Rolan Bykov

Rolan Antonovich Bykov (; October 12, 1929 – October 6, 1998) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor, director, screenwriter and pedagogue. People's Artist of the USSR (1990). Early life Rolan Bykov was born to Anton Mikhailovich Bykov and Olga Matveyevna Bykova (née Sitnyakovskaya), the youngest of two brothers. There are many myths surrounding his biography, including the names of Rolan and his parents, date and place of birth. Different directories showed that he was born in Moscow, yet Bykov and his brother Geronim stated that their family moved to Moscow from Kyiv in 1934. Throughout his life Rolan Antonovich Bykov was officially known as Roland Anatolyevich Bykov and his date of birth — as November 12 which, according to him, was caused by a mistake in his passport. He named various reasons for this: from a drunken militsioner at the passport office to his own aunt who confused names and dates while arranging his documents. As for the unusual name, Rolan explained that he was named after Romain Rolland (according to the Russian pronunciation) by his parents who confused Romain's surname for his name. Bykov's father was a military and intelligence officer of mixed Polish-Czech ancestry originally named Semyon Geronimovich Gordanovsky. He started his career by participating in World War I and making a successful escape after being taken captive by Austria-Hungary. During the Russian Civil War he fought as part of the 1st Cavalry Army led by Semyon Budyonny. Between 1924 and 1926 he worked in Cheka and regularly visited Germany under different passports. His last code name was Anton Mikhailovich Bykov which he adopted as a real name. He was later promoted to a high-ranking position in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and served as a managing director at various enterprises. Bykov's mother also changed her name from Ella Matusovna to Olga Matveevna at one point. While Bykov regularly referred to her and her relatives as «Ukrainians», she was in fact a daughter of a prosperous Jewish NEPman. She wanted to become an actress and finished two courses of a theater institute, but was expelled for truancy.