Aleksandr Khanzhonkov

Aleksandr Khanzhonkov

Aleksandr Aleksejevich Khanzhonkov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Алексе́евич Ханжо́нков; 8 August 1877 in modern day Donetsk Oblast - 26 September 1945 in Yalta) was Russia's first cinema entrepreneur. He produced Defence of Sevastopol, Russia's first feature film, and Ladislas Starevich's ground-breaking puppet animations.

Khanzhonkov was born in the small village Khanzhonkova on the banks of the Seversky Donets River in rural Russia in 1877, (today in Donetsk Oblast in Ukraine). He founded in 1911 Russia's first cinema factory, a limited company, whose main financial backer was Ivan Ozerov, an influential banker and member of the Russian State Council.

During the Russian Revolution, Khanzhonkov left Russia for a while, went to Constantinople and Vienna, but returned in 1923 and was appointed director of the new soviet studio Proletkino. His career in Soviet Union ruined down in 1926: he was forced to abdicate after a corruption scandal struck Proletkino, and never worked in cinema anymore. Khanzhonkov retired and the rest of his life he spent in Yalta, living on personal pension from the state. There he survived Nazi occupation of Crimea in 1941-1944, and died soon after World War II ended, September 26th, 1945 in Yalta.