Andrey Aleksandrovich Goncharov (2 January 19187 September 2001) was a Soviet and Russian theater director, pedagogue and author. Goncharov, the

People's Artist of the USSR People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to artists of the Soviet Union. The term is confusingly used to translate two Russian language titles: Народный арти ...

(1977), received numerous state awards, including

Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an Title of honor, honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievem ...

(1987) and

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

(1987). In 1967–2001 Goncharov was the head of the Moscow

Mayakovsky Theatre Mayakovsky Theater () is a theater in Moscow, Russia, founded in 1920, first as ''Terevsat'' (Theater of Revolutionary Satire, 1920-1922), then ''Revolution Theater'' (1922-1943) and ''Drama Theater'' (1944-1953). In 1954 it was renamed after Vlad ...

. He is the author of four acclaimed books on the drama theory.

Biography

Andrey Goncharov was born on 2 January 1918, in the village of the Ryazan Governorate (now part of

Moscow Oblast Moscow Oblast (, , informally known as , ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). With a population of 8,524,665 (Russian Census (2021), 2021 Census) living in an area of , it is one of the most densely populate ...

) where he spent his early years. In the 1920s the family moved to Moscow; his father worked as a piano teacher, his mother was a professional actress. In 1936 Goncharov enrolled into the

Russian Institute of Theatre Arts The Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) () is the largest and oldest independent drama school, theatrical arts school in Russia. Located in Moscow, the school was founded on 22 September 1878 as the Shostakovsky Music School. It became the ...

; he studied in the actors' class of Vasily Toporkov, then moved to the director's group led by Nikolai Gorchakov. In 1940 in

Ivanovo Ivanovo (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Russia and the administrative center and largest city of Ivanovo Oblast, located northeast of Moscow and approximately from Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Russia, Vladimir and Kostroma. ...

Goncharov presented his diploma production of

Oleksandr Korniychuk Oleksandr Yevdokymovych Korniychuk (; ; – 14 May 1972) was a Soviet and Ukrainian playwright, literary critic and state official. His plays include ''The Death of the Squadron'' (1933), ''Platon Krechet'' (1934), ''Bohdan Khmelnytsky'' (1938), ...

's ''In the Steppes of Ukraine''. In 1941 he graduated the Academy. As the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...

broke out, Goncharov volunteered for the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and went to the frontline. He was injured twice in the action and demobilized. In 1942 Goncharov became the head and the arts director of the 1st Frontline Theatre, formed by the All-Russian Theatre Society, performing all over the Western Front and at the

Baltic Fleet The Baltic Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea. Established 18 May 1703, under Tsar Peter the Great as part of the Imperial Russian Navy, the Baltic Fleet is the oldest Russian fleet. In 1918, the fleet w ...

military bases. In 1944 Andrey Goncharov joined the

Moscow Satire Theatre The Moscow Academic Theatre of Satire () is a dramatic theatre in Moscow, Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest countr ...

as its deputy director. His first production here was ''Belugin's Marriage'', by

Alexander Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky (; ) was a Russian playwright, generally considered the greatest representative of the Russian realistic period. The author of 47 original plays, Ostrovsky "almost single-handedly created a Russian national repe ...

. Then he moved to the Moscow

Yermolova Theatre The Yermolova Theatre () is a theatre company in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow. It is under the artistic direction of Vladimir Andreyev (). The theatre's building was built in the 1830s, and is one of the largest on Tverskaya Street ...

and produced several plays at the Maly Theatre. In 1958–1966 Goncharov was the artistic director at the Moscow Malaya Bronnaya Drama Theatre. In 1967 he joined the

which he was the head of for twenty years (1967–1987). For decades Goncharov taught at the

. He was the secretary of the Russian Theatre Union, and a chairman of the Moscow Art Awards committee. Goncharov died on 7 September 2001. He was interred in

Novodevichy Cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery () is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. History The cemetery was designed by Ivan Mashkov and inaugurated ...

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goncharov, Andrey 1918 births 2001 deaths Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Russian Academy of Theatre Arts alumni Heroes of Socialist Labour People's Artists of the RSFSR People's Artists of the USSR Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 3rd class Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Recipients of the USSR State Prize State Prize of the Russian Federation laureates Russian theatre directors Soviet military personnel of World War II Soviet theatre directors Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery