Iakovlev, Nikolai Kapitonovich

Born Apr. 25 (May 7), 1869, in Riazan’; died Dec. 21, 1950, in Moscow. Soviet Russian actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1944).

In 1893, Iakovlev graduated from the drama courses at the Moscow Theatrical School, where he had studied under O. A. Pravdin; he joined the Malyi Theater in the same year. Iakovlev had a lively temperament, keen powers of observation, and a knowledge of the old ways of Russian life. In addition to Kochka-rev in Gogol’s Marriage, his roles included Kudriash, Razliul-iaev, and Borodkin in A. N. Ostrovskii’s The Thunderstorm, Poverty Is No Crime, and Don’t Get Into Another Man’s Sledge, respectively. Iakovlev paid enormous attention to cultivated literary Russian speech.

Iakovlev played the roles of Karandyshev and Tikhon in Ostrovskii’s The Girl Without a Dowry and The Thunderstorm, respectively, with great dramatic flair. He also played Figaro in Beaumarchais’s The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro and Scapin in Molière’s The Cheats of Scapin. His best role in the Soviet period was Groznov in Ostrovskii’s Truth Is Good, but Happiness Is Better. Iakovlev’s roles in plays by Soviet dramatists included Elisatov in Trenev’s Liubov’ Iarovaia and Medvedev in Gusev’s Glory. He taught at the Music and Drama School of the Moscow Philharmonic Society from 1907 to 1918 and at the school’s successor institution, the Music and Drama Institute (now the State Institute of Theatrical Arts), from 1918 to 1920.

Iakovlev was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.