Zakushniak, Aleksandr Iakovlevich

Born Feb. 26 (Mar. 10), 1879, in Odessa; died Apr. 21, 1930, in Lenin-grad. Soviet estrada (variety stage) actor.

Zakushniak made his debut in 1906 as a dramatic actor. In 1910 he gave his first recitals in Odessa, called “Evenings of Intimate Reading.” His repertory included France’s Revolt of the Angels (1923–24), Pushkin’s Egyptian Nights (1925–26), Gogol’s Taras Bul’ba (1926–27), L. N. Tolstoy’s Katiusha Maslova (1928), and Dostoevsky’s Insulted and Injured and Blok’s The Twelve (1929). Zakushniak’s artistry was based on a skillful mastery of gesture and intonation and the art of communicating with the audience. He was an au-thor, director, and performer, and he used the estrada to popularize outstanding literary creations; he had a great influence on the work of Soviet concert-readers.