In 1968, Shukshin published the script of I Have Come to Set You Free in the Art of Cinema magazine.
In his brief lifetime Vasily Shukshin managed to do a great deal, yet plans of creating, as he himself believed, his magnum opus, the film Stepan Rázin, remained on paper. He wrote the script for the film I Have Come to Set You Free in 1966, and a year later the text was recognised as the best at the Second All-Union Script Competition. This award gave Shukshin’s work the right of filming, which the director first announced in the summer of 1967. He planned to shoot at the Gorky Film Studio. On August 1, 1967, a discussion of the script took place there, and the management gave it positive review. According to the memories, they thought that they were witnessing the birth of a new masterpiece of cinematic art.
As a result, on September 2nd, the script was sent for approval to the Main Directorate of Art Cinematography. Furthermore, the head of the Gorky film studio Grigory Britikov wrote a letter to the State Cinema Committee and asked to include the film Stepan Razin in the production plan for the period from 1968 to 1969.
However, three days later, a refusal was issued — the officials did not want to launch the film into production. Their main arguments were the controversy of Razin’s image created by Shukshin, as well as excessive number of violent scenes. In addition, Goskino management stated that production plan for the given period had already been established.
1968 saw another attempt of raising the issue production launch. It was the initiative of Valeria Pogozheva, an editor at Gorky Film Studio, but she did not receive a response to her request. In May 1968, Shukshin wrote to his brother Ivan that the fight for Razin was not over yet, although the project was frozen for the following reasons: “My affairs still leave much to be desired — they have frozen Razin. They stopped it. 1) The historical theme — a contemporary one would be better now. 2) Expensive: 45 million of old roubles. 3) Razin is too cruel. They are telling me to wait for two years. In the meantime, I will make a modern picture, to hell with them, but the fight for Razin continues”.
In his brief lifetime Vasily Shukshin managed to do a great deal, yet plans of creating, as he himself believed, his magnum opus, the film Stepan Rázin, remained on paper. He wrote the script for the film I Have Come to Set You Free in 1966, and a year later the text was recognised as the best at the Second All-Union Script Competition. This award gave Shukshin’s work the right of filming, which the director first announced in the summer of 1967. He planned to shoot at the Gorky Film Studio. On August 1, 1967, a discussion of the script took place there, and the management gave it positive review. According to the memories, they thought that they were witnessing the birth of a new masterpiece of cinematic art.
As a result, on September 2nd, the script was sent for approval to the Main Directorate of Art Cinematography. Furthermore, the head of the Gorky film studio Grigory Britikov wrote a letter to the State Cinema Committee and asked to include the film Stepan Razin in the production plan for the period from 1968 to 1969.
However, three days later, a refusal was issued — the officials did not want to launch the film into production. Their main arguments were the controversy of Razin’s image created by Shukshin, as well as excessive number of violent scenes. In addition, Goskino management stated that production plan for the given period had already been established.
1968 saw another attempt of raising the issue production launch. It was the initiative of Valeria Pogozheva, an editor at Gorky Film Studio, but she did not receive a response to her request. In May 1968, Shukshin wrote to his brother Ivan that the fight for Razin was not over yet, although the project was frozen for the following reasons: “My affairs still leave much to be desired — they have frozen Razin. They stopped it. 1) The historical theme — a contemporary one would be better now. 2) Expensive: 45 million of old roubles. 3) Razin is too cruel. They are telling me to wait for two years. In the meantime, I will make a modern picture, to hell with them, but the fight for Razin continues”.
