Details from biography of actor and stage director Valerii Vasyliev

Biography of Valerii Mykhailovych Vasyliev, an excellent actor and an extraordinary personality, is reconstructed in the article on basis of his personal records from the State Polish Theater's archive in Kyiv (kept in the Central State Literature and Art Archive-Museum of Ukraine). The indicated document set comprising a personal enquiry, a personal data sheet and an autobiography has been published for the first time. Valerii Vasyliev came from the family well-known in Ukrainian science and culture: his father Mikhail Kalynovych Vasyliev (1863-1912) was a prominent industrial engineer, innovator in the field of sugar production, ethnographer, folklorist, and participant of Ukrainian national movement, and his younger brother Mykola Mykhailovych Vasyliev (1901-1961) was a prominent economist, rector and pro-rector of the Ukrainian Free University. Valerii Mykhailovych Vasyliev was one of founders of such famous theatre teams such as “Young Theater” and “Ivan Franko's New Dramatic Theater”. His colleagues were famous Ukrainian theatre figures – Les Kurbas, Hnat Yura, Semen Semdor. Performances under Moliere's plays staged by Valerii Vasyliev brought him professional success and glory of the perfect expert of theater classics. In 1934 Valerii Vasyliev was employed as a stage director in the State Polish Theater. Here he arranged several successful performances Moliere and Shakespeare. Unfortunately, the Polish Theater was liquidated soon, and many its employees were arrested as “Polish spies” and “counter-revolutio - naries”. Probably, for this reason Valerii Vasyliev left Kyiv and headed provincial Artem Ukrainian Dramatic Theater. Unfortunately, his life path and professional activity have not been sufficiently researched.