S. M. Eisenstein’s Film

Abstract

A film about Ivan Groznyi was commissioned from Eisenstein in January 1941.¹ As we have already noted, the decision to make this film was taken by the Committee for Artistic Affairs at the same time as it decided to commission a play from Aleksei Tolstoi.² The request was transmitted to the director by Zhdanov.³ Eisenstein seems to have been in no doubt, however, who his true patron was: in a draft letter to Stalin of 20 January 1944, the director referred to ‘making the film Ivan the Terrible according to your instructions [po Vashim ukazaniyam] which I received from Comrade Zhdanov’.⁴ There are various accounts — all seemingly speculative or based on anecdotal evidence — of the content of the directives which Zhdanov transmitted to Eisenstein. According to one contemporary, Zhdanov had stressed that history was a lesson, and that the aim of the film was to provide an analogy with the present day.⁵ Levin writes that Zhdanov’s words were no secret: ‘It was necessary to justify Ivan Groznyi, to show that blood had not been spilt in vain.’⁶