Mikhoels Solomon Mikhailovich

Mikhoels Solomon Mikhailovich

Solomon Mikhailovich Mikhoels (real name Vovsi) 1890-1948, is an outstanding Soviet Jewish theater actor and director, teacher, public and political figure. Chief director of the Moscow State Jewish Theater (Moscow GOSET), head of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, member of the Artistic Council of the Committee for Arts under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (since 1939). People's Artist of the USSR (1939), laureate of the Stalin Prize (1946).
Killed by officers of the USSR Ministry of State Security, who received the highest state awards of the USSR for this operation. The main organizers and performers of this action are V.S. Abakumov, S.I. Ogoltsov, L.F. Tsanava, F.G. Shubnyakov, V.E. Lebedev, B.A. Kruglov, A.Kh. Kosyrev, N.F. Povzun. The murder was disguised as a traffic accident.
Solomon Vovsi was born on March 4 (16), 1890 in Dvinsk (at that time Vitebsk province, the Pale of Settlement, now Daugavpils, Latvia), into a patriarchal Jewish family. He received a traditional Jewish primary education in cheder. According to the actor himself, he “only began to systematically study secular sciences and the Russian language at the age of thirteen.” Then in 1905 he entered a real school in Riga and graduated from it in 1908. In 1911 he entered the Kiev Commercial Institute, but did not graduate - he was expelled for participating in student unrest. From 1915 to 1918 he also studied at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University.
After the revolution in 1918, he entered the Jewish Theater Studio of A. M. Granovsky, organized in Petrograd. Since 1919 he actively played on stage. He played in the plays “The Blind” by Maeterlinck (staged by A. Granovsky), “Amnon and Tomor” by S. Asch, “Uriel Acosta” by K. Gutskov, and in his own play “The Builder”.
In 1920, he moved to Moscow with his studio. In 1925, he transformed the studio into the Moscow State Jewish Theater, and in 1929 he became the artistic director of this theater.
In 1928, Mikhoels toured with GOSET in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria. Along with theatrical work, Mikhoels taught at the school at the Moscow Jewish Theater (since 1941 - professor).
During the Second World War, together with the GOSET theater in 1941, he went on evacuation to Tashkent, where he participated in the work of not only the Jewish theater, but also in the Uzbek Drama Theater named after. Hamza, as well as the Uzbek State Opera and Ballet Theater.
In February 1942, when, on the initiative of the Soviet leadership, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) was created to “involve the Jewish masses around the world in the fight against fascism,” Mikhoels became the first chairman of this committee. In 1943, on behalf of the JAC, he traveled to the USA, Canada, Mexico and the UK with propaganda assignments for organizing financial support for the military actions of the USSR.
He was a member of the Presidium of the All-Russian Theater Society and the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Artists.
According to the version released to the public after his death, Mikhoels, on the night of January 12-13, 1948, during a trip to Minsk, together with his friend, writer V.I. Golubov, was hit by a truck as a result of an accident and died. Mikhoels was given a state funeral and collections of his memory were published. GOSET was given the name Mikhoels (at the beginning of 1949 the name was removed).
However, at the beginning of April 1953, after the arrest of V. S. Abakumov, the former Minister of State Security of the USSR, on the initiative of the Minister of Internal Affairs L. P. Beria, an investigation was carried out, during which it was shown in detail that Mikhoels (as well as his companion , a former secret informant for the MGB) were deliberately killed by a special group of MGB officers under the leadership of Lieutenant Generals S.I. Ogoltsov and L.F. Tsanava (head of the MGB of Belarus) and Colonel F.G. Shubnyakov. According to Abakumov’s testimony, on the direct personal orders of Stalin.
Also in 1948, the JAC was dissolved, and most of its members were soon subjected to repression. In July 1949, the GOSET theater was also closed.
During the so-called “The Doctors’ Case”, at the beginning of 1953, Mikhoels’ cousin, military doctor M.S. Vovsi, was arrested, and Mikhoels himself was posthumously declared a participant in the doctors’ conspiracy. An order was received from the Central Committee apparatus to remove all books and albums about Mikhoels from libraries. Due to the death of Stalin that followed a little over a month later and the release of those arrested in connection with the case, the name of Mikhoels could not be made taboo, but the GOSET theater was never restored.
In Tel Aviv (Israel) a square is named after Mikhoels. In Daugavpils (Latvia) a street is named after him.
In the 1990s, film director Mark Averbukh made the film “Stalin’s Personal Enemy,” dedicated to the memory of Solomon Mikhoels.