The Yiddish theatre titan who toured the world for Stalin's war effort and was murdered on Stalin's orders
Gordon Craig, after seeing Mikhoels in Moscow, wrote: 'I do not recall a performance that stirred me as profoundly, to the core, as Mikhoels' performance of Lear.'
The towering figure of Soviet Yiddish theatre, who served as artistic director of the Moscow State Jewish Theatre (GOSET) from 1929 until his death, fusing socialist realism with Jewish national identity on the Yiddish stage. His 1935 Yiddish production of Shakespeare's King Lear drew acclaim from world theatre figures including Gordon Craig, and he was awarded the titles of People's Artist of the USSR and the Stalin Prize. During World War II, as the first chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, he toured the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Britain, rallying financial and political support for the Soviet war effort. In 1948 he was assassinated by MGB agents on Stalin's direct order. His murder became the signal for the postwar turn toward state antisemitism in the Soviet Union.
Career Timeline
- 1919Joined Petrograd Jewish Theatre Studio
- 1920–1928Leading actor, Moscow State Jewish Theatre (GOSET)
- 1929–1948Artistic director and leading actor, GOSET
- 1941–1945Chairman, Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
- 1943Propaganda tour of US, Canada, Mexico, UK
- 1939Named People's Artist of the USSR