Shtraukh, Maksim

(Maxim Strauch). Born Feb. 11 (24), 1900, in Moscow; died there Jan. 3,1974. Soviet Russian actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1965).

From 1921 to 1924, Shtraukh appeared with the Workers’ Theater of the Proletkul’t. He performed from 1929 to 1931 with the Meyerhold Theater, and in 1932 he joined the Moscow Theater of the Revolution (now the Mayakovsky Theater). In the experimental films of S. M. Eisenstein and the plays staged by V. E. Meyerhold, Shtraukh displayed a flair for extravagance and a socially oriented grotesque style. He portrayed satirical characters in plays by Mayakovsky, including Pobedonosikov in The Bathhouse and Prisypkin in The Bedbug. In a number of roles, however, he revealed a talent as a master of subtle, profoundly human psychological portraits, for example, as Rubinchik in Zarkha’s Street of Joy and the Chief in Pogodin’s My Friend. Shtraukh’s supreme creative achievement was his deeply realistic portrayal of V. I. Lenin in a number of plays and in films directed by S. I. Iutkevich, including Man With a Gun (1938), Stories of Lenin (1958), and Lenin in Poland (1966). Also among his major cinematic roles were the Sleuth in Strike (1925), the Detective in The Ghost That Doesn’t Return (1930), and Tibo in Murder on Dante Street (1956).

Shtraukh was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1959 and the State Prize of the USSR in 1949 and twice in 1951. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and several medals.