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Perhaps the sociological list Pavlenko* and I drew a priori did contain such a character. / don't remember. But if it did, this character must have been so abstract that it left no trace in my memory. That would have been impossible had we dealt with a character that lived.
So we may well assume that no such character ever existed, either in reality or in imagination, which comes to one and the same thing — if he only figured in the rough scenario as a "possibility."
Be that as it may, here is how Ignat was born.
Athena is said to have sprung from the head of Jupiter. The same applies to Ignat the armourer.
With the difference that he sprang from the head of . . . Alexander.
Or rather not so much from his head as from his strategic ideas.
I was all for presenting Alexander as a genius. When we speak of genius we always think (and quite correctly!) about something like the apple of Newton or the bobbing lid of Ftaraday's kettle.
This is quite correct, because the ability to discover in a particular phenomenon a general law and bend this law to the service of man in different spheres of life is certainly a trait to be found in the intricate mental apparatus we call genius.
In everyday life, in practical experience, we define genius simply as an ability to apply deductions drawn from minor chance instances to unexpected major phenomena.
The law of gravity explains why one material particle, say a falling apple, tends to move towards another, say the earth.
If the hero in the film is shown dealing with something like this, the spectators automatically associate it with the notion "genius."
And Prince Alexander appears with the halo of genius surrounding his head.
The film offered him only one opportunity of displaying his genius — through the strategic plan of the Battle on the Ice. This plan was famous for the "pincer movement" which proved fatal for the Teutonic Knights' iron wedge, the "pincer movement" ensuring the complete encirclement of the enemy — something generals of all times have always dreamed of. Besides Alexander, the smashing with "pincers" brought glory to Hannibal, who was the first ever to employ it — in the Battle
* Pavlenko, P. A. (1899-1951), a Soviet writer; the script of Alexander Nevsky was written jointly by him and Eisenstein. — Ed.
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