Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One,
1890-1945". Pages 257-260 (as "Mark Donskoi"). New York: The H.W.
Wilson Company, 1987.
Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972
Served with the Soviet Red Army during the post-revolution civil war in Russia. Subsequently studied law and medicine and became a police prosecutor in the Ukraine.
In 1926, enrolled at the State Film Institute as a pupil under Eisenstein. Directed films from 1927, most celebrated of which were his 'Maxim Gorky' trilogy.