Svetlovidov, Nikolai Afanasevich

(real surname, Sedykh). Born Dec. 5 (17), 1889, in Kursk; died Nov. 20, 1970, in Moscow. Soviet Russian actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1965). Member of the CPSU from 1943.

Svetlovidov attended M. E. Medvedev’s studio of opera and drama in 1909 and subsequently worked in theaters in Orenburg, Irkutsk, Penza, Kiev, Kharkov, and Rostov-on-Don. In 1933 he joined the Malyi Theater, making his debut in the role of Shvandia in Trenev’s Liubov’ Iarovaia. His best roles were Dolgonosik and Krym in Korneichuk’s On the Steppes of the Ukraine and The Snowball Grove, Murzavetskii and Lyniaev in Ostrovskii’s Wolves and Sheep, Bobchinskii in Gogol’s The Inspector-General, Repetilov in Griboedov’s Woe From Wit, the Consul in Mdivani’s They Kidnapped the Consul, and Kosykh in Chekhov’s Ivanov. Svetlovidov also gave recitals of dramatic readings.

Svetlovidov was awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1942, 1949), two orders, and various medals.