Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky

Yuri Andreyevich Zhelyabuzhsky (Russian: Юрий Андреевич Желябужский; 24 December [O.S. 12 December] 1888 – 24 October 1955) was a Russian and Soviet cinematographer, film director, screenwriter and animator, film theorist and professor at VGIK.

Early years

Zhelyabuzhsky was born into a noble Russian family. His mother Maria Andreyeva (born Yurkovskaya) was a famous stage actress and revolutionary; she also came from a theatrical family of Fyodor Aleksandrovich Fyodorov-Yurkovsky who served as the main director of the Alexandrinsky Theatre and Maria Pavlovna Leleva, an actress of mixed German-Estonian origin. Yuri's father Andrei Alekseyevich Zhelyabuzhsky was an Active State Councillor who belonged to an old noble family tree which originated in the 15th century and gave birth to a number of prominent high-ranking officials and diplomats throughout Russian history.

After Andrey Zhelyabuzhsky left the family, Maria Andreyeva became romantically involved with the major Bolshevik writer Maxim Gorky. Their civil union lasted for over 15 years, and Gorky officially adopted Yuri and his sister Yekaterina. They followed him on his trip to Italy in 1906. A famous series of photos that shows Vladimir Lenin playing chess with Gorky, Alexander Bogdanov and other Bolsheviks in exile was made by Zhelyabuzhsky at their Capri residence in April 1908.

Career

Between 1913 and 1916 he studied at the Petrograd Peter the Great Polytechnic Institute, the shipbuilding faculty. After 1915 Yuri workedg in cinema — first as a film stock developer, then as a screenwriter for the Era company and other lesser-known collectives. In 1917 he became a member of the Rus' Film Studio (known as Mezrabpom-Rus and Mezhrabpomfilm during the Soviet days) where he had worked as a cinematographer, film director and screenwriter up until 1935.