Gombozhap Tsydynzhapov

Born Apr. 20 (May 3), 1905, in the ulus (village) of Liubchikan, in what is now Barguzin Raion, Buriat ASSR. Soviet Buriat actor, stage director, and playwright. People’s Artist of the USSR (1940). Member of the CPSU since 1939. One of the founders of professional theater in Buriatia.

Tsydynzhapov, the son of peasants, published his first works in 1940. In 1934 he graduated from the department of stage direction of the State Institute of Theatrical Arts. From 1934 to 1948 he served as artistic director of the Buriat Drama Theater (since 1938 the Buriat Music and Drama Theater). In 1948 he became principal stage director of the Kh. Namsaraev Buriat Theater of Drama in Ulan-Ude, and from 1948 to 1960 he served as principal stage director of the Buriat Theater of Opera and Ballet, also in Ulan-Ude.

Tsydynzhapov is known for his performances in the title role in Shakespeare’s Othello, as Sharlai in Erzhen by Baldano and Edel’, and in the title role in Korneichuk’s Platon Krechet. In 1947 he played the role of V. I. Lenin in Pogodin’s The Kremlin Chimes.

Tsydynzhapov’s accomplishments as a stage director include productions of the musical drama Bair (music by Berlinskii, 1938) and of several plays, including Baldano’s One of Many (1937), his own work The Sniper (1943), and The Kremlin Chimes (1947). He has also staged operas, including Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (1943), Knipper’s On Lake Baikal (1948), and Dzerzhinskii’s The Quiet Don (1953). He wrote the libretto of the musical drama Bair (together with A. Shadaev), the plays TheSniper (1943) and Son of the People (1943), and the screenplay for the film House of Gold (together with D. Batozhabai and V. I. Ezhov, 1960).

Tsydynzhapov was a deputy to the second through fourth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. He has been awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1949), the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and several medals.