Solomon Michailowitsch Michoels
Solomon Mikhoels ( Russian Соломон Михайлович Михоэлс , Yiddish Shloime Michoels שלומה מיכאָעלס, born (Russian) Schiloma Vovsi, born 4 jul. / 16th March 1890 greg. In Dvinsk, now Daugavpils , Latvia , † January 12th / 13th January 1948 in Minsk , Belarusian SSR ) was a Russian-Jewish actor and director . He was the most famous representative of Yiddish theater in the 20th century.
Life
Michoels studied law at the University of Saint Petersburg , but dropped out in 1918 to join Alexander Granowski's Jewish theater workshop. He tried to set up a national Jewish theater in Yiddish in Soviet Russia . Two years later, in 1920, the workshop moved to Moscow , where it established itself as the Moscow State Jewish Theater (Goset) . Lenin's nationality policy encouraged the theater to develop its own Yiddish culture under the aegis of the Soviet state.
Michoels turned out to be an excellent talent, was soon the leading actor in his theater. In 1925 he also played the leading role in Granowski's first film, Jewish happiness .
In 1929 he became the new director of the Moscow Theater after Granovsky did not return to Russia from a foreign tour. He appeared in various notable roles, including as Tewje in an adaptation of Scholem Alejchems tragicomic short stories about "Tewje the milk dealer" (which were later set to music for the American audience as the musical The Fiddler on the Roof , which was also set to music as Anatevka in German-speaking countries was successful) as well as in many other original Yiddish or translated works.
It is noteworthy that two of Michoels' showpieces William Shakespeare's King Lear , arguably his most famous role, and Richard III. were, both ultimately studies of tyranny. The performances of these classics seemed ostensibly to support the Soviet state, but on closer inspection they contained hidden criticism of Josef Stalin's regime.
Until the mid-1930s, Michael’s career was threatened because of his contacts with leading members of the intelligentsia who fell victim to the Great Terror , especially the author Isaak Babel . Michoels actively supported Stalin in the fight against Adolf Hitler . In 1942 he was elected chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee . In this capacity, he traveled around the world and met with Jewish committees to encourage them to support the Soviet Union in their war against Nazi Germany . While this was still useful for Stalin during World War II, after the war Stalin fought contacts between Soviet Jews and Jewish communities in non-communist countries, which he considered to be members of the " bourgeoisie ". The State Jewish Theater was closed and the members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee were imprisoned and all but two were eventually executed in the purges shortly before Stalin's death.
Michoels was the most prominent figure of intellectual Judaism in Stalin's sphere of influence. A show trial against him would have cast a bad light on Stalin's rule. Even before the cleanup operations began, Michoels died in Minsk in 1948, according to the official version in a car accident. In fact, with Stalin's approval, his accidental death was staged by a Moscow secret police unit under the orders of Deputy Minister of State Security Sergei Ogolzov . Michoels received a state funeral .
Michoel's brother Miron Wowsi was Stalin's personal physician and was imprisoned during the so-called medical conspiracy in 1953 , but survived.
Awards
- People's Artist of the RSFSR , 1935
- People's Artist of the USSR , 1939
- Order of Lenin , 1939
- Medal “For heroic work in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945” , 1946
- Stalin Prize , 1946
Web links
- Solomon Michailowitsch Michoels in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Boris Sandler: Solomon Mikhoels - Actor, Director, Social Activist and Community Leader , Tog bay Tog section from March 16, 2015 of The Jewish Daily Forward (in Yiddish)
Individual evidence
- ^ Robert Conquest: Stalin's reputation as a ruthless master of deception remains intact . In: The Guardian , March 5, 2003.
- ↑ Joshua Rubenstein: The Night of the Murdered Poets ( Memento January 17, 2010 on WebCite ), accessed July 30, 2018. In: The New Republic, August 25, 1997.
- ↑ Марк Дейч: Как в Минске убивали Mихоэлса . library.by, September 6, 2005.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Michoels, Solomon Michailowitsch |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Михоэлс, Соломон Михайлович (Russian); מיכאָעלס, שלומה (Yiddish); Wowsi, Schiloma (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Soviet actor and director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 16, 1890 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dvinsk, today Daugavpils , Latvia |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 12, 1948 or January 13, 1948 |
| Place of death | Minsk , Belarusian SSR |