The Vow (1946 film)
Encyclopedia
The Vow is a 1946 Soviet film directed by Mikhail Chiaureli. It is considered a representation of Joseph Stalin
's cult of personality
.
brigands that roam the land, spreading death and misery. The Kulaks murder him. His widow, Varvara, continues his quest, joining a group that travels to Moscow. When they arrive, they discover that Lenin is dead. In the Kremlin, Vyacheslav Molotov
tells Anastas Mikoyan
that now, Grigory Zinoviev
, Lev Kamenev
and Nikolai Bukharin
will attempt to subvert the party by attacking Stalin, Lenin's devout disciple. Stalin, mourning his teacher's passing away, carries a eulogy in the funeral, calling for all attendants and all the people of the Soviet Union to vow to maintain his legacy. The people swear. Varvara sees Stalin and hands him over the blood-stained letter entitled "To Lenin".
Varvara's son, Sergei, becomes an inventor, developing the first Soviet tractor with Stalin's encouragement. Her other son, Alexander, becomes manager of the Stalingrad Tractor Factory. Stalin leads the people of the USSR in implementing the Five-Year Plans and in industrializing their country, in spite of Bukharin's resistance. American saboteurs burn the Tractor Factory, killing Varvara's daughter, Olga.
As the Germans threaten world peace, Sergei travels to Paris, to warn of the impending danger. The French and the British reject Soviet warnings. As the Second World War begins, the two sons volunteer to the front. At the end of the war, Varvara and Stalin meet again in the Kremlin. Stalin kisses her hand, in recognition of the Soviet mothers' contribution to victory, telling her that soon, all that Lenin has foreseen would be fulfilled.
- which, set before the October Revolution, was the first film to clearly portray Stalin as Lenin's indispensable aid and acolyte.
The production of The Vow was delayed by the Second World War, during which the personality cult of Stalin was set aside in favour of patriotic motifs, to encourage the populace to resist the enemy. Even before the German surrender, as victory seemed secure, the cult gradually began its return to the screen; after 1945, it reached new heights, much more than before the war.
Playwright Iosef Prut, who was present when Chiaureli held a screening for Stalin, recounted that the Soviet premier disapproved of the ending scene, in which he was shown kissing Varvara's hand, telling the director he never kissed a woman's hand in his life. Chiaurely replied "the people know better what Stalin does and doesn't do."Stalin confirmed his declaration in another occasion. At 1947, during a Kremlin dinner, a drunken guest insulted Nina, Lavrentiy Beria
's wife. Stalin, who saw her scolding, approached her and kissed her hand, telling her: "this is the first time in my life I kissed a woman's hand". See: Sergo Beria, Françoise Thom, Brian Pearce. Beria My Father: Inside Stalin's Kremlin. Duckworth Publishers (2003). ISBN 978-0715632055. Page 142.
At 1 July 1946, Pravda
's critic wrote "In The Vow... It is demonstrated how all the actions of Comrade Stalin were consecrated, in unity with the will of the people... The artistic and ideological merit of the picture is in its portrayal of the love and confidence of the people toward Comrade Stalin."
The film was approved by French censors, in spite of police protests that it would threaten public order, although a scene negatively featuring Georges Bonnet
was removed. News of the World
's critic later dubbed it "the film they dare not show in Paris". In a 1949 article published in Les Lettres Françaises, Georges Sadoul
called it "a film the qualities of which might offend the delicate, amateurish scholars and the admirers of Orson Wells... The Vow is the future of cinema, no less than Citizen Kane
... The beautiful images from it are engraved in memory, monumental and sophisticated." At an article from 25 May 1950, he wrote that the film "opened the most glorious era in Soviet cinema." André Bazin
, who researched Stalinist cinema, regarded the film as a piece of propaganda, remarking that "the only difference between Stalin and Tarzan
is that films about the latter do not pretend to be documentaries."
