| Chief of Chukotka | |
| Native Name: | Russian: Начальник Чукотки |
| Director: | Vitaly Melnikov |
| Producer: | M. Trukhina |
| Music: | Nadezhda Simonyan |
| Cinematography: | Eduard Rozovsky |
| Editing: | Zinaida Sheineman |
| Studio: | Lenfilm |
| Runtime: | 86 min. |
| Country: | Soviet Union |
| Language: | Russian |
Chief of Chukotka (Russian: Начальник Чукотки|Nachalnik Chukotki) is a 1966 Soviet adventure comedy-drama film directed by Vitaly Melnikov.[1] [2] [3]
1922. Commissar Alexey Mikhailovich Glazkov, who received a mandate from the Soviet government to manage the affairs of Chukotka, and the very young clerk Alyosha Bychkov accompanying him in a dog sled driven by a musher, travel from Ascension Bay to the village Uigunan in Chukotka. On the way, Glazkov dies of typhus, and Alyosha and the musher bury him, covered with snow. However, despite Glazkov's death, the musher refuses to turn the dogs back and delivers Alyosha to Uigunan, where he is met by the former tsarist customs officer Khramov. Having sent Alyosha to rest after his arrival, the cunning Khramov, having secretly examined the things brought by Alyosha, finds Glazkov's mandate among them and believes that Alyosha is Glazkov.[4] Alyosha cannot find sled dogs for the return trip and, in the current situation, he issues order No. 1: Due to the absence of dogs and until further notice from Comrade Zyukin, consider me A. Glazkov (according to the mandate).
Alyosha distributes food supplies to the starving Chukchi people from the warehouse of the American businessman Stenson. Khramov tries to prevent this, and Alyosha arrests him. Alyosha appoints the Chukcha Vukvutagin (whom he nicknames Vovka), previously resettled outside the village by Khramov for attempting to break into Stenson’s warehouses, as his commandant.
In the spring, commercial ships from different countries begin to arrive in Chukotka to exchange various goods for furs. The owners of these ships, taking advantage of the ignorance of the Chukchi, buy furs for next to nothing, and then resell them for a real price on foreign markets, paying Khramov a small "duty" in gratitude. Alyosha hires Khramov as a consultant and learns the basics of the economic side of trade. He sets a duty of 40% of the market value and makes sure that foreigners do not deceive the Chukchi. As a result, Alyosha collects a million dollars and decides to use this money to build "full socialism" in Chukotka with baths, electricity, and even a planetarium.
Meanwhile, the foreign entrepreneurs are persuading the counter-revolutionary government of "Free Chukotka" to get rid of Alyosha. The Cossacks, led by the "Minister of War" Colonel Petukhov, attack Uigunan. The Chukchi refuse to shoot at people, and Alyosha has to flee with the million dollars in a boat. Lost in the dark, he ends up going with Khramov through the Bering Strait into Alaska. On the coast of Alaska, Khramov fights with Alyosha over the money, but at that moment they are arrested by American border guards. Alyosha and Khramov ask for political asylum and soon end up in San Francisco, where Alyosha manages to escape from Khramov with money.
Alyosha travels around the world in holds of various ships through San Francisco - Rangoon - Cape Town - Hamburg to Petrograd. In Petrograd, local street children steal all his money, but the Cheka catches them. The money is eventually returned to Alyosha upon his confession. Alyosha returns to Chukotka, and the Soviet government sends the money to eliminate the famine in the Volga region.