Alexey Alexandrovich Stakhovich (; 2 February 1856 – 10 March 1919) was a high-ranking Imperial Russian

Chevalier Guard Regiment The Chevalier Guard Regiment () was a Russian heavy cavalry guard regiment, created in 1800 by the reformation of the Chevalier Guard corps, itself created in 1764 by Catherine the Great. As other Russian heavy cavalry guard regiments (the Life ...

officer who in the early 1900s became a popular

stage actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

, associated with

Moscow Art Theatre The Moscow Art Theatre (or MAT; , ''Moskovskiy Hudojestvenny Akademicheskiy Teatr'' (МHАТ) was a theatre company in Moscow. It was founded in by the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright ...

Biography

Born in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

to a well-off noble

Oryol Oryol ( rus, Орёл, , ɐˈrʲɵl, a=ru-Орёл.ogg, links=y, ), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a Classification of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, situated on the Oka Rive ...

-based family with strong artistic traditions (his grandfather was a published playwright, father admired

Italian opera Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous ope ...

and French comedy), Stakhovich made a successful career in the military and was a one-time

adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an Officer (armed forces), officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of “human resources” in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed ...

for Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia. Retired from the service in 1907 as a major general, he became a co-manager of the

which he had been a co-owner of, since 1902. His 1911 stage debut as Prince Abrezkov in ''

The Living Corpse ''The Living Corpse'' () is a Russian play by Leo Tolstoy. Although written around 1900, it was only published shortly after his death—Tolstoy had never considered the work finished. An immediate success, it is still performed. Arthur Hopkins ...

'' caused sensation and since then his stage appearances never failed to agitate the public, even if the critics were ambivalent about his artistic range. He started to appear in films in 1915 and two years later joined the

Russian Provisional Government The Russian Provisional Government was a provisional government of the Russian Empire and Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately after the abdication of Nicholas II on 2 March, O.S. New_Style.html" ;"title="5 ...

as the head of its Theatre Commission. Stakhovich, who taught 'high class manners' in the MAT school, "...was a gifted man who deeply understood art, but hardly a strong actor... a mere raw material, for he started too late, grasping instantly those technical methods he understood best," argued Prince Sergey Volkonsky. "Stakhovich was not an actor, rather a mannikin of aristocrat. His best part was that of Stepan Verkhovensky in ''Nikolai Stavrogin'' ased on ''Besy'' by Dostoyevsky">Besy.html" ;"title="ased on ''Besy">ased on ''Besy'' by Dostoyevsky], where he was just himself," theatre historian Vadim Shverubovich opined. On 10 March 1919, outraged by the atrocities committed by the Bolsheviks, Bolshevist regime and suffering from severe depression,Biography of Stakhovich
at the Moscow Art Theatre site Stakhovich committed suicide by hanging. Marina Tsvetayeva described the effect this had upon the artistic circles of Moscow (and left an expressive portrait of the man) in her essay "The Death of Stakhovich".Смерть Стаховича
by Marina Tsvetayeva He is interred in Novodevichye Cemetery in Moscow.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stakhovich, Alexey Male actors from the Russian Empire Military personnel from Saint Petersburg 1856 births 1919 suicides 1919 deaths Suicides by hanging in Russia Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Male actors from Saint Petersburg Graduates of the Nicholas Cavalry College