Anecdotes

His comedy movie Seven Brides of Gefreiter Zbruev ([ink=0066351]) based on the screenplay by Vladimir Valutsky became the only comedy released in 1971 as well as one of the leaders of the Soviet box office (11th place), seen by 31.2 million people.

During the Great Purge his father was also arrested, declared the enemy of the people and executed. His mother was told that her husband had been sentenced to 10 years in prison and suggested to leave the Far East, so she moved to her relatives in Omsk, and then - to a village near Khanty-Mansiysk in Western Siberia where Vitaly finished secondary school.

He was named People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1987 and awarded Order of Honour in 2002 and IV Class Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" in 2010.

He was a member of the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences and was awarded the special Nika Award in 2016 "For outstanding contribution to national cinema".

In 1990 Melnikov turned to the Russian history, directing the so-called Empire. The Beginning (or Empire. The XVIII Century) trilogy: The Royal Hunt dedicated to the times of Catherine the Great, Tsarevich Alexei about Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia and Poor Poor Paul about Paul I of Russia, both based on Dmitry Merezhkovsky's writings. The films received various national awards and nominations, including a number of Nika Awards.

Melnikov and his wife, Tamara Aleksandrovna Melnikova, lived together for over 60 years.

He directed an adaptation of another Vampilov's play The Elder Son (1976) which turned into one of his most popular movies since.

His social drama Mother Got Married (1969) based on Yuri Klepikov's screenplay had been postponed for a long time and was finally released during the 1970s as a TV movie, while the psychological drama September Vacation (1979) adapted from Alexander Vampilov's play Duck Hunting was banned for 8 years and released only in 1987.

His maternal grandfather Danilo Fomich Trapeznikov, a peasant from the Tobolsk Governorate, served at the Far East during the Russo-Japanese War and enjoyed the area so much that he chose to stay there; during the Russian Civil War he was mobilized by the White Army, and during the 1930s he was arrested and executed "for collaboration with Alexander Kolchak".

In 1947 he moved to Moscow and entered director's courses at VGIK led by Sergei Yutkevich. He graduated in 1952 and started making documentary movies at Lennauchfilm (15 movies total).

Vitaly Melnikov was born at the maternity hospital of the Svobodny town (modern-day Svobodny, Amur Oblast of Russia), although his birth place was written down as Mazanovo village where his parents lived at the moment.