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Rolan Antonovich Bykov (October 12, 1929October 6, 1998)[People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to artists of the Soviet Union. The term is confusingly used to translate two Russian language titles: Народный арти ...]
(1990).
Early life
Rolan Bykov was born to Anton Mikhailovich Bykov and Olga Matveyevna Bykova (), the youngest of two brothers. There are many myths surrounding his biography, including the names of Rolan and his parents, date and place of birth. Different directories showed that he was born in Moscow, yet Bykov and his brother Geronim stated that their family moved to Moscow from Kyiv in 1934.
[People's Artist of the USSR Rolan Bykov: «My mother was told that she had an idiot growing up»]
last interview by Fakty i Kommentarii, published on November 13, 2004 (in Russian)[''Natalia Boiko']
Barmaley the Reformer
//
article at Vechernyaya Moskva, February 16, 2006 (in Russian) Throughout his life Rolan Antonovich Bykov was officially known as Roland Anatolyevich Bykov and his date of birth — as November 12 which, according to him, was caused by a mistake in his passport.
[Raging Rolan]
article from Argumenty i Fakty
(, commonly abbreviated "АиФ" and translated as ''Arguments and Facts'') is a weekly newspaper based in Moscow and a publishing house in Russia and worldwide. Since 2014, it has been owned by the Government of Moscow.
History and profile
It ...
, June 5, 2003 (in Russian) He named various reasons for this: from a drunken
militsioner at the passport office to his own aunt who confused names and dates while arranging his documents.
[''Feodor Razzakov (2006)'']
So That People Remember
— Moscow: Eksmo, 768 pages As for the unusual name, Rolan explained that he was named after
Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...
(according to the Russian pronunciation) by his parents who confused Romain's surname for his name.
Bykov's father was a military and intelligence officer of mixed
Polish-
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus
*Czech (surnam ...
ancestry originally named Semyon Geronimovich Gordanovsky. He started his career by participating in
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and making a successful escape after being taken captive by
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
. During the
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...
he fought as part of the
1st Cavalry Army
__NOTOC__
The 1st Cavalry Army (), or ''Konarmia'' (Кона́рмия, "Horsearmy"), was a prominent Red Army military formation that served in the Russian Civil War and Polish–Soviet War, Polish-Soviet War.
History
Formation
On 17 Novem ...
led by
Semyon Budyonny
Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny ( rus, Семён Миха́йлович Будённый, Semyon Mikháylovich Budyonnyy, p=sʲɪˈmʲɵn mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bʊˈdʲɵnːɨj, a=ru-Simeon Budyonniy.ogg; – 26 October 1973) was a Russian and ...
. Between 1924 and 1926 he worked in
Cheka
The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə, links=yes), ...
and regularly visited Germany under different passports. His last code name was Anton Mikhailovich Bykov which he adopted as a real name. He was later promoted to a high-ranking position in the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
and served as a managing director at various enterprises.
Bykov's mother also changed her name from Ella Matusovna to Olga Matveevna at one point. While Bykov regularly referred to her and her relatives as «Ukrainians», she was in fact a daughter of a prosperous
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
NEPman. She wanted to become an actress and finished two courses of a theater institute, but was expelled for truancy.
Between 1937 and 1947 Bykov studied in Moscow schools. In 1939 he joined a youth theatrical studio organized by a
Pioneers Palace
Young Pioneer Palaces or Palaces of Young Pioneers and Schoolchildren were youth centers designated for the creative work, sport training and extracurricular activities of Pioneer movement, Young Pioneers (primarily in the Young Pioneers (Sovi ...
where he met
Alexander Mitta
Alexander Naumovich Mitta (; born 28 March 1933 in Moscow) is a Soviet Union, Soviet and Russian film director, screenwriter and actor.
Mitta's birth name was Alexander Naumovich Rabinovich (). He studied engineering (graduated in 1955), then wor ...
,
Boris Rytsarev and
Igor Kvasha. During the
Battle of Moscow
The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II, between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated H ...
his family was evacuated to
Yoshkar-Ola
Yoshkar-Ola (Mari language, Mari and ) is the capital city of Mari El, Russia. Yoshkar-Ola means “red city” in Meadow Mari language, Mari and was formerly known as Tsarevokokshaysk () before 1919, as Krasnokokshaysk () between 1919 and 1927 ...
for three years, although his father chose to stay and volunteered for the front line. In 1947 he entered the
Boris Shchukin Higher Theater College to study acting under Vera Lvova and Leonid Shikhmatov.
Career
In 1951 Bykov graduated and immediately joined the Moscow Youth Theater where he served as an actor and a stage director until 1959. Simultaneously he also appeared in several movies in episodic roles, worked as an actor at the Moscow Drama Theater (1951—1952), as the head of the theater studio at the Bauman
Palace of Culture
Palace of Culture (, , ''wénhuà gōng'', ) or House of Culture (Polish: ''dom kultury'') is a common name (generic term) for major Club (organization), club-houses (community centres) in the former Soviet Union and the rest of the Eastern bloc ...
