Veniamin Smekhov - Nikolai Robertovich Erdman

Many famous singers, comedians and actors from Russia performed in Australia at the turn of the century and were guests of the SBS Russian program . Among them was leading actor of the famous Moscow Taganka Theatre, a movie star, director and writer Veniamin Smekhov. His concerts were a big success in Australia, and we asked him to record some of his material for the radio. Fortunately the recordings survived and we are happy to preserve them on our web archives In this recording he speaks about repressed Soviet playwright Nikolai Erdman, who was known for his quirky satire and humour

Vsevolod Meyerhold, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Nikolai Erdman (taken in 1920s) Source: : Wikipedia/ Temerin

Source: SBS

Source: SBS