Speech at a Politburo Session of the CC of the VKP(b) Concerning A.P. Dovzhenko's Film Script "Ukraine in Fire," January 31, 1944

Source: Tom 18

The film script "Ukraine in Fire" by Dovzhenko is essentially a manifestation of nationalism — narrow-minded Ukrainian nationalism, disguised in anti-German wrapping. In this script, the Ukrainian people are presented as some kind of oppressed nation that is deprived of its own will and voice. The script is permeated with the idea that the Ukrainian people were supposedly abandoned to their fate and that nobody cared about Ukraine.

Dovzhenko's entire pathos lies in the fact that the Ukrainians were not allowed to govern themselves, that they were supposedly deprived of their national rights. This is not a Bolshevik but a nationalist formulation of the question. Dovzhenko does not understand that the entire Soviet people, not only the Ukrainians, have suffered from the fascist invasion, that the entire Soviet people are waging war against the invaders.

The question of Ukraine cannot be separated from the question of the defense of the Soviet state as a whole. To isolate the Ukrainian question from the general cause of the Soviet people's struggle — as Dovzhenko does — means to slide into nationalism.

The film script gives an absolutely incorrect picture of the events of 1941. It follows from the script that the Red Army abandoned Ukraine without a fight, that everyone fled, and that the Ukrainians were left to their own devices. This is a slander against the Red Army.

Furthermore, what kind of patriotism is it when, through the mouths of his characters, Dovzhenko actually blames the Soviet government for the suffering of Ukraine? This is not patriotism but nationalism. A Soviet patriot does not contrast his republic against the Soviet Union as a whole.

The script also contains the inadmissible idea of reconciliation between Soviet people and those who served the German occupiers. Dovzhenko portrays collaborators almost sympathetically, trying to justify their treachery by circumstances.

In view of all the above, I consider Dovzhenko's script anti-Leninist and harmful, and I propose that it not be approved for production.

Note

Alexander Petrovich Dovzhenko (1894-1956), the outstanding Ukrainian filmmaker and writer, author of "Earth," "Arsenal," and other celebrated films, wrote "Ukraine in Fire" as a passionate response to the German occupation of Ukraine. The CC of the VKP(b) adopted a special resolution condemning the screenplay on January 31, 1944. Despite this condemnation, Dovzhenko continued to work and was awarded two Stalin Prizes (in 1941 for the screenplay "Shchors" and in 1949 for the documentary "Michurin").