Nikolai Mikhailovich Diakonov

Nikolai Mikhailovich Diakonov was a Soviet playwright and actor, and a theatre director. He was born in the village of Ust-Vym (Komi Republic) into a poor peasant family. From 1929 to 1932 he worked as a lumberjack and performed in a traveling theatre. In 1936 he graduated from the Leningrad Theatrical School.

 

From 1936 to 1945 Diakonov worked as an actor and director at the National Theatre of the Komi ASSR, and in 1945 he became its artistic director. He was a member of the VKP(b) from 1941. Diakonov's literary activity began in 1937. Before the war, together with S. I. Ermolyn, he wrote the plays 'Glybokaya zapan', 'The Crows', 'Domna Kalikova' and 'Courage'.

 

After the war, Diakonov gained great popularity with the play 'The Wedding' (1949), also known as 'The Wedding with a Dowry' (1950) in a translation by A. G. Glebov. The production of this play at the Moscow Satire Theatre received the Stalin Prize, 3rd class (1951). Diakonov also wrote the plays 'In the Days of War', 'The Hero', 'Three Bogatyrs', 'For Vasenka's Health', 'Vychegodsky Bouquet', 'Niva – Nivushka', 'Kurochkin's Quartet' (1962) and 'The Golden Medallion' (1971). Diakonov was awarded two orders and several medals. Nikolai Mikhailovich Diakonov died on November 21, 1982, and was buried in Syktyvkar.