(1951—1953), as a
stringer
Stringer may refer to:
Structural elements
* Stringer (aircraft), or longeron, a strip of wood or metal to which the skin of an aircraft is fastened
* Stringer (slag), an inclusion, possibly leading to a defect, in cast metal
* Stringer (stairs), ...
for various children's programmes at the
Soviet Central Television and as an editor on radio (1953—1959). He made his acting debut in the film ''School of Courage''.
[ In 1957 he organized a Student's Theater at the ]Moscow State University
Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...
where he served as the main director up until 1959.The Overcoat
"The Overcoat" (, translit. Shinyél’; sometimes translated as "The Cloak" or "The Mantle") is a short story by Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842. The story has had a great influence on Russian literature. Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé, ...
'', an adaptation of Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; ; (; () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin.
Gogol used the Grotesque#In literature, grotesque in his writings, for example, in his works "The Nose (Gogol short story), ...
's story directed by Aleksey Batalov
Aleksey Vladimirovich Batalov (20 November 192815 June 2017) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor, film director, screenwriter, and pedagogue acclaimed for his portrayal of noble and positive characters. He was named a People's Artist ...
. Soon after he joined Mosfilm
Mosfilm (, ''Mosfil’m'' , initialism and portmanteau of Moscow Films) is a film studio in Moscow which is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Founded in 1924 in the USSR as a production unit of that nation's fi ...
where he spent the rest 40 years working as an actor and a film director. He played over 100 roles and became highly popular as a comedy actor with such roles as Chebakov from '' Balzaminov's Marriage'' (1964), Barmalei from '' Aybolit-66'' and Skomorokh from ''Andrei Rublev
Andrei Rublev (, ; ) was a Russian artist considered to be one of the greatest medieval Russian painters of Orthodox Christian icons and frescoes. He is revered as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and his feast day is 29 January.
Ear ...
'' (both 1966), Ivan Karyakin from '' Two Comrades Were Serving'' (1968), Petrykin from '' Big School-Break'' (1973), Cat Bazilio from '' The Adventures of Buratino'' (1975), Father Fyodor from ''The Twelve Chairs
''The Twelve Chairs'' () is a Russian classic satirical picaresque novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov, published in 1928. Its plot follows characters attempting to obtain jewelry hidden in a chair. A sequel was published in 1931. The ...
'' (1976) and others.[Rolan Bykov. I'm Beaten - I Will Start from the Beginning! Diaries]
at Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...
(in Russian)
As a film director he became known for his experimental children's
A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''child ...
and family movies. Among his most famous works are '' Seven Nannies'' (1962), ''Aybolit-66'' (1966), ''Attention, a Turtle!'' (1970) and '' Scarecrow'' (1983). His films are generally associated with postmodernism
Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...
, presented as a mix of different styles, genres and techniques, with theatrical musical numbers, arthouse
An art film, arthouse film, or specialty film is an independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made prima ...
editing, fourth wall
The fourth wall is a performance dramatic convention, convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. ...
breaking and so on. An unexpectedly grim ''Scarecrow'' released in 1984 became especially controversial and led to a lot of public criticism; some insisted it should be banned. Bykov survived a heart attack in the process. Yet in 1986 with the start of perestroika
''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...
he was awarded the USSR State Prize
The USSR State Prize () was one of the Soviet Union’s highest civilian honours, awarded from its establishment in September 1966 until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. It recognised outstanding contributions in the fields of science, mathem ...
for his movie.Nika Award
The Nika Award (sometimes styled NIKA Award) is the main annual national film award in Russia, presented by the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Science, and seen as the national equivalent of the Oscars.
In 2022 nominees were announced, b ...
organization.
In 1989 Bykov headed the Younost studio at Mosfilm dedicated to children's cinema. Between 1989 and 1992 he also headed the All-Soviet Center of Cinema and TV for Children and Youth. In 1992 he created and headed the Rolan Bykov's Fund (also known as International Fund for Development of Cinema for Children and Youth). According to his 1994 interview to Vladislav Listyev
Vladislav (Vlad) Nikolayevich Listyev (; May 10, 1956 – March 1, 1995) was a Soviet, later Russian journalist and head of the ORT TV Channel (now government-owned Channel One).
Career
Listyev was arguably the most popular journalist and TV ...
, they had produced 64 movies by that time and received various awards internationally, yet none of them were shown at Russian movie theaters since new management saw them as nonprofitable.[Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union
The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union () was the highest body of state authority of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991.
Background
The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union was created as part of Mikhail Gorbachev ...]
. He also headed a Nonpartisan Socio-Political Movement 95 that expressed support to culture, science, education and ecology. During the