Mershin, Pavel

Mershin, Pavel Mikhailovich


Born June 2 (14), 1897, in the village of Duvanovo, in what is now Kirov Oblast; died Feb. 15, 1942, in the village of Kresttsy, in what is now Novgorod Oblast. Soviet inventor in color cinematography.

Mershin was an aerial photographer during World War I (1914–18). He graduated from aviation school in Moscow in 1920 and was an observation pilot until 1924. From 1927 to 1941 he worked at the Mosfillm studios.

Mershin developed an original method of printing color film on chromatized gelatin. The method was used in 1936–37 for several animated films (The Fox and the Wolf and The Tale of the Fisherman and the Gold Fish). In 1938 he was awarded an inventor’s certificate for a hydrotype method of color film production that is still in use today. Mershin was killed in battle at the front.


Luchanskii, M. Liudi sovetskogo tsvetnogo kino. Moscow, 1939.
Klein, A. Tsvetnaia kinematografiia. Moscow, 1939. (Translated from English.)