Roman Grigoryev was a Soviet documentary filmmaker, writer, and editor who began his career at Ukrainian film studios in the 1930s, where he became an admirer of Dziga Vertov and a devoted documentary filmmaker. Later called to Moscow as a newsreel editor, he worked on footage from Roman Karmen’s coverage of the Spanish Civil War and later Karmen’s Yenan footage from China. Seeking more active field assignments, Grigoryev documented key moments of World War II, including the Soviet Army’s link-up with Bulgarian partisans and the Nazi expulsion from Bulgaria, culminating in his 1944 film Entrance of the Red Army into Bulgaria.
