Born on January 24, 1885, in Polotsk (Belarus).
In 1905, he participated in the activities of the Warsaw Military-Revolutionary Organization of the RSDLP and was subsequently exiled to the Tobolsk Governorate.
From 1907, he worked as an actor in theaters in Tobolsk, Chita, Lipetsk, Tambov, and Vilna. Between 1914 and 1918, he served on the front lines during the First World War.
From 1918 to 1923, he was an actor and director at several Moscow theaters, including the Theater of the Revolution and Vsevolod Meyerhold’s theater.
Beginning in 1923, he worked as a director and screenwriter for Goskino (including the Soyuzkino film factory, the Leningrad Film Studio, Sovetskaya Belarus, and the Odessa Film Studio). He was one of the first actors to portray Lenin on stage (in the theatrical composition *The Fall of the Autocracy*, 1924, at the VTsIK Club in the Moscow Kremlin).
From 1941 to 1943, he served as a director at the Mosfilm and COKS (Central United Film Studios) studios; from 1943 to 1945, he was the artistic director of the Mongolkinó studio (Mongolian People's Republic).
From 1945, he worked as a director at the Soyuzdetfilm and Belarusfilm studios (and served as a director at the Theater-Studio of the Film Actor from 1948 to 1951). From 1954, he worked as a director at the Mosnauchfilm film studio.
Named an Honored Worker of Arts of the RSFSR (1935).
Passed away on February 21, 1967, in Moscow.
