Nikolay Pavlovich Khmelyov (July 28 [August 10], 1901, Sormovo settlement — November 1, 1945, Moscow) was a Soviet stage and film actor, theater director, and teacher. People's Artist of the USSR (1937) and winner of three Stalin (State) Prizes, First Class (1941, 1942, and 1946, the last posthumously). A native of Sormovo, one of the industrial suburbs of Nizhny Novgorod that was later incorporated into the city, he was one of the most significant representatives of the "second generation" of Moscow Art Theatre actors.[2]

Childhood and Youth in Sormovo

Khmelyov was born and spent his early years in the settlement of Sormovo. There he attended N. N. Subbotina's private secondary school (realschule), and after it closed, the 2nd Gymnasium of Nizhny Novgorod in Kanavino. In 1916 his family moved to Moscow, where the future actor continued his education at Moscow's 6th Gymnasium.[2]

Career in the Theater

From 1919 Khmelyov combined studies in the Faculty of History and Philology at Moscow University with training at the 2nd Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre. In 1924 the studio joined the Moscow Art Theatre company in full, and Khmelyov became one of its leading actors, a pupil of K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.[4] In the characters he created, a realistically detailed portrayal was combined with a generalized romantic resonance, precise social assessment, and psychological depth; Khmelyov's acting style was marked by restraint, austerity, and a pursuit of completeness of stage form.[3]

Among his most significant roles were Aleksey Turbin (M. A. Bulgakov's The Days of the Turbins, 1926), the Communist Peklevanov (Vs. Ivanov's Armored Train 14-69, 1927), Tsar Fyodor (A. K. Tolstoy's Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, 1935), Karenin (Anna Karenina, after L. N. Tolstoy, 1937), and Tuzenbach (A. P. Chekhov's Three Sisters, 1940). His last major work, in which, according to his contemporaries, the actor reached tragic heights, was the role of Ivan the Terrible in A. N. Tolstoy's play The Difficult Years (1945).[4]

In 1932 Khmelyov founded a theater studio, which in 1937 merged into the Yermolova Moscow Drama Theater; he remained that theater's artistic director from 1937 to 1945. From 1943 to 1945 he also headed the Moscow Art Theatre.[2] As a director he staged, among other productions, A. N. Ostrovsky's There Wasn't a Penny, But Suddenly an Altyn (1934, jointly with E. S. Telesheva), A. E. Korneychuk's The Front (1942), and K. M. Simonov's Russian People (1943).[2]

Film and the War Years

In the 1920s and 1930s Khmelyov appeared in films: he played leading roles in the pictures "The House of the Dead" (after Dostoevsky), "Generation of Victors" (1936, the Menshevik Evgeny Svetlov), and "The Man in a Case" (1939, the Greek teacher Belikov).[2] With the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War he joined the people's militia (2nd People's Militia Division of the Stalinsky District), and was later evacuated with the troupe to Saratov.[2] He was a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) from 1941.[2] He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and medals.[4]

Legacy

Khmelyov died on November 1, 1945, in Moscow at the age of 44. A Third-Class State Prize was awarded to him posthumously in 1946.[3] The library system of the Sormovo District includes him on its list of distinguished representatives of the creative intelligentsia who came from Sormovo.[1]

Sources

  1. sormlib.nnov.ru — Creative Intelligentsia — Centralized Library System of the Sormovo District of the City of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
  2. stuki-druki.com — Nikolay Khmelev (archive)
  3. liveinternet.ru — August 10 is the day Nikolay Pavlovich Khmelyov was born (July 28 [August 10] 1901, Sormovo — November 1, 1945, Moscow), a Soviet Russian actor, etc. Discussion on LiveInternet
  4. dic.academic.ru — Khmelev, Nikolay Pavlovich — what is it... Who is Khmelev, Nikolay Pavlovich? (archive)