Today, October 18th, is the 125th anniversary of Vladimir Vladomirsky (1893–1971), an actor and people’s artist of Belarus and the USSR.
Vladimir Vladomirsky is known both in Belarus and far beyond its borders. The actor was greeted by the audience in Moscow and Tomsk, Kiev and Warsaw, Lodz and Kharkov, and in many other cities where the Belarusian State Academic Theater named after Yanka Kupala (now the National Academic named after Yanka Kupala Theater) played on tour. And wherever the actor performed, his parts were admirable.
Vladomirsky (real name Maleyka) was born in Kaunas (Lithuania). He received primary education at public school, and secondary education at men’s gymnasium. He liked physics, geography, history, but his greatest love was the theater. Vladimir Maleyka partook in every amateur performance staged by students. Performances were always a great success. The young man chose the theater, but then his dreams had not come true: the First World War began, and he was sent to the front. In 1920, he was appointed to the Second Model Theater (Bobruisk). It was there that the actor finally realized that he, Vladimir Vladomirsky (under this pseudonym he began performing on stage) couldn’t exist without theater. After the Civil War he was sent for training at dramatic courses in Leningrad. Meetings with the luminaries of the Russian stage – Davydov, Yuriev, Yureneva – become a great creative school for the young actor, but the native Belarus called him.
Since 1924, he began performing on the stage of the Belarusian State Theater. His professional skills were shaped by an experienced director, teacher and playwright, E. Mirovich. He first played a role of a soldier in E. Mirovich’s drama "Kalinouski", and although it was a bit part, the novice actor managed to create a vivid image of a cheerful talker, gallant and seducer of girls' hearts.
Vladimir Vladomirsky had a rich imagination, creating a gallery of versatile images. Psychological accuracy, color contrasts, vividness of external images, improvisation and eccentrics mark the actor’s creative personality. Many of his stage heroes, artistically compete and generalized, become the property of the national culture. The colorful images created by Vladomirsky will forever remain in the history of theater: former gendarme, climber and adventurer Bryzgalin ("The Career of Tovarishch Bryzgalin" by Mirovich), double-dealers-Trotskyist Ababurka ("Death of the Wolf" by Samuylenok), Calvary commander Dybov ("Mezhburye" by Kurdin), drunk, sluggard and slacker Moukhin ("Bridge" by Romanovych) and others. His Leopold Gushka in the play "Fatherland" by Kuzma Chorny is a deep psychological image of the hard-working farmer. The actor showed the will to combat social injustice and the spiritual greatness of commoners in the images of Danila Dryl and Gudovich ("Partisans" and "With the People" by Kandrat Krapiva), Iosif ("Nightingale" by Zmitrok Bedulya), Blazan ("Smith the Governor" by Mirovich).
Working on the production of Russian classical works, Vladomirsky pays more attention to social behavior of characters. For example, a provincial actor Shmaga ("Guilty without Guilt" by Ostrovsky) looks like a man who aspires to protest against the moral of capitalist society. Apolon Murzavetsky ("Wolves and Sheep" by Ostrovsky) is portrayed satirically, so that the callousness and shallowness of the character are in full view. The role of a retired corporal Groznov in Ostrovsky’s "Truth is Well, but Happiness is Better" becomes a milestone.
The actor's talent dramatically manifests in the portrayal of Ivan Kolomiytsev in Gorky’s "The Last", in which all the negative features of bourgeois society are collected. During almost 20 years, this play, which was highly appreciated at the first Decade of the Belarusian Art in Moscow (1940), did not abandon the scene. Vladomirsky also portrayed the characters from classic plays: Wurm in Schiller’s "Intrigue and Love", the hussar in Fredro’s "Ladies and Hussars”, Tristan in Lopez de Vega’s "The Dog on the Manger".
Although Vladimir Vladomirsky was rarely filmed he left a distinctive mark on Belarusian cinematography. The actor appeared in movies «Who Laughs last" (1954), "Polesie Legend" (1957).
The talented actor devoted 40 years of his life to the Belarusian theater and played more than 200 big parts, developing deeply and subtly his roles. In Kupala Theater, Vladomirsky worked and studied, devoting his mental strength and skill to the stage; here he obtained the title of the People's Artist of Belarus and the USSR. Vladomirsky’s creative career in marked with the Order of Lenin and the Red Banner of Labor, the Badge of Honor and medals. The Belarusian State Archive of Audiovisual Documents keeps many interesting sources about the artist's life: theater captured on film, radio shows, a series of radio programs "Masters of the Belarusian Scene", memories of Vladimir Vladomirsky’s friends, and photos of the actor captured in different years. The creative biography of Vladimir Vladomirsky is a shining example of dedicated service and vocation.
You can find more information in the factual database "Belarus in Persons and Events".
