Marian Krushelnitskii

Born Apr. 18, 1897, in the village of Piliava, in present-day Buchach Raion, Ternopol’ Oblast; died Apr. 5, 1963, in Kiev. Soviet Ukrainian actor and director. People’s Artist of the USSR (1944). Became a member of the CPSU in 1943.

In 1916, KrushePnitskii began his stage career as a member of the Ternopol’ Theatrical Evenings troupe. He studied under V. M. lurchak and L. Kurbas. In 1920 he helped establish the I. Franko Theater in Vinnitsa. In 1924, Krushel’nitskii began performing at the BereziF Theater; he became the principal di-rector of this theater in 1933. Beginning in 1952 he acted at the I. la. Franko Ukrainian Theater in Kiev, becoming its principal director in 1954.

Krushel’nitskii’s most outstanding roles included Stakanchik, Taras, and Padur in Kulish’s Narodnyi Malakhii, Mina Mazailo, and Maklena Grasa; Ivan in Kropivnitskii’s Give the Heart Freedom; the title role in Karpenko-Karyi’s Martyn Borulia; Bublik and Gavrila in Korneichuk’s Platon Krechet and Bogdan Khmernitskii; Arkashka in Ostrovskii’s The Forest; Tevye in Tevye— the Milkman (adapted from Shalom Aleichem); Bulychov in Gorky’s Egor Bulychov and Others; and the title role in Shakespeare’s King Lear. He directed Give the Heart Freedom (1934); Kocherga’s laroslav the Wise (1947); Korneichuk’s Truth (1937), Makar Dubrava (1948), Why the Stars Smiled (1957), and On the Dnieper (1960); and Dan’kevich’s opera Bogdan Khmernitskii (1953). Beginning in 1926 he appeared in films.

Krushel’nitskii began teaching at the Kharkov Theatrical Institute in 1946 (as a professor, 1947) and at the Kiev Theatrical Institute in 1952. He was a deputy to the third and fourth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR in 1947 and 1948, he was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and various medals.