2026 № 1 (56)

UDC 791.43.03 

LBC 85.376 

DOI: 10.51678/2226-0072-2026-1-456-487 

For cit.: Dymshits S.V. The Phenomenon of a Scientific Biographical Film. On the Material of the Unproduced Screenplay Mechnikov by I.V. Bakhterev. Hudozhestvennaya kul’tura [Art & Culture Studies], 2026, no. 1, pp. 456–487. https://doi.org/10.51678/2226-0072-2026-1-456-487. (In Russian)

Dymshits Semen V. 

Film Studies Specialist, Master of Philology, PhD Student, School of Arts and Cultural Heritage at the European University in St. Petersburg, 6/1 Gagarinskaya Str., St. Petersburg, 191187, Russia 

https://orcid.org/0009-0005-9680-1180 

ResearcherID: OHT-4292-2025 

sedym1998@gmail.com 

The Phenomenon of a Scientific Biographical Film. On the Material of the Unproduced Screenplay Mechnikov by I.V. Bakhterev

Abstract. In the postwar decade, the historical-biographical genre played one of the key roles in Soviet film production. However, research on the topic have not yet stated the fact that in the early postwar years, creating biographies of Russian scientists and artists was considered not only with- in feature films, but also within scientific cinema. The article examines the Soviet scientific biographical film project that represented an alternative path for the development of the biographical genre. The analysis of this phenomenon is based on the material of I.V. Bakhterev’s unproduced screenplay for a biographical film about the biologist I.I. Mechnikov which is introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.

Keywords: popular science cinema, biopic, Soviet cinema, late Stalinism, I.I. Mechnikov, I.V. Bakhterev

Sources:

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Received 24.09.2025

Revised 03.12.2025 

Accepted 24.12.2025