The New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther
noted that the film is "a tribute for Stalin... About as flowing and fulsome as could be... In short, The Vow is not subtle. It beats the drum and raises the flag for him... About as coyly as a May Day parade."
After Stalin's death in 1953, The Vow was removed from circulation. After the 1956 Secret Speech, it was banned and placed in the archives. Nikita Khruschev later commented that he greatly disliked the film, calling it and Chiaureli's works in general "a bootlicker's idea of art!" At 1971, Dušan Makavejev
had used footage from a copy of The Vow he found in Yugoslav archives for the making of his film W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism
.
, Lenin still had a considerable impact on the plot, but only in an inspirational manner - he was not seen alive, and the film deals with his burial. According to author Evgeni Dobrenko, Stalin's new status was hinted in another form: on the very month in which The Vow was released, the second part of Ivan the Terrible
was sharply condemned by critics. Historical films like Ivan and Peter the Great, that depicted great leaders of the past, served to reinforce the need for a strong ruler and legitimize Stalin's autocracy. With the prestige acquired by victory in World War II, he no longer needed this kind of support. Peter Kenez
wrote that it was "the first film entirely devoted to Stalin himself."
Kenez also noted that the picture was the most exhaustive Stalinist interpretation of history seen on screen. J. Hoberman
wrote that it "replaces history", by depicting all that transpired between Lenin's death and the victory in the war, in accordance with the official Soviet narrative: Stalin rises to power, promotes the Five-Year Plans, brings prosperity to the people, attempts to convince the treacherous capitalists to form an alliance against Nazi Germany and then leads the Soviet Union to victory against Hitler. No mention of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact is made in the film.
According to Edvard Radzinsky
, Pavlenko intentionally combined Christian motifs in the plot, to induce an identification of Stalin with Jesus; Lenin played the part of John the Baptist in selecting him as Messiah. Bazin described the funeral scene as "a descent of Lenin's holy spirit unto Stalin, the new Moses
."
Kenez viewed The Vow as "a turning point in Soviet cinema... It set the tone for many others to follow." Antonin and Miera Liehm commented that upon its release, "a style was born" of pictures "with Stalin always at their center... that fulfilled Zhdanov's requirements in their entirety... And so became the model for other filmmakers."
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's cult of personality
Cult of personality
A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are usually associated with dictatorships...
.
Plot
1924. Veteran Bolshevik Petrov, a resident of Tsaritsyn, carries a letter to Lenin, to inform him of the KulakKulak
Kulaks were a category of relatively affluent peasants in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and early Soviet Union...
brigands that roam the land, spreading death and misery. The Kulaks murder him. His widow, Varvara, continues his quest, joining a group that travels to Moscow. When they arrive, they discover that Lenin is dead. In the Kremlin, Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
tells Anastas Mikoyan
Anastas Mikoyan
Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan was an Armenian Old Bolshevik and Soviet statesman during the rules of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Leonid Brezhnev....
that now, Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...
, Lev Kamenev
Lev Kamenev
Lev Borisovich Kamenev , born Rozenfeld , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician. He was briefly head of state of the new republic in 1917, and from 1923-24 the acting Premier in the last year of Lenin's life....
and Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin , was a Russian Marxist, Bolshevik revolutionary, and Soviet politician. He was a member of the Politburo and Central Committee , chairman of the Communist International , and the editor in chief of Pravda , the journal Bolshevik , Izvestia , and the Great Soviet...
will attempt to subvert the party by attacking Stalin, Lenin's devout disciple. Stalin, mourning his teacher's passing away, carries a eulogy in the funeral, calling for all attendants and all the people of the Soviet Union to vow to maintain his legacy. The people swear. Varvara sees Stalin and hands him over the blood-stained letter entitled "To Lenin".
Varvara's son, Sergei, becomes an inventor, developing the first Soviet tractor with Stalin's encouragement. Her other son, Alexander, becomes manager of the Stalingrad Tractor Factory. Stalin leads the people of the USSR in implementing the Five-Year Plans and in industrializing their country, in spite of Bukharin's resistance. American saboteurs burn the Tractor Factory, killing Varvara's daughter, Olga.
