Naumov, Vladimir

Born Dec. 6, 1927, in Leningrad. Soviet film director; People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1974).

In 1951, Naumov graduated from the department of directing of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography, where he studied in the studio of I. A. Savchenko. Naumov collaborated on all his films with the director A. A. Alov. In 1951 they finished I. A. Savchenko’s film Taras Shevchenko. Their first independent films were Uneasy Youth (1955, based on V. P. Beliaev’s The Old Fortress), Pavel Korchagin (1957, based on N. A. Ostrovskii’s novel How the Steel Was Tempered), and Wind (1959); these films were devoted to the early years of the Komsomol, which was reaching maturity during the Civil War of 1918–20. The film Peace to Him Who Enters deals with the last days of the Great Patriotic War (1961; prize at the 22nd International Film Festival in Venice). Another important work was Flight (1971, based on M. A. Bulgakov’s play). Naumov and Alov have written scenarios for their own films, as well as for the multipart television film How the Steel Was Tempered (1974, director N. P. Mashchenko).