People’s Artist of the USSR, ProfessorA director and artist Nikolay Pavlovich Akimov was born in 1901.He studied at the Art  ёStudio under the direction of  M.V. Dobuzhinskiy, А. E. Yakovlev, V. I. Shukhayev.He began working as a theatre artist in 1922. Since 1929 he worked as a director as well.His first independent performance of “Hamlet” by Shakespeare was held at the Vakhtangov Theatre in 1932.The performance was accused of formalism, rivalry with Shakespeare and the lack of understanding of the inner development of the play’s action. Representatives of both “right” and “left” severely criticized the director for “fat, flabby Hamlet” and “drunken Ophelia”. In 1939, though the performance was not on for a long time, at the 1st All-Union Conference of Directors it was mentioned as a vivid example of alien theatre art. At the conference Akimov agreed that his “Hamlet” was a mistake, but in a circle of close friends he never repudiated it. After 60 years that performance would be defined as “political detective story” and even considered one of the most remarkable events of  the Theatrical Moscow of  the 1930s.Since 1935 (with a gap) N.P. Akimov was the Art Director of the Leningrad Comedy Theatre.Subtle irony, search for new expressive means, witty characteristics define the best performances, staged and designed by Nikolay Akimov.Nikolay Pavlovich Akimov died in 1968.