petersburg from 1910, took part in the October Revolution in Petrograd and the Civil War. Graduated from the Institute of Screen Arts in 1924 and worked as the art director Lenfilm (1944-49), of which he became general director (1955-57). They started cooperating at the Sovkino Film Studio in 1924, with Courage on Ice shot in 1928 as their first documentary film, and Sleeping Beauty shot in 1930 as their first feature film. They co-directed seven films in all, their Chapaev of 1934 opening a new historical stage in the Soviet cinema. Front was their last film shot together in 1943. S. D. Vasilyev also directed Heroes of Shipka, a Soviet-Bulgarian film, in 1955, and October Days, which was set in Petrograd, in 1958. The Vasilyevs wrote the scripts for most of their films. They were awarded a Stalin Prize in 1941 and 1942. The Brothers Vasilyev State Cinematography Prize of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was established in 1965. Malaya Posadskaya Street bore their name in 1964-89; a memorial plaque was installed at house number two in 1965.

Reference: Писаревский Д. С. Братья Васильевы. М., 1981.

V. А. Kuznetsova. Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich
Stalin (real name Dzhugashvili) Iosif Vissarionovich
Vasilyev Georgy Nikolaevich
Vasilyev Sergey Dmitrievich
Malaya Posadskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city
Собр. соч.: В 3 т. М., 1981-1983
Писаревский Д. С. Братья Васильевы. М., 1981 Lenfilm, Film Studio
1934