Aleksandr Yakovlevich Askoldov

Soviet Union state institutions Marxism–Leninism 1932.6.17.–2018.5.21. ○ Natural causes

Director whose only feature film, Commissar, was banned for twenty years

Born in Moscow, he grew up in Kiev. In 1937 his father, a factory director, was executed, and when his mother was arrested too the five-year-old fled to friends of his parents. He helped Bulgakov's widow with the archive and worked in the film administration before enrolling in a directing course. His graduation film Commissar (1967) was judged ideologically harmful and shelved. At a press conference of the 1987 Moscow festival he took the microphone to announce it; in 1988 it won a Silver Bear at Berlin.

Also known as: Alexander Askoldov