Mikhail Ilych Romm (Russian: Михаил Ильич Ромм; 24 January [O.S. 11 January] 1901 – 1 November 1971) was a Soviet film director. He was born in Irkutsk. His father was a social democrat of Jewish descent who had been exiled there. He graduated from gymnasium in 1917 and entered the Moscow College for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. From 1918 - 1921, he served in the Red Army during the Russian civil war, first as a signalman and later rising to the rank of inspector of a Special Commission concerning the numbers of the Red Army and Fleet of the Field Staff of the Supreme Military Soviet of the Republic. As such he travelled a lot and had the opportunity to see much of the life in different parts of the country, something that he later said he "recalled with gratitude".