As the Germans threaten world peace, Sergei travels to Paris, to warn of the impending danger. The French and the British reject Soviet warnings. As the Second World War begins, the two sons volunteer to the front. At the end of the war, Varvara and Stalin meet again in the Kremlin. Stalin kisses her hand, in recognition of the Soviet mothers' contribution to victory, telling her that soon, all that Lenin has foreseen would be fulfilled.
Cast
- Mikheil GelovaniMikheil GelovaniMikheil Gelovani was a Georgian-Soviet actor, known for his many portrayals of Joseph Stalin in cinema.-Early life:Mikheil Gelovani was a descendant of the old Georgian princely house of Gelovani. He made his stage debut in a theater in Batumi during 1913. From 1919 to 1920, he attended the Drama...
- Joseph StalinJoseph StalinJoseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee... - Alexey GribovAlexey GribovAlexey Nikolayevich Gribov was a Soviet actor.He was born in 1902 in Moscow. Alexey Gribov starred in more than sixty the films and the movies and he was an actor of the Moscow Art Theatre. He was a People's Artist of the USSR and Hero of Socialist Labour...
- Kliment VoroshilovKliment VoroshilovKliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , popularly known as Klim Voroshilov was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman... - Nikolai Konovalov - Mikhail KalininMikhail KalininMikhail Ivanovich Kalinin , known familiarly by Soviet citizens as "Kalinych," was a Bolshevik revolutionary and the nominal head of state of Russia and later of the Soviet Union, from 1919 to 1946...
- Roman Yuriev - Andrei ZhdanovAndrei ZhdanovAndrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician.-Life:Zhdanov enlisted with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1915 and was promoted through the party ranks, becoming the All-Union Communist Party manager in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934...
- Nikolai Ryzhov - Lazar KaganovichLazar KaganovichLazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich was a Soviet politician and administrator and one of the main associates of Joseph Stalin.-Early life:Kaganovich was born in 1893 to Jewish parents in the village of Kabany, Radomyshl uyezd, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire...
- G. Mushegian - Anastas MikoyanAnastas MikoyanAnastas Ivanovich Mikoyan was an Armenian Old Bolshevik and Soviet statesman during the rules of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Leonid Brezhnev....
- Alexander Khvylya - Semyon BudyonnySemyon BudyonnySemyon Mikhailovich Budyonny , sometimes transliterated as Budennyj, Budyonnyy, Budennii, Budenny, Budyoni, Budyenny, or Budenny, was a Soviet cavalryman, military commander, politician and a close ally of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.-Early life:...
- Fedor Blazevic - Georgy ZhukovGeorgy ZhukovMarshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov , was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played a pivotal role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis Powers' occupation...
- George Belnikevich - Sergei Kirov
- Sofia Gyatsintova - Varvara M. Petrova
- Nikolay BogolyubovNikolay Bogolyubov (actor)Nikolay Ivanovich Bogolyubov was a Soviet actor and a People's Artist of the RSFSR . In 1933 he played in Boris Barnet's Okraina; in 1941, he was awarded the Stalin Prize.-Selected filmography:* Tommy...
- Alexander Petrov / Stepan Petrov - Dmitry Pavlov - Sergey Petrov
- Svetlana Bogolyubov - Olga Petrova
- Nikolai Plotnikov - Ivan Yermilov
- Tamara MakarovaTamara MakarovaTamara Makarova was a Soviet actress. She appeared in 31 films between 1927 and 1984. She was married to the Soviet film director Sergei Gerasimov.-Selected filmography:* Somebody Else's Coat * The Deserter * The Stone Flower...
