Kama Ginkas is a Russian and Soviet theatre director. Born to a Lithuanian family, Ginkas was a student of Georgy Tovstonogov, Ginkas has collaborated with most major theatres in Moscow and St. Petersburg, including the Moscow Art Theatre (The Train Car and The Master of Ceremonies), the TUZ Theatre (Reenacting a Crime - based on Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, The Execution of the Decembrists, Anton Chekhov's The Black Monk and Lady with a Lapdog, …

Georgy Alexandrovich Tovstonogov (May 23 1989) was a Russian theatre director, the leader of Saint Petersburg Bolshoi Academic Theatre of Drama (formerly Gorky Theater), which now bears his name.

Anatoly Vasilievich Efros was a famous Russian and Soviet theatre director.

Fyodor Fyodorovich Komissarzhevsky (1882-1954) or Theodore Komisarjevsky, as he is better known in the West, was a leading Russian theatrical director and designer of the 20th century, particularly notable for his groundbreaking productions of plays by Chekhov and Shakespeare. Born on 23 May, 1882 in Venice, Komisarjevsky was born into theatre, as his father was a high-profile opera singer who befriended Tchaikovsky, and as his sister, …

Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold (2 February 1940?) was a Russian theatrical producer, director, and actor whose provocative experiments in unconventional theatre made him one of the seminal forces in modern theatre.

Yevgeny Bagrationovich Vakhtangov (also spelled Evgeny or Eugene) (13 February 1883 - 29 May 1922) was a renowned Russian director who was associated with the State Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) in Moscow in the early 20th century, and founded the Vakhtangov Theatre. He was one of Konstantin Stanislavski's most renowned students, and a mentor of Mikhail Chekhov. Vakhtangov was born to Armenian parents in Vladikavkaz.

Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky (August 7, 1938), was a director and acting innovator, responsible for a great deal of the acting technique used during the 20th century, all over the world. According to Mel Gordon's book The Stanislavsky Technique: Russia, Stanislavsky was born Konstantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev in Moscow to a wealthy family in 1863. He came from a Russian family of wealth, who manufactured gold and silver braiding for military decorations and uniforms.

Anatoly Vasiliev is a noted Russian theatre director and one of the leading European contemporary stage directors. He is artistic director of the Moscow Theatre “School of Dramatic Arts”, Theatre de l'Europe, and professor of drama in Lyon, France.

Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov (born September 17, 1917 in Yaroslavl) is a Russian stage actor and director associated with the Taganka Theatre which he founded. After service in the Soviet Army during the World War II, Lyubimov joined the Vakhtangov Theatre (founded by Yevgeny Vakhtangov). In 1953, he received the USSR State Prize. Lyubimov started teaching in 1963 and formed the Taganka Theatre the following year.

Oleg Liptsin, born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1960, is a theatre director and professor of drama. Liptsin studied theater at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts, GITIS in Moscow with Anatoly Vasiliev and Mikhail Butkevich. He worked as an actor and assistant director at the renowned Moscow State Theatre “School of Dramatic Arts” Theatre de l'Europe under artistic direction of Anatoly Vasiliev.

Nikolay Pavlovich Okhlopkov (1900-1967) was the most brilliant of Meyerhold's disciples. He was born in Irkutsk, Siberia and started his acting career there in 1918. Since 1930, he directed the Realistic Theatre in Moscow, although his directing style was hardly realistic: he was the first to place spectators on the stage around the actors, in order to restore intimacy between the audience and the company.

Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko (December 11(23), 1858 - April 25, 1943, Moscow) was a Russian theatre director, writer, pedagogue, and playwright, who co-founded the Moscow Art Theatre with his more famous colleague, Konstantin Stanislavsky, in 1898. In 1919 he established the Musical Theatre of the Moscow Art Theatre, which was reformed into the Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre in 1926.

Tatiana (Tatyana) Vasiljevna Doronina (born September 12, 1933) is a popular Soviet/Russian actress who has performed in movies and the theater. She is generally regarded as one of the most talented actresses of her generation and was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1981. Born in Leningrad, little Tanya frequented performances at the Bolshoi Drama Theater and Pushkin Theater. After graduating the famous MKhAT theatre school in Moscow, …

Solomon (Shloyme) Mikhoels (real surname - Vovsi), ; (January 12/13, 1948) was a Soviet Jewish actor and director in Yiddish theater and the chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. Born Shloyme Vovsi in Dvinsk (now Daugavpils), Latvia, Mikhoels studied law in Saint Petersburg, but left school in 1918 to join Alexander Granovsky's Jewish Theater Workshop, which was attempting to create a national Jewish theater in Russia based on the Yiddish language.

