Was Oleksandr Dovzhenko a Judophobe (According to the materials of the Soviet special services)

Author

Shapoval Yury

a Doctor of History, a professor, a chief research fellow at the Department of Theory and History of Political Science at the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine).

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2883-6403

Was Oleksandr Dovzhenko a Judophobe
(According to the materials of the Soviet special services)

Abstract

The submitted article is aimed at the revealing and representing previously unknown archival documents from the funds of the Soviet special services, concerning the non-conformist attitudes of Oleksandr Dovzhenko, his resentment towards the Jews in particular. The author’s task is directed at stimulating further studies and discussions in order to find means of depicting a realistic image of Dovzhenko.

Methodological principles are based on the fundamentals of historicism and critical analysis of sources with a complex combination of the entire multiplicity of newly discovered historical facts and events in accordance with specific historical circumstances.

The scientific novelty consists in the comprehension of the documents of the communist special services as a source component of unprejudiced research strategies of modern Dovzhenko Studies.

Conclusions. Newly discovered archival documents prove that Dovzhenko’s critical attitude towards Jews is the result of complex and situationally determined attitudes and life experiences. This is why these cannot be simplistic and straightforward narratives. Communist special services have monitored closely Dovzhenko’s anti-Soviet sentiments, suspected him of «counter-revolutionary activities», and also recorded his statements directed at Jewish cinematographers. However, they haven’t given unequivocal assessments to such statements. Dovzhenko has collaborated and made friends creatively with many Jewish artists, and his critical attitudes have never turned into denunciation and other practical forms of revenge.

Keywords

Oleksandr Dovzhenko, communist special services, case-form, anti-Semite, Russification, Ukrainian nationalism, Ukrainian film production.

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