Tractor Drivers

1939 film

Marina Ladynina
Nikolay Kryuchkov
Boris Andreyev

CinematographyAleksandr GalperinEdited byAnna KulganekMusic by

Daniil Pokras
Dmitri Pokras

Production
company

Mosfilm

Release date

3 July 1939 (1939-07-03)

Running time

88 min.CountrySoviet UnionLanguageRussian

Tractor Drivers (Russian: Трактористы, romanized: Traktoristy) is a 1939 Soviet romantic comedy drama film directed by Ivan Pyryev.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Plot

In the 1930s, the demobilized tank driver Klim Yarko returns to his kolkhoz on the Ukrainian steppe, where Mariana Bazhan works as the master of speed plowing. This results in her having a lot of admirers, which she does not appreciate. To dissuade her suitors, Mariana asks Nazar Duma to pretend to be her fiancé.^[4]

Starring

Marina Ladynina as Maryana Bazhan
Nikolay Kryuchkov as Klim Yarko
Boris Andreyev^[5] as Nazar Duma
Stepan Kayukov as Kirill Petrovich, head of the collective farm
Pyotr Aleynikov as Savka
Vladimir Kolchin as Kharitosha
Olga Borovikova as Franya
R. Dneprova-Chajka as Markovna
Pyotr Valerianov as Granddad
Alexei Dolinin as Firefighter
Pyotr Savin as tankman, Klim's friend
Artavazd Kefchiyan as tankman, Klim's friend^[6]

Cultural influence

The March of the Soviet Tankmen from this film was widely used in pre-war Soviet propaganda, while other tunes became popular songs, and are still performed.

Tractor Drivers 2 was a parody film made in 1991, whose plot is loosely based on that of Tractor Drivers.