Kranz Semyon Ivanovich (1897-1937)

Kranz (Ventsov) Semyon Ivanovich (1897, Rezhitsa — 1937, Moscow) — military commander, kombrig (brigade commander), and participant in the First World War.

Semyon Kranz graduated from the Ensigns’ School. In 1918, he joined the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, serving as commissar and brigade commander, later chief of staff of the Minsk Defense District. In 1923, he graduated from the Military Academy of the Red Army. Author of works on army reform and structure, including “The Military System of Modern France” and “The National Economy and the Defense of the USSR.”

In the 1930s, he served as chief of staff of the Baltic Military District and the Minsk Military District, as military attaché in France, and as commander of the 62nd Rifle Division. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In 1937, he was repressed.

Granddaughter — Irina Rafailovna Margolina (b. 1953, Roslavl), screenwriter and film director.

Margolina Irina Rafailovna (1953, Roslavl) — screenwriter and film director.

In 1975, she graduated from the Moscow Polygraphic Institute. Author of over 100 scripts for animated and advertising films, including “The Unwritten Letter” (1987, diploma at the Hiroshima International Film Festival), “KOMSH” (1984–1990), and “A Billiard Story” (1992, diplomas at the Oberhausen and Istanbul International Film Festivals).

In the early 1990s, she started working as a documentary filmmaker together with her husband Mikhail Pavlovich Lyakhovetsky, on films such as “A Group of Comrades” (1990) and “Save Russia…” (1991), an essay on the fate of Jews in Russia.

Granddaughter of Semyon Ivanovich Kranz.