Heorhii Stabovyi and Aksel’ Lundin’s P.K.P. (Pilsudskii kupil Petliuru) occupies an unusual place in the output of the Soviet Ukrainian film monopoly VUFKU. Though neither characterised by artistic innovation nor made by well-known directors, the film nonetheless reveals much about the precarious position of Ukraine and its film industry in the Soviet Union of the 1920s. An early example of a VUFKU war film containing large-scale battle scenes, P.K.P. depicts the conflict of 1920-21 over Ukraine between the Red Army and Ukrainian pro-independence forces together with their Polish allies. Made shortly after the assassination of Symon Petliura in May 1926, the work is notable for featuring former UNR leader Iurii Tiutiunnyk as himself, a decision that allowed Ukrainian audiences to look into the face of a real-life former enemy of the Soviet state.
This paper will examine the production history and reception of P.K.P. The film’s commissioning by party authorities betrays the Soviet state’s insecurities regarding the influence in the Ukrainian SSR of both Poland and Ukrainian nationalist groups. Yet it also reveals the pressure exercised by Bolshevik authorities on VUFKU at a time when the Ukrainian monopoly was vying for autonomy from Moscow. Assessing the film’s treatment in both the Ukrainian and Russian press, this case study will offer conclusions about the position of VUFKU within the Soviet film industry and Ukraine’s place in the early USSR more broadly.