- Xenia - Vladimir Solovyov - Simon Ruzaev
- Sergei Blinnikov - Cormorant
- George Sagaradze - George
- Paul Ismatov - Yusuf Turgunbaev
- Vladimir Balashov - Anatoly Lipsky
- Ilya Nabatov - Georges BonnetGeorges BonnetNot to be confused with the French Socialist Georges MonnetGeorges-Étienne Bonnet was a French politician and leading figure in the Radical-Socialist Party.- Early career :...
- Nikolai Chaplygin - Johnson, British journalist
- Maxim Strauch - Rogers, American journalist
- Vladimir Maruta - Kaiser
- Vasili MerkuryevVasili Merkuryev-Selected filmography:* The Return of Maxim * Professor Mamlock * The Vyborg Side * The Great Glinka * The Vow * The Battle of Stalingrad * True Friends * Twelfth Night...
- General Nikolay Voronov
Production
Director Mikhail Chaiureli began planning The Vow already at 1939, after the release of his last picture, The Great DawnThe Great Dawn
The Great Dawn is a 1938 Soviet Georgian film directed by Mikhail Chiaureli...
- which, set before the October Revolution, was the first film to clearly portray Stalin as Lenin's indispensable aid and acolyte.
The production of The Vow was delayed by the Second World War, during which the personality cult of Stalin was set aside in favour of patriotic motifs, to encourage the populace to resist the enemy. Even before the German surrender, as victory seemed secure, the cult gradually began its return to the screen; after 1945, it reached new heights, much more than before the war.
Playwright Iosef Prut, who was present when Chiaureli held a screening for Stalin, recounted that the Soviet premier disapproved of the ending scene, in which he was shown kissing Varvara's hand, telling the director he never kissed a woman's hand in his life. Chiaurely replied "the people know better what Stalin does and doesn't do."Stalin confirmed his declaration in another occasion. At 1947, during a Kremlin dinner, a drunken guest insulted Nina, Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....
's wife. Stalin, who saw her scolding, approached her and kissed her hand, telling her: "this is the first time in my life I kissed a woman's hand". See: Sergo Beria, Françoise Thom, Brian Pearce. Beria My Father: Inside Stalin's Kremlin. Duckworth Publishers (2003). ISBN 978-0715632055. Page 142.
Contemporary response
The Vow was viewed by 20.8 million people in the Soviet Union. Chaiureli, Pavlenko, and actors Gelovani, Sofia Gyatsintova and Mikhail Plotnikov all won the Stalin Prize, 1st degree, during 1947.At 1 July 1946, Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
's critic wrote "In The Vow... It is demonstrated how all the actions of Comrade Stalin were consecrated, in unity with the will of the people... The artistic and ideological merit of the picture is in its portrayal of the love and confidence of the people toward Comrade Stalin."
The film was approved by French censors, in spite of police protests that it would threaten public order, although a scene negatively featuring Georges Bonnet
Georges Bonnet
Not to be confused with the French Socialist Georges MonnetGeorges-Étienne Bonnet was a French politician and leading figure in the Radical-Socialist Party.- Early career :...
was removed. News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
's critic later dubbed it "the film they dare not show in Paris". In a 1949 article published in Les Lettres Françaises, Georges Sadoul
Georges Sadoul
Georges Sadoul was a French journalist and cinema writer.Once a surrealist, he became a communist in 1932. He was a journalist of the Lettres Françaises....
called it "a film the qualities of which might offend the delicate, amateurish scholars and the admirers of Orson Wells... The Vow is the future of cinema, no less than Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
... The beautiful images from it are engraved in memory, monumental and sophisticated." At an article from 25 May 1950, he wrote that the film "opened the most glorious era in Soviet cinema." André Bazin
André Bazin
André Bazin was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist.-Life:Bazin was born in Angers, France, in 1918...
, who researched Stalinist cinema, regarded the film as a piece of propaganda, remarking that "the only difference between Stalin and Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
is that films about the latter do not pretend to be documentaries."
The New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
noted that the film is "a tribute for Stalin... About as flowing and fulsome as could be... In short, The Vow is not subtle. It beats the drum and raises the flag for him... About as coyly as a May Day parade."
