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[A RARE PASS TO THE LONG-FORGOTTEN UKRAINFILM STUDIO] Kyyivs’ka kinofabryka trestu Ukrainfil’m [i.e. Kyiv Film Factory of the Ukrainfilm Trust]

Item #2386

Kyiv, 1918. Oxidation of the photo, otherwise in good condition.

Scarce. Text in Ukrainian.

Daily pass from the short-lived, yet long-suppressed first Ukrainian film studio, “Ukrainfilm,” issued in 1918 for Oleksandr Doroshkevich (1889-1946), a leading Ukrainian literary critic and a victim of Soviet repressions. A rare survival of the time, the document dates to the early months of the Ukrainian State, an anti-Bolshevik government that controlled most of modern Ukraine from April to December 1918, before the Directorate of the Ukrainian People’s Republic took power.

The pass bears the approved person’s last name (Doroshkevich), designation as an “editor,” the factory commandant’s signature, and Ukrainfilm’s stamps. The studio’s decision to grant access to an editor likely signals an early effort to engage top intellectuals in advancing its ambitious vision - producing «ideological and national films, mainly of a patriotic nature.» The document optimistically defines the validity period as 1918–1924, unaware that Ukrainfilm, founded by Lyudmila Starytska-Chernyakhivska, Oleksandr Oles, etc., amid Ukraine’s statehood aspirations, would be shut down just a year later. None of its feature films are known to survive, though a handful of chronicle documentaries remain. Under Soviet rule, all traces of Ukrainfilm’s existence were deliberately erased. Ukrainian film historians only began piecing together its story after the country’s independence in 1991, when long-sealed archives became finally accessible. Despite our extensive research, no record of Doroshkevich’s reviews of the studio’s productions has been found.

Oleksandr Doroshkevich was a prominent Ukrainian literary scholar, critic, and educator. He held key positions in the Ministry of Public Education under Hetman Skoropadsky and the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. In 1929, he condemned the SVU in an attempt to align with Soviet policies but was ultimately forced out of Ukraine’s intellectual life and exiled to the Urals. He returned in his final years, working at the Shevchenko Institute of Literature, staying out of the spotlight and major publications.

Price: $750.00