STANISLAV IOSIFOVIČ ROSTOCKIJ

Stanislav Rostotsky was born in Rybinsk on April 21, 1922 into a Russian-Polish family. His grandfather Boleslaw Rostotsky served as a General in the Imperial Russian Army and a prosecutor on Emperor's personal order. His father Iosif Boleslawovich Rostotsky (1890—1965) was an acclaimed doctor, docent, author of 200 monographs, as well as a secretary of the Scientific Medical Council at the People's Commissariat for Health. His mother Lidia Karlovna Rostotskaya (1882—1964) was a milliner turned a housewife. He had a brother Boleslaw Norbert Iosifovich Rostotsky (born 1912), a famous theater historian during the Soviet days.
At the age of five Stanilsav watched Battleship Potemkin and became obsessed with cinema. In 1936 he met Sergei Eisenstein and took part in his unfinished Bezhin Meadow movie as an actor. Eisenstein became his teacher and good friend later on. He convinced Stanislav that only a well-read and educated person may become a film director. This influenced his decision to enter the Institute of Philosophy and Literature in 1940, with an intention to enter VGIK.
In 1942 he was enrolled in the Red Army. He left for the front line in a year. As a private he served in the 6th cavalry corps and traveled from Vyazma through Smolensk to Rivne, taking part in battles.