After Stalin's death in 1953, The Vow was removed from circulation. After the 1956 Secret Speech, it was banned and placed in the archives. Nikita Khruschev later commented that he greatly disliked the film, calling it and Chiaureli's works in general "a bootlicker's idea of art!" At 1971, Dušan Makavejev
Dušan Makavejev
Dušan Makavejev is a Serbian film director and screenwriter, famous for his groundbreaking films of Yugoslav cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
had used footage from a copy of The Vow he found in Yugoslav archives for the making of his film W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism
W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism
W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism is a 1971 film by Yugoslav director Dušan Makavejev that explores the relationship between communist politics and sexuality, as well as exploring the life and work of Wilhelm Reich.-Narrative and documentary elements:The film intercuts documentary footage with,...
.
Critical analysis
Richard Taylor noted that The Vow signaled a transformation in Stalin's cult of personality: rather than being seen merely as Lenin's successor, the premier was now also credited as a leader on his own right, by highlighting his role as the nation's savior during World War II. Unlike Chiaureli's next film, The Fall of BerlinThe Fall of Berlin (film)
The Fall of Berlin is a 1950 two-part Soviet film directed by Mikhail Chiaureli. The plot revolves around the history of the Great Patriotic War, focusing on the role that Joseph Stalin played in the events...
, Lenin still had a considerable impact on the plot, but only in an inspirational manner - he was not seen alive, and the film deals with his burial. According to author Evgeni Dobrenko, Stalin's new status was hinted in another form: on the very month in which The Vow was released, the second part of Ivan the Terrible
Ivan the Terrible (film)
Ivan the Terrible is a two-part historical epic film about Ivan IV of Russia made by Russian director Sergei Eisenstein. Part 1 was released in 1944 but Part 2 was not released until 1958 due to political censorship...
was sharply condemned by critics. Historical films like Ivan and Peter the Great, that depicted great leaders of the past, served to reinforce the need for a strong ruler and legitimize Stalin's autocracy. With the prestige acquired by victory in World War II, he no longer needed this kind of support. Peter Kenez
Peter Kenez
Peter Kenez is a historian specializing in Russian history and Eastern Europe. He also teaches courses on Soviet cinema and an interdisciplinary course on the Holocaust with literature professor Murray Baumgarten...
wrote that it was "the first film entirely devoted to Stalin himself."
Kenez also noted that the picture was the most exhaustive Stalinist interpretation of history seen on screen. J. Hoberman
J. Hoberman
James Lewis Hoberman , also known as J. Hoberman, is an American film critic. He is currently the senior film critic for The Village Voice, a post he has held since 1988.-Education:...
wrote that it "replaces history", by depicting all that transpired between Lenin's death and the victory in the war, in accordance with the official Soviet narrative: Stalin rises to power, promotes the Five-Year Plans, brings prosperity to the people, attempts to convince the treacherous capitalists to form an alliance against Nazi Germany and then leads the Soviet Union to victory against Hitler. No mention of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact is made in the film.
According to Edvard Radzinsky
Edvard Radzinsky
Edvard Stanislavovich Radzinsky is a Russian playwright, writer, TV personality, and film screenwriter. He is also known as an author of several books on history which were characterized as "folk history" by journalists and academic historians.-Biography:Edvard Stanislavovich Radzinsky was born...
, Pavlenko intentionally combined Christian motifs in the plot, to induce an identification of Stalin with Jesus; Lenin played the part of John the Baptist in selecting him as Messiah. Bazin described the funeral scene as "a descent of Lenin's holy spirit unto Stalin, the new Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
."
Kenez viewed The Vow as "a turning point in Soviet cinema... It set the tone for many others to follow." Antonin and Miera Liehm commented that upon its release, "a style was born" of pictures "with Stalin always at their center... that fulfilled Zhdanov's requirements in their entirety... And so became the model for other filmmakers."