Boris Platonov

Born July 24 (Aug. 6), 1903, in Minsk; died there Feb. 15, 1967. Soviet Byelorussian actor; People’s Artist of the USSR (1948). Member of the CPSU since 1953.

Platonov began working in the la. Kupala Byelorussian Theater in 1922; from 1961 to 1963 he was the theater’s artistic director. He played heroic, character, satirical, dramatic, and tragic parts. These roles included Erys’kin in Furmanov and Polivanov’s The Uprising, Ognev and Romodan in Korneichuk’s The Front and Wings, the title role in Movzon’s Konstantin Zaslonov (State Prize of the USSR, 1948), Zelkin in Krapiva’s He Who Laughs Last and Tumilovich in Krapiva’s The Larks Are Singing (State Prize of the USSR, 1952), Bykovskii in Kupa-la’s Pavlinka, Zhadov in Ostrovskii’s A Profitable Post, Petr in Gorky’s The Last Ones, Zabelin in Pogodin’s The Kremlin Chimes, Levon in Makaenok’s Levonikha in Orbit, and Aesop in G. Figueiredo’s The Fox and the Grapes. Platonov’s best role was V. I. Lenin in Pogodin’s Third Pathétique.

Platonov was a deputy to the fifth and sixth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and several medals.