Biography
Boris Babochkin was an internationally acclaimed Russian film star, best known for his leading role in the classic 1934 film Chapaev. Later in his career, he portrayed a sharp anti-communist character on stage in Moscow, which led to his ostracism and censorship by the Soviet Communist Party.
Born Boris Andreevich Babochkin on January 18, 1904, in Saratov, Russia, on the Volga River, he moved to Moscow in 1920 and enrolled at Michael Chekhov's Drama School. Although Babochkin admired Chekhov, he soon left to join the "Molodye Mastera" studio under Illarion Pevtsov. There, alongside his older brother Vitaly Babochkin, he began his professional stage career in 1921. Over the next six years, he performed with various troupes across Moscow, Saratov, Samarkand, Bishkek, Voronezh, Mogilev, and Berdichev. From 1927 to 1940, Babochkin lived and worked in Leningrad, where he made his film debut in 1927. His starring role in Chapaev (1934) brought him worldwide fame as well as local envy. He played leading roles at the Leningrad State Pushkin Drama Theater and the Bolshoi Drama Theater (BDT), directed by his friend Aleksei Dikij. When Dikij was arrested and sent to the Gulag in 1937, Babochkin was deeply affected but took over as artistic director of the BDT in Leningrad.
In 1940, Babochkin returned to Moscow. During World War II, he made several trips to besieged Leningrad to support and inspire the city's defenders through his performances. In 1952, he became artistic director of the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theater, where he invited Aleksei Dikij to direct the play Shadows by Saltykov-Shchedrin. Babochkin’s portrayal of Klaverov, a corrupt career politician resembling a typical Soviet bureaucrat, was widely regarded as one of his finest performances. However, this role provoked a fierce attack in the Soviet newspaper Pravda by Ekaterina Furtseva, then Mayor of Moscow and later Soviet Minister of Culture. Enraged by Babochkin’s satirical depiction with clear allusions to Soviet leadership, Furtseva banned the play and effectively blacklisted Babochkin, restricting him from public performances and leaving him nearly unemployed for three years until he was forced to publicly repent to the Communist Party. Soviet censorship worked hard to suppress Babochkin’s influence, confining him to portray only positive, bland Soviet characters. His rare exception was his final role in Begstvo mistera Mak-Kinli (1975), which earned him the State Prize. From 1955 until his death in 1975, Babochkin was a permanent member of the Maly Theatre troupe in Moscow. Between 1946 and 1975, he also taught acting at the State Film Institute (VGIK), becoming a professor in 1966. Over a career spanning more than 55 years, Babochkin played over 200 stage roles and appeared in more than 25 films and television productions, with Chapaev (1934) remaining the pinnacle of his film work.
Boris Babochkin was the youngest actor to be named People's Artist of Russia in 1935. He received the USSR State Prize three times (1941, 1951, and posthumously in 1977). He was married to Ekaterina Mikhailovna Babochkina, and they had two daughters, Natalia and Tatiana. Babochkin died of a heart attack while driving his Volga on July 17, 1975, in Moscow and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia.
