Victor Tourjansky (
Russian: Виктор Туржанский;
Ukrainian: Віктор Туржанський; 4 March 1891 – 13 August 1976), born Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Turzhansky (
Russian: Вячеслав Константинович Туржанский;
Ukrainian: В'ячеслав Костянтинович Туржанський), was a Russian actor, screenwriter and film director who emigrated after the
Russian Revolution of 1917. He worked in France, Germany, Italy, and the United States.
Born into a family of artists in
Kiev, Tourjansky moved to Moscow in 1911, where he spent a year studying under
Konstantin Stanislavski. He became involved with silent film and, two years later, made his first productions as a screenwriter and director on the eve of
World War I. When the
October Revolution broke out, he left and stayed in
Yalta, which had not yet been taken by the
Bolsheviks.
When the laws for the nationalisation of the cinema industry were applied to Crimea, he left with the
Ermoliev film company and its actors for France, via Constantinople, in February 1920. He was accompanied by his wife, the actress
Nathalie Kovanko. On arriving in Paris, he changed his birth name Viatcheslav, to Victor, which was more easily pronounceable for the French. He was the assistant to
Abel Gance for the filming of his
Napoléon (1927). He later worked for
Universum Film AG in Germany, where he arrived during the 1930s and directed twelve films, of which several were officially honored by the Nazis (City of Anatol, Secret Code LB 17, Faded Melody, Enemies, and Orient Express).