The Tale of Ivan Fedorov Ivan Fedorov and Ivan IV the Terrible The great enlightener who laid the foundation for printing in Russia, and the great tyrant. Are there any parallels here?
Mother history ordered that these two such discordant figures were next to the parade ground of the same era.
However, if the selfless activity of Fedorov, his invaluable contribution to the development of culture (I remind you that in 1564 he published the first printed Russian book “The Apostle”) always had an unambiguous assessment, the personality of Ivan IV the Terrible for us to this day is ambiguous. Alas, little is written about him in the history books, and for many decades the idea of the allegedly truth-seeking and deeply national nature of the Tsar’s rule was imposed on the people. Suffice it to recall at least the acclaimed film of S. Eisenstein, made, by the way, by order of Stalin, where the image of Grozny was covered with a halo of valor and wisdom.
Recently, one politician said that Ivan Vasilyevich could not have killed his son because he was in Leningrad at that time. However, did not specify where exactly, not on the 3rd street Builders, 25? He was immediately objected by knowledgeable people that in the days of the Terrible City on the Neva, it seems, was not yet there, except that there was a small shelter of a wretched chukhonian on the river. Why should the king go there for such a need? In general, we do not forget Grozny, he is always with us, like Lenin in a famous song. And all because "Black Legend" (as Gumilev called it) was under Ivan Vasilyevich and was born in Europe. How did they begin to notice that in the East it is not wild forests and fields with evil Tatars galloping through them, but a certain state that is growing frighteningly not by day, but by hour, and does not want to listen to anyone, but spits on the Latin faith, and is frightened – this is another “monster blundered, mischievous, huge, hundred-ze and barking”? And they began to send papal representatives to the king to lure Ivan to Rome, and he did not go to any. We have our own faith, Russian. And Antonio Possevino, the papal ambassador, departed, loafing unsaltedly, and harbored evil: what should he report to the pope, where are the successes? From there it came: everything that was written about Muscovy and its ruler, all sorts of there Cruz, Taube, Schlichtingi, Stadens and others, in fact, nothing more than tendentious half-burden to the needs of the authorities, a kind of forerunner of the later “great” work of the Marquis de Custine. Our historians are divided: some say that in general, a progressive ruler, if the results, because it was under him that Russia became Russia. The second object: “And in the end what?” And then the Time of Troubles? And in general, if Ivan the ambassador of the papal Possevino had obeyed and Russia had become Catholic, life would be quite different now. Great life. European! They wouldn't have lost the Cold War. Live and whistle. Something from George Gershwin, blues-style rhapsody, say.
Times of shameless varnishing of history pass, and they are inevitably replaced by a period of revaluation of values. I think I will not be mistaken if I say that the result of this difficult moral reorientation to some extent was the film, which was shot at the Gorky Studio by order of the State Television and Radio Directors Yuri Sorokin and Yuri Shvyrev. The working title of the tape is “Ivan Fedorov”, and the script was written by A. Lapshin.
For the first time in this picture, the fate and life of the famous Russian first printer were traced in the context of the reign of Ivan IV. The shooting took place in Lviv, Moscow, near the walls of the former Ipatievsky monastery in Kostroma.
In the title role – a young, but already well-established in the cinema actor Fedor Sukhov. Despite the fact that Ivan Fedorov is undoubtedly his most significant role, it is impossible not to say that the performer has already had the difficult happiness to get used to a historical concrete image: he had three times to play in the cinema of A. M. Gorky.
If Sukhov has not yet been spoiled by wide popularity, then the name of Innocent Mikhailovich Smoktunovsky could serve as a ringing advertisement for the upcoming film.
It is noteworthy that for the first time in the film was shown the scene of the murder of Ivan the terrible of his son. Undoubtedly, in the old days, such directorial plans would hardly have been realized.
Great support and assistance to filmmakers was provided by the clergy of the Kostroma region, kindly granted the right to film on the territory of any of the Kostroma churches and blessed the creative team for good and good luck. It was an act of holiness, because Ivan Fedorov is primarily a spiritual, religious person, and it was in this perspective (and also for the first time!) that he appeared before the audience in the picture.