Ivan Bolshakov

Ivan Grigoryevich Bolshakov (Ива́н Григо́рьевич Большако́в; October 10, 1902 – March 19, 1980) was a Soviet statesman, organizer of film production, Chairman of the Committee for Cinematography Under the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union, Minister of Cinematography of the Soviet Union (1939–1953).

Biography
Born into a bourgeois family. From 1916 to 1922, he worked as a machine operator, and then as a timekeeper at the Tula Arms Factory. In 1918, he joined the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

In 1928, he graduated from the Moscow Institute of People's Economy Named After Georgy Plekhanov, and in 1931 – the Economic Department of the Institute of Red Professors.

From 1924 to 1927, he worked as an instructor at the regional committee of metal workers' trade unions, Moscow. From 1927 to 1928, he was the Executive Secretary of the Central Bureau of the Proletarian Students of the All–Union Central Council of Trade Unions.

From 1931 to 1937, he worked as a consultant in the Office of Affairs of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union, from 1937 to 1938 – Deputy Administrator of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union, from December 1938 to June 1939 – as Administrator of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union. Deputy of the Supreme Council of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of the 1st Convocation.

Since June 1939 – Chairman of the Committee for Cinematography Under the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union, since March 1946 – Minister of Cinematography of the Soviet Union.

From 1953 to 1954, he worked as First Deputy Minister of Culture of the Soviet Union.

From 1954 to 1959 – Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of the Soviet Union.

From 1960 to 1963 – Deputy Chairman of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries.

Buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Awards

 * Two Orders of Lenin (April 14, 1944; March 6, 1966)
 * Order of the Red Banner of Labour
 * Two Orders of the Badge of Honour

Image in the cinema

 * The Inner Circle (1991) – Alexander Feklistov