2-548-209 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

Russian theatre directo Vsevolod Meyerhold and his wife, actress Zinaida Raikh, early 1920s. Meyerhold (1874-1930) established his own theatre in Moscow in 1922. He was initially an enthusiastic supporter of the new Soviet Theatre after the Revolution, but became an opponent of Socialist Realism and fell foul of the crackdown on avant-garde art imposed by Stalin's regime in the 1930s. His theatre was closed in 1938 and the following year he was arrested, tortured and forced to sign a confession stating he had worked for the British and Japanese intelligence agencies. He was executed in 1940. Zinaida Raikh was murdered in their Moscow apartment by NKVD agents a onth after Meyerhold's arrest. Found in the collection of The State Central A Bakhrushin Theatre Museum, Moscow.