Tarich, Iurii

Born Jan. 12 (24), 1885, in Polotsk; died Feb. 21, 1967, in Moscow. Soviet film director and screenwriter. Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1935).

Tarich helped found the Byelorussian cinema. He studied at the faculty of law at Moscow University from 1903 to 1905. He acted in the theater and in films. Beginning in 1923 he worked as a screenwriter and later as a director. His most important films were Wings of a Serf (1926), The Forest Story (1927), and The Eleventh of July (1938).

During the Great Patriotic War, Tarich helped compile the Battle Film Collections. From 1943 to 1945 he headed the Mongolkino film studio, where he directed Heroes of the Steppe. Tarich later worked at the Belorus’fil’m film studio and, beginning in 1954, at the Moscow Studio of Popular Science Films. He was awarded two orders and several medals.