Levitskii, Aleksandr Andreevich

Born Nov. 23, 1885, in Moscow; died there July 4, 1965. Soviet cameraman, founder of a national school of cinematography; Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1946).

Levitskii began working in motion pictures in 1910. In the prerevolutionary years he shot nearly 100 features (mostly screen adaptations of the classics of Russian literature), documentaries, newsreels, and popular-science films. Filming a news-reel on the Civil War of 1918–20, he shot rare footage of V. I. Lenin. Levitskii worked on the first Soviet feature films, including Revolt (1918), Mother (1920), and The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924).

During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), Levitskii worked at the Voentekhfil’m Studio. He received the State Prize of the USSR in 1949 for his documentary footage of V. I. Lenin, which was incorporated into the film Vladimir Il’ich Lenin (1949). He began teaching at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in 1924 (professor, 1939). He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and various medals.