Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin (Russian: Всеволод Илларионович Пудовкин, IPA: [ˈfsʲevələt ɪl(ː)ərʲɪˈonəvʲɪtɕ pʊˈdofkʲɪn]; 28 February 1893 – 30 June 1953)[1][2] was a Soviet film director, screenwriter and actor who developed influential theories of montage.

His father Illarion Yepifanovich Pudovkin came from peasants of the Penza Governorate, the village of Shuksha and worked in several companies as a manager and a door-to-door salesman.

[4][5] A student of engineering at Moscow University, Pudovkin saw active duty during World War I, being captured by the Germans.

Both movies featured Pudovkin's wife Anna Zemtsova in supporting female parts (she left cinema shortly after).

After an interruption caused by health concerns, Pudovkin returned to movie making, this time with a number of historical epics: Victory (1938); Minin and Pozharsky (1939) and Suvorov (1941).

Apart from directing, screenwriting and acting, Pudovkin was also an educator and a journalist, author of several books on film theory, professor at VGIK, president of the cinema section at VOKS (since 1944) and a member of the Soviet Peace Committee.