Boris Yevseyevich Gusman (16 December 1892 – 3 May 1944) was a Soviet author, screenplay writer, theater director, and columnist forPravda. As deputy director for theBolshoi Theatre and later director of theSoviet Radio Committee Arts Division, Gusman played an important role in promotingSergei Prokofiev's music in theUSSR and internationally. Gusman was arrested during theGreat Purges of the late 1930s, and died in a labor camp in 1944. His sonIsrael Borisovich Gusman would later become a prominent musical conductor.

As a young man Gusman was a violinist and played for theSt. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra of theSheremetev family.^[1] Prior to theRussian Revolution and during the First World War, Gusman associated with intellectuals and critics around theEnchanted Wanderer magazine, including Dimitri Kruchkov and Victor Khovin, both members of theEgo-Futurist movement.^[2] In 1917 he moved toNizhny Novgorod to marry the daughter of a merchant, who soon gave birth to their son,Israel Gusman.^[1] Gusman also became active in the localBolshevik branch in Novgorod; he joined theCommunist Party in 1918, and by 1920 was named the editor of its newspaper, theNizhny Novgorod Workers' Leaflet (later theNizhny Novgorod Commune).^[1][3]

It was in 1921 that Gusman and his family moved to Moscow, where he began writing forPravda.^[1] He was recognized as an important film critic, and from 1923 onwards headed Pravda's theatre section.^[3] Gusman rejected arguments among some Soviet filmmakers, associated with theProletkult movement, that contributing to a new Soviet cinema required abandoning the history of film altogether. Gusman wrote that the new cinema "must be built brick by brick, making use of everything that is healthy about the New World, and that which is good about the old."^[4] Gusman responded favorably to candid films pioneered by Dziga Vertov calledKino-Pravda. He described them as "lively… striking… and interesting," but criticized the lack of connection between scenes and the absence of unifying themes.^[4]

In 1929 Gusman, as deputy director, led the StateBolshoi Academic Theater's effort to stageProkofiev'sPas d'Acier with new cast and choreography.^[5] Gusman remained with the Bolshoi Theatre through 1930, and in 1933 became head of the arts division of the Soviet Central Radio Administration.^[3] Gusman played a central role in working with Prokofiev in the musical and cinematic production ofLieutenant Kijé.^[6] Following the success of the film, in 1934 Gusman organized a broadcast concert of the music withMoscow Radio Orchestra.^[5][6]

In 1934, Gusman negotiated a contract between Prokofiev and the All-Union Radio Committee, helping the composer return to Russia. Gusman also offered him a tremendous sum of 25,000 rubles for one of a series of commissioned works: theCantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of October, to commemorate theOctober Revolution of 1917.^[7] Gusman also commissioned Prokofiev to write aCollective Farm Suite, aDance Suite, and a suite from the music forEgyptian Nights.^[7] Though Gusman remained an important supporter of Prokofiev's music,^[6] neither he nor the composer ever witnessed a performance of theCantata: the work was banned, and both men died before its performance in 1966.^[7]

In 1937, Gusman lost his position as director of the Moscow Radio Orchestra,^[8] and was assigned a smaller post at aTchaikovsky museum inKlin.^[1] That same year, Gusman and his wife adopted Svetlana and Yuri Larin, the infant children ofAnna Larina andNikolai Bukharin, who had been arrested. Bukharin was shot in 1938.^[9]

Arrested in one ofa series of purges targeting Soviet artists and cultural leaders in 1937–38, Gusman was accused of having written ideologically unsound scripts in the past.^[10] While initial purges targeted those linked (or accused of links) toTrotskyism, Gusman's arrest came alongside later, wider purges.^[10] Gusman's wife was arrested as well.^[9] Gusman himself died on May 3, 1944, inVozhael (UstvymlagGulag camp).^[1][11]

Gusman's son Israel survived the purges, and would go on to head the Gorky Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra from 1957 until 1987.^[1]

• 1928:The Living Corpse, adapted from a story byLeo Tolstoy.
• 1929:Merry Canary, a story about intelligence and espionage.
• 1935:On the Strangeness of Love, a Vaudeville comedy set in Crimea.

• 1923:Literary portraits: one hundred poets (Tver)

• Cinema of the Soviet Union
• Kino-Pravda
• Music of the Soviet Union
• Socialist realism

• Modernist writers
• Soviet theatre directors
• 1892 births
• 1944 deaths
• Film theorists
• Radio in the Soviet Union
• Soviet Jews
• Jewish socialists
• Soviet classical violinists
• Male classical violinists
• Soviet screenwriters
• Soviet male screenwriters
• Russian male screenwriters
• Soviet male musicians