Romanitskii, Boris

Born Mar. 18 (30), 1891, in the village of Chernobai, in what is now Cherkassy Ob-last. Soviet Ukrainian actor and director. People’s Artist of the USSR (1944). Member of the CPSU since 1940.

In 1913, Romanitskii joined P. K. Saksaganskii’s troupe while simultaneously studying at the N. V. Lysenko Musical Drama School in Kiev, from which he graduated in 1915. He was a student of M. K. Zan’kovetskaia and Saksaganskii, who both greatly influenced his art. Romanitskii was one of the founders of the M. K. Zan’kovetskaia Ukrainian Drama Theater in L’vov in 1922 and served as the theater’s artistic director until 1948; he also performed at the theater and staged plays.

Vivid characterizations and variety have distinguished Ro-manitskii’s interpretation of his roles in Ukrainian classical plays and Soviet dramas. His roles have included Chalyi in Karpenko-Karyi’s Savva Chalyi, Mikola Zadorozhnyi in Fran-ko’s Stolen Happiness, Khrapov in Gorky’s Vassa Zheleznova, Gaidai in Korneichuk’s The Destruction of the Squadron, and Raevich in Bill’-Belotserkovskii’s The Gale. His best roles in Russian and international classical plays have included Voi-nitskii in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, Karl in Schiller’s Die Ruber, and the title role in Shakespeare’s Othello (performed for the first time on the Ukrainian stage). Romanitskii staged Korneichuk’s The Destruction of the Squadron (1933) and Khizhniak’s To a Great Land (1949; State Prize of the USSR, 1950). He wrote the book The Ukrainian Theater in the Past and Present (1950).

Romanitskii has been awarded the Shevchenko Prize of the Ukrainian SSR (1974), two Orders of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.