Stanislavsky’s theater, Bogomolov’s rules: Why a new director’s arrival sparked a revolt at Moscow’s top acting school

Graduates and students of the prestigious Moscow Art Theater School (MXAT) are challenging the Russian Culture Ministry’s choice for acting rector, sparking demands from the community for an open election to choose a permanent leader. On January 23, just nine days after the death of longtime rector Igor Zolotovitsky, Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova appointed stage director Konstantin Bogomolov to step into the role. Bogomolov’s critics want someone else in the position, arguing that the school — the historic educational arm of the theater founded by the legendary Konstantin Stanislavsky — should be in the hands of someone who actually graduated from the institution. Meduza breaks down the controversy and examines how Bogomolov has landed one high-profile job after another.

Sources close to Russia’s parliament told Meduza that Bogomolov owes his rapid ascent in Moscow’s theater administration largely to “influential friends” of the director and his wife, socialite Ksenia Sobchak — figures among the St. Petersburg elite with direct access to Vladimir Putin. While Bogomolov was a leading director in the 2010s, he held no leadership roles at state institutions until he traded opposition politics for regime loyalty around 2018. Since then, he has been appointed to lead two major Moscow theaters and was recently named a “Merited Arts Worker of the Russian Federation.” In the eyes of the Kremlin, Meduza’s sources say, he has successfully rebranded himself as a “young, talented, and patriotic director.”

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Bogomolov’s appointment as MXAT’s acting rector has sparked a fierce backlash from across the political spectrum. The anonymously drafted protest letter circulated online has won the support of both anti-war exiles, like actress Varvara Shmykova, and vocal supporters of the invasion of Ukraine, such as actor Anton Shagin, who organizes fundraisers for the Russian military. While Bogomolov himself has publicly supported the war, calling it “our generation’s good luck,” the campaign against him is based on theater tradition, not views about the war. Critics argue that MXAT’s rector must uphold the “ethical principles” of the school’s founders, stressing that Bogomolov graduated from the Russian Institute of Theater Arts (GITIS), a rival institute.

For many critics, Bogomolov’s appointment came too soon after Igor Zolotovitsky’s death, compounding the insensitivity of hiring an outsider. Actor Andrey Burkovsky, a former student of the late rector, criticized the Culture Ministry for installing a new leader before the traditional 40 days of mourning had passed. While supporters like actress Sofya Ernst (the wife of influential television executive Konstantin Ernst) have praised Bogomolov’s “managerial efficiency,” the appointment remains a point of contention for the school’s community.

In interviews with the media, Bogomolov has dismissed these concerns as “naive and sometimes just stupid,” insisting that he is deeply committed to the Stanislavsky system and its “Russian psychological theater.” Ironically, Bogomolov used to mock this term, though he has indeed worked in this tradition. Today, as MXAT’s acting rector, Bogomolov champions the preservation of this system, claiming that his own teachers belonged to the same lineage.