Leonid Bronevoy †88 (1928 - 2017)

was a Russian actor. Though primarily a stage actor in the Lenkom Theatre, Bronevoy also made occasional appearances in films. He was awarded a People's Artist of the USSR in 1987 and won the Nika Award in March 2008. Bronevoy was born on December 17, 1928 in the city of Kiev in the Jewish family of Solomon Iosifovich Bronevoy (Faktorovich) and Bella Lvovna Bronevaya. In childhood, he learned to play violin at the 10-year musical school under the Kiev conservatory. His teacher was the famous Kiev master, professor David Solomonovich Berthier.

The father of the future actor, Solomon Iosifovich Bronevoy (whose true family name is Faktoróvich) represented the family of an Odessian confectioner, acted in Russian Civil War, who also worked at The State Political Directorate in 1920-1923, completed a legal education in Kiev, where he met his future wife, a student of Economy Department. Solomon Bronevoy worked at the Institute of National Economy until dismissal on charges of Trotskyism. In 1928 before the birth of his son Solomon Iosifovich got a job in Kiev District economic department of the Prosecutor General's Office. His elder brother, Alexander Iosifovich Bronevoy, helped him with getting that job. Later, Solomon Iosifovich was sent to Ivanovo. In 1933 was awarded the Order of Red Star, and in 1934 in the rank of Major of State Security appointed the director of 6-th Department in USSR's People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD). In 1935 he was dismissed from the NKVD and was appointed the chief of Kiev's "culture and recreation park". On September 13, 1936, he was arrested and on March 9, 1937 he was sentenced to five years in prison (after the extension of the term he was released in 1946; till 1949 in exile, released in 1954). The actor's mother divorced him and changed his son's patronym to "Sergeyevich", but that did not help - as a "family of an enemy of the people" she, with her son, was sent into exile in the city of Kirov region Malmyzh