Fiery Prince Among Pyromaniacs

The Soviet Army released Vladimir Sukhoretsky in 1950, a grown man with eight years of experience as a bomb engineer.


There was one problem.


"I didn't know how to do anything except make things explode," said Sukhoretsky, 79. "It wasn't an easy time to find work."


A friend brought him into Mosfilm Studio's explosives workshop, and Vladimir Sukhoretsky became a poster child for defense conversion. He would stay for 40 years -- a visionary designer of fireworks for a city that likes pyrotechnics. It was, he said with an elfin smile, the right place for him.


"I had a knack for it," he recalled. "It was exactly what I liked to do -- and it didn't hurt anybody."


He presided over the workshop as chief designer through Mosfilm's heyday, when orders for Soviet salyuti came in like clockwork and the costly chemicals required for color were available for "ridiculously low" prices. Now, with Mosfilm's 5,000-member pyrotechnic staff cut back to 1,000 and orders dwindling, he remembers those days as idyllic.


"I had the creative ability, and no one could stop me from making it real," Sukhoretsky said. "There are still so many ideas that have never been used."


As a judge for Prometheus, Moscow's Second International Fireworks Festival, Sukhoretsky hopes to play a role in keeping Russia's tradition of fireworks from sputtering out entirely. The festival will pit eight teams -- seven from the former Soviet Union, and one from England -- against each other on eight consecutive nights beginning Aug. 7.


Vladimir Mishin, who organized the festival and chose Sukhoretsky as a judge, called him "one of our most innovative technicians," and said that during his time at Mosfilm, he made an invaluable contribution to the Soviet art of pyrotechnics.


The festival was bankrolled by corporate sponsors, who will receive "pyro-advertisements" for their support. Using fireworks as a lure in business deals is a definite break with Soviet tradition, but as long as it goes into more fireworks, Sukhoretsky says, it does not matter where the money comes from. Since the teams are working under severe financial constraints, viewers are not likely to see costly blue-toned colors in the show, he said.


The Russian pyrotechnic tradition stretches back far beyond the October Revolution. Throughout his career, in fact, Sukhoretsky referred to a textbook published in 1894, featuring designs used to celebrate the tsar's birthday and Orthodox holidays such as Christmas and Easter.


The scientific principles that rule fireworks design are very simple, he said. Although the Japanese made enormous strides in fireworks technology by inventing explosives that changed color in midair, seconds after bursting, much of the craft has not changed since the late 19th century, when chemicals were first discovered to add color to the flares.


"You don't need too much technology to do what I did. For us, technology was always a means to an end," he said. He looked out the window to point out where fireworks would burst, if it were night, and there was something to celebrate.


"There were the lovely little fountains, some people were fond of those," he said. "But I always liked the big ones."





The Second International Festival of Fireworks will run from Aug. 7 through Aug. 14 in Gorky Park. It kicks off on Aug. 7 with a parade at 5 P.M., and the eight teams will present their displays at nightfall every night. The festival will also feature exhibits, sales, a charity auction and a cultural program.