On May 14, a stamp dedicated to the 100th Birth Anniversary of Kirill Lavrov, an actor, a People’s Artist of the USSR, was put into postal circulation in the Cavaliers of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” series

Kirill Lavrov (1925-2007) was an actor and director of theatre and cinema, a public figure. He was a Hero of Socialist Labor (1985), a People's Artist of the USSR (1972), a winner of the Lenin Prize (1982), the State Prize of the USSR (1978) and the Vasilyev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR (1974), the Cavalier of the Order of Lenin (1985). Kirill Lavrov was an Academician of the National Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Russia and the Nika Russian Academy of Cinematographic Arts.

Kirill Lavrov was born on September 15, 1925, in Leningrad. During the Great Patriotic War, K. Lavrov was in evacuation in the Kirov Region and Novosibirsk. At the age of 17, he volunteered for the army. He did military service until 1950: graduated from a military aviation school in Astrakhan, and then served for five years as a technician in a bomber regiment on one of the Kuril Islands (Iturup), preparing Pe-2 dive-bombers for combat sorties. When in the army, he participated in amateur talent groups and played in amateur performances.

He had no theatrical education; because of the war, he had not even finished school, so he was refused admission to Moscow theatre schools. In 1950, he joined the company of the Lesya Ukrainka Theatre of Russian Drama in Kiev as an understudy actor. In 1955, he was invited to the M. Gorky Bolshoi Drama Theatrein Leningrad, where he played several dozen parts, including Molchalin in the Woe from Wit, Salty in Three Sisters, Nil in The Philistines, a town governor in The Governmental Inspector, Astrov in Uncle Vanya. In 1989, he became Artistic Director of the theatre and remained in this position until the end of his life.

He began his film career in 1955 with the film Vasyok Trubachev and His Comrades. He played his first leading part in the film A Quarrel in Lukashy, screened at the Lenfilm studio. He also starred in the leading parts in the following films: Believe Me, People, The Alive and the Dead, The Brothers Karamazov, Neutral Waters, Taming of the Fire, Trust, My Tender and Gentle Beast, A Glass of Water, The Charlotte's Necklace, Bandit Petersburg, The Master and Margarita. As a film director, in cooperation with M. Ulyanov, he made the third series of the film The Brothers Karamazov.

Kirill Lavrov was a prominent political figure in the area of culture and arts; he actively participated in the public life of the USSR and the Russian Federation. From 1980, he headed the Leningrad branch of the All-Russian Theatre Society and the Union of Theatre Workers of the USSR. In 1992, he was elected President of the International Confederation of Theatre Unions. From 1992 to 2007, he was a member of the Commission on Science, Culture, Education and Information of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS countries, a member of the Committee for State Awards under the President of the Russian Federation.

Awards: an Order of the October Revolution (1971), an Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1975), an Order of Lenin (1985), an Order for Merit to the Fatherland, the fourth class (1995), an Order for Merit to the Fatherland, the third class (2000), an Order for Merit to the Fatherland, the second class (2005), and others.

The postage stamp provides a portrait of Kirill Lavrov and the Order for Merit to the Fatherland.

In addition to the issue of the postage stamp, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow and St. Petersburg.


Design Artist: R. Komsa.
Face value: 50 rubles.
Stamp size: 42×30 mm, sheet size: 142×174 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with (3×5) 14 stamps and a coupon.
Quantity: 98 thousand stamps (7 thousand sheets).

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