Nikolay Pavlovich Akimov (1901-1968) was an experimental theatre director and scenic designer noted for his work with the Leningrad Comedy Theatre. His most notorious production was the cynical version of "Hamlet" (1932), with Ophelia as a drunken prostitute and the king's ghost as a clever mystification arranged by Hamlet.

Lev Abramovich Dodin (born 1944) is one of the finest modern Russian theater directors, the leader of Saint Petersburg Maly Drama Theater.

Nikita Balieff (c. 1877 - September 3 1936) was an Armenian vaudevillian, stage performer, writer, impresario, and director best known as the master of ceremonies and creator of the Chauve-Souris theater group.

Sergey Vladimirovich Obraztsov was a Russian puppet master who is credited by the Encyclopædia Britannica with "establishing puppetry as an art form". Rod theaters in many countries of the world owe their establishment to Obraztsov's influence. His collection of exotic puppets was the largest in Russia and one of the largest in the world. Obraztsov was born on June 22, 1901 in Moscow into the family of a high-profile railroad engineer.

Stas Namin is a Soviet and Russian producer,guitarist and vocalist. He worked with the group "Tsvety" 1969 and others (1963 group «Politburo»(Политбюро), 1987 Stas Namin Center - "SNC".). He is a grandson of Soviet politician Anastas Mikoyan

Les Kurbas is considered by many to be the most important Ukrainian theater director of the twentieth century. He formed together with Vsevolod Meyerhold, Yevgeny Vakhtangov and several other directors the Soviet theater avantgarde in the 1920s and 30s.

Alexander Tairov (1885-1950) was one of Russia's leading and most enduring theatre directors through the Soviet era.

Alexander Alexandrovich Bryantsev (1883 - 1961) was a Soviet Theater director, creator (1921) and the Chief Director (1921-1961) of the Leningrad Youth Theatre (since 1980 Briantsev Youth Theatre). Alexander Bryantsev won the Stalin Prize in 1950, and was awarded People's Artist of the USSR in 1956. Alexander's son, Dmitry Alexandrovich Bryantsev is a renowned ballet master.

Pyotr Mikhaylovich Yershov (1910-1994) was a Russian theater director and art theoretician, most famous for his textbooks on directing and works on Stanislavski's system. He wrote "Directing as a Practical Psychology", with forewords by Oleg Efremov and P.V. Simonov, 1972, and "Technology of an Actor" in 1959, that is often recommended course material in Russian and American theater schools.

Leonid Varpakhovsky Leonid Viktorovich Varpakhovsky (Russian: Леонид Викторович Варпаховский) - (29 March 1908, Moscow - 12 February 1976, Moscow), director, scenarist. A theatre in Montreal (Canada) that bears his name has been opened in 1995.

Boris Evgenyevich Zakhava was a Russian theatre director, actor and acting coach. He was awarded the USSR State Prize (1952) and honored with the title of People's Artist of the USSR (1967). His notable role include portrayal of Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov in "War and Peace" (1968). Zakhava was an acting coach. He taught several generations of Russian actors, including Mikhail Ulyanov, Yuri Yakovlev, Vasili Lanovoy, Lyudmila Maksakova, Nikolai Gritsenko, …

Yuri Alexandrovich Zavadsky (June 30, 1894 - April 5, 1977) was a Russian actor and director. Zavadsky studied under Yevgeny Vakhtangov, and made his acting debut at Vakhtangov's theatre, playing Anthony in Maurice Maeterlinck's play "The Miracle of St. Anthony" in (1915). He worked in various Russian theatres before moving to the Mossovet Theatre in Moscow as a director in 1940. The most famous actors of his company were Rostislav Plyatt (1908-89), …

Mark Anatolyevich Zakharov was born on October 13, 1933, in Moscow, Russia. His father was a Red Army soldier during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1920, and his mother was an actress. Young Anatoli Zakharov was raised in Moscow. He was inspired by his mother in his persistent efforts to become an actor. He was admitted after several attempts, and graduated from the acting school of the State Theatre Institute (GITIS) in 1955. Zakharov began his career as an actor and director at the Perm...