Soviet theatre, trade union and community activist
Yacov Boyarsky
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Yakov_Boyarsky_2.jpg/220px-Yakov_Boyarsky_2.jpg) Yakov Boyarsky after his arrest.
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Born
| Yacov Iosifovich Shimshelevich
(
1890-03-14
)
14 March 1890
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Died
| 2 February 1940
(1940-02-02)
(aged 49)
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Yacov Osipovich Boyarsky
(
Yacov Iosifovich Shimshelevich
) was a soviet theatre, trade union and community activist. In 1929?1936 he headed the
Trade Union of Art Workers
, in 1937?1939 he was the director of the
Moscow Art Theatre
.
Life
[
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]
Yacov Boyarsky was born on 14 March 1890 in
Smarhon?
,
Vilna Governorate
. He was the youngest son in a large Jewish family and had five brothers and two sisters. His father was a postal clerk. Yacov entered the Minsk Commercial school but was excluded for his membership in revolutionary circles, close to the
Bund
. In 1911 he was called up for military service to Perm Infantry Regiment No.101, to the end of the war he served as a record clerk in a management unit. After the
February Revolution
he headed the company, then a regiment
Army Committee
.
[2]
In 1918 he took discharge and settled in the
Tver Governorate
. In 1919 he joined the
CPSU
, in the same year he headed the local
Council of National Economy in
Kimry
. In 1919?1921 he was the director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department at the Tver Principal Committee and headed the Tver Economy Council. In 1921 he took an active part in the suppression of the
Kronstadt rebellion
.
Boyarsky participated in the establishment of the USSR Trade Unions. In 1921-1924 he was the chairman of the Smolensk Governorate Committee of Professional Unions, in 1924-1925 he occupied similar posts in Orenburg and Kazakh Committees, in 1926-1928 ? in
Kazan
, in 1928-1929 ? in
Samara
. Since the
10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party
Boyarsky was a member of all
Party
and
Federal
Congresses. He was elected to the
All-Russian
and
Central
Executive Committees. In 1925 in Kazakhstan he met
Nikolai Yezhov
. In the 1920s he started using his mother's surname as a political pseudonym.
[2]
Since 1929 Boyarsky lived in Moscow. Between 1929 and 1936 he was the chairman of the
RABIS
. In 1930 he made a significant contribution to the establishment of the Central Art Workers House.
Solomon Mikhoels
, the art-director of the
Moscow State Jewish Theatre
spoke favourably about Boyarsky's management talent. French art expert Paul Gsell visited Moscow in 1934 and met Boyarsky, he remembered Yacov Osipovich "as a very active person with a very agile mind". Positive memories and opinions on him were also left by
Boris Fillipov
[
ru
]
and
Ivan Kozlovsky
. In 1936 Boyarsky supported
Alexander Tairov
from government oppression.
In 1936-1937 Yakov Boyarsky became the First Deputy Chairman in the USSR Arts Committee. In 1937 he replaced the purged former director of the
Moscow Art Theatre
Michael Arkadyev
[
ru
]
. Under his direction were released such plays as "Woe from Wit" (1938), "The Earth", "Dostigaev and Co", etc.
Pavel Markov
, the Soviet art critic and teacher, highly appreciated the new director's work. Boyarsky had a troubled relationship with
Konstantin Stanislavski
but was on good terms with
Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
. Yacov Osipovich tried to help and re-employ
Mikhail Bulgakov
to the theatre, but the writer disliked Boyarsky and left his offer without an answer.
[4]
The Boyarskys were friends with
Sergei Eisenstein
and
Nikolai Yezhov
's family, they even rented a country house together,
Yakov Agranov
was their close neighbour. Such prominent art workers as
Vladimir Mayakovsky
,
Lilya Brik
,
Nikolai Aseev
,
Isaac Babel
, and
Eduard Bagritsky
were their guests.
When in 1939 Yezhov was arrested, he acknowledged homosexual contacts with Boyarsky in 1925 in Orenburg (homosexuality was a legal offense in the USSR since 1934 up to the 1990s). On the basis of Yezhov's statement, Boyarsky was arrested on 5 July 1939. Under interrogation, Boyarsky refused to confirm any counterrevolutionary activities but didn't reject accusations of homosexuality (presumably, trying to avoid political charges).
On 1 February 1940 Boyarsky was sentenced to capital punishment by the
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union
on charges of participating in the ‘Anti-Soviet Organization Of Rights And Trotskyites’. He was shot on 2 February 1940, together with
Vsevolod Meyerhold
and
Mikhail Koltsov
. Boyarsky was rehabilitated on 3 March 1956.
Family
[
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]
In 1908 Boyarsky married Anna Arluck, a daughter of a lawyer and a pharmacist from
Vilnius
Isidor Arluck. On 25 October 1917, in Moscow, the couple's son was born.
Iosif Boyarsky
became a prominent figure in the Soviet cinema. Yakov and Anna also had a daughter Maya.
Memory
[
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]
Installation of the ≪
Last Address
≫ memorial sign
On 19 December 1966 the memorial evening was held at the Central House of Art Workers in Moscow.
References
[
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]
Sources
[
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]