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Alexander Alekseevich Khangonkov (1877–1945), one of the founders of Russian film production, was born
27 July (8 August) 1877 in the village of Khangonkovka in the Don Cossack Region (now the village of Nizhnyaya Krynka in the Donetsk People's Republic), director, screenwriter, and one of the pioneers of Russian film production Alexander Alekseevich Khangonkov was born into the family of Cossack centurion Alexei Petrovich Khangonkov.
In 1896, A. A. Khangonkov graduated from the Novocherkassk Cossack Cadet School and was accepted into the elite Don 1st Cossack Regiment with the rank of sub-lieutenant. He participated in the Russo-Japanese War, during which he contracted chronic polyarthritis. He was discharged from the army with compensation of five thousand rubles.
Impressed by his first film, which he saw in 1906 at a cinema in Rostov-on-Don, A. A. Khanzhonkov decided to invest the money he had earned during the war in the film industry. First, in partnership with E. Osh, he founded the trading house "E. Osh and A. Khanzhonkov" in Moscow, and then his own company, "A. Khanzhonkov and Co." Initially, A. A. Khangonkov was involved in the distribution of foreign films in Russia, but in the summer of 1907, he began shooting his own film, Palochkin and Galochkin, which, however, was never completed.
In 1909, A. A. Khanzhonkov's film studio released the films Drama in a Gypsy Camp Near Moscow, The Song of Merchant Kalashnikov, A Russian Wedding in the 16th Century, and Vanka the Keyholder. By the end of 1911, A. A. Khanzhonkov's company had already shot more than 30 feature films, which were adaptations of Russian classics, folk tales, songs, and romances. A. A. Khanzhonkov gained nationwide fame and recognition with the first domestic feature film, The Defence of Sevastopol, with which he made his debut as a director in 1911. The film was presented to Emperor Nicholas II and received high praise from him. A. A. Khanzhonkov was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, 2nd class, with the wording "for exceptionally useful work in the field of Russian cinema."
In 1916, the number of films released by A. A. Khanzhonkov's company approached 300. A. A. Khanzhonkov wrote the screenplays for some of them: "Brothers Boris and Gleb," "From the Mysterious World," "Irina Kirsanova" (all 1915), and "Life Defeated by Death" (1916). At A. A. Khangonkov's company, artist V. A. Starevich began shooting the world's first animated films: in 1912, the first animated film made using the technique of three-dimensional (puppet) animation was released – The Beautiful Lykanida, or The War of the Beetles and the Horned Beetles.
A. A. Khanzhonkov was the only major Russian film producer for whom the film industry was not just entertainment. He created a special research department in his studio, which collaborated with leading Russian specialists to produce educational films on agriculture, geography, zoology, botany and medicine.
After the February Revolution of 1917, A. A. Khanjonkov, along with most of his company's employees, moved to Yalta, where he organised a film production company that later became the famous Yalta Film Studio. In 1920, after the defeat of General Wrangel's army, A. A. Khangonkov emigrated with his family to Constantinople, and from there to Europe. In 1923, at the invitation of Russian film producers, he returned to Moscow. He worked as a consultant for Goskino and as head of production at Proletkino. In 1926, he was arrested along with a group of Proletkino executives on charges of financial misconduct. Due to lack of evidence, he was released but banned from working in the film industry.
By that time, A. A. Khangonkov, who had health problems and was confined to a wheelchair, was forced to move from Moscow to Yalta. In 1934, he appealed to B. Z. Shumyatsky, head of the Main Directorate of the Film and Photo Industry under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, with a request to "become a full member of the working family of Soviet cinema." In the same year, in connection with the 15th anniversary of Soviet cinema, A. A. Khangonkov was rehabilitated and received a personal pension of 350 roubles. In the following years, he wrote his memoirs, which were partially published in the book The Early Years of Russian Cinema (1937).
A. A. Khangonkov died on 26 September 1945 and was buried in Yalta at the Polikurovsky Cemetery.
Lit.: Кузнецова М. Александр Ханжонков. Жизнь за кадром // Профиль. 1997. № 29; Орлова И. А. Жизнь посвящаю кинематографу. Документальная повесть об основателе отечественного кинематографа А. Ханжонкове. Донецк, 2007; Ханжонков А. А. Первые годы русской кинематографии: Воспоминания. М., Л., 1937; Ханжонков А. А. Первые годы русской кинематографии. Воспоминания. М., 2016.
Based on the materials of Presidential Library: