Aleksei Kapler

Aleksei Yakovlevich Kapler (also Alexei, {{langx|ru|link=no|Алексей Яковлевич Каплер}}, born Lazar Yankelevich Kapler; 28 September 1903 – 11 September 1979) was a prominent Soviet filmmaker, screenwriter, actor, and writer.{{cite book|title=Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema|author=Peter Rollberg|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2009|place=US|isbn=978-0-8108-6072-8|pages=319–321}}[https://books.google.com/books?id=kC6tAwAAQBAJ&dq=Aleksey+Kapler+1904&pg=PA449 The Soviet Theater: A Documentary History][https://books.google.com/books?id=v0l9zLpsOmoC&dq=Aleksey+Kapler+1904&pg=PA483 The People's Artist : Prokofiev's Soviet Years: Prokofiev's Soviet Years][http://www.rg.ru/2014/09/29/maksimov.html Российская газета: «Кинопанорама любви»][http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/kultura_i_obrazovanie/teatr_i_kino/KAPLER_ALEKSE_YAKOVLEVICH.html Энциклопедия «Кругосвет»] He was known as screenwriter of many Soviet movies, such as Lenin in 1918, Amphibian Man, The Blue Bird and Striped Trip, as well as one of the anchors and directors of TV program Kinopanorama (a cinema overview).{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} In 1941, Kapler was awarded the Stalin Prize.

Internments in the Gulag

Kapler is also known as the first love of Joseph Stalin's then teenage daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva, who was more than 20 years his junior. According to Stalin's daughter, that was the reason for Kapler to be sentenced in 1943 to five years in exile on charges of anti-Soviet agitation.{{cite news|last1=Sopelnyak|first1=Boris|title=10 лет за ночь с дочерью Сталина|url=http://mirnov.ru/arhiv/mn735/mn/26-1.php|agency=Mir Novostey|issue=735|access-date=16 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103235304/http://mirnov.ru/arhiv/mn735/mn/26-1.php|archive-date=3 January 2015|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}{{cite news|last1=Sopelnyak|first1=Boris|title=10 лет за ночь с дочерью Сталина. Ending|url=http://mirnov.ru/arhiv/mn736/mn/32-1.php|agency=Mir Novostey|issue=736|access-date=16 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103234604/http://mirnov.ru/arhiv/mn736/mn/32-1.php|archive-date=3 January 2015|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}} He was sent to Vorkuta region, where he worked as a photographer and lived in a tiny room partitioned off in the corner of the local photo studio.[http://www.psj.ru/date/detail.php?ID=7382] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190228004030/http://www.psj.ru/date/detail.php?ID=7382|date=28 February 2019}} Boris Sopelniak Ten Years in Jail for a Kiss from Stalin's Daughter

In 1948, he was convicted a second time and spent five more years in Inta labour camps, being finally released only in July 1953, after Stalin's death.[http://www.kino-teatr.ru/kino/screenwriter/sov/23789/bio/ Biography of Aleksei Kapler] on kino-teatr.ru After returning from the Gulag, Kapler continued working on cinema and TV.

Personal life

His first wife (married 1921–1930) was the actress Tatiana Tarnowska (1898–1994), daughter of Countess Maria Tarnowska. With Tatiana he had a son, Anatoly (b. 1927). His second wife (married 1953–1960) was actress Valentina Tokarskaya (1906–1996) whom he met in exile. After his remarriage, he had another affair with Svetlana Alliluyeva.{{Cite journal |last=Rayfield |first=Donald |date=2015 |title=La vie tragique de la fille de Staline |url=https://doi.org/10.3917/books.069.0039 |journal=Books |volume=69 |issue=10 |pages=39–41 |doi= |issn=1967-7375}} Kapler's last wife (married 1960 till his death in 1979) was poet Yulia Drunina (1924–1991).{{Cite web |last=Fair |first=La rédaction de Vanity |date=2014-08-29 |title=Svetlana Allilouïeva, l'étrange destin de la fille de Staline, petite princesse du Kremlin et dissidente soviétique |url=https://www.vanityfair.fr/actualites/articles/staline-mon-petit-pere/15410 |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=Vanity Fair |language=fr-FR}}

Filmography

1926 The Overcoat (actor)
1930 Pravo Na Zhenshchinu (A Licence to Have a Woman) (silent film, Ukrainfilm studio, Kyiv, director), shown at the XXV Moscow International Film Festival, 2003
1931 Shakhta 12–28 (Mine 12-28) (director)
1939 Lenin v 1918 Godu (Lenin in 1918) (screenwriter)
1942 Slavny Maly (A Good Lad) (screenwriter)
1943 Den za Dnyom (Day After Day) (screenwriter)
1957 Za Vitrinoy Univermaga (Behind Show-Window) (screenwriter)
1976 Sinyaya Ptitsa (The Blue Bird) (screenwriter)
1987 Soshedshie s nebes (Descended From the Heavens), Lenfilm studio, is based on Kapler's story, Two of Twenty Millions.
1996 Vozvrashchenie bronenostsa (Return of the Battleship) is based on Kapler's story, Return of the Battleship

Notes and references

External links

{{IMDb name|438412}}
Nicholas Thompson, [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/03/31/my-friend-stalins-daughter "My Friend, Stalin's Daughter: The complicated life of Svetlana Alliluyeva."] The New Yorker, March 24, 2014.

Category:1903 births

Category:1979 deaths

Category:Film people from Kyiv

Category:People from Kiev Governorate

Category:Academic staff of the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography

Category:Academic staff of High Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors

Category:Recipients of the Stalin Prize

Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin

Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour

Category:Gulag detainees

Category:Soviet male screenwriters

Category:Jewish male actors