Who he was
The man who held the light on the Baku stage for thirty-three years.
Alexander Yakovlevich Sharovsky (10 February 1948, Baku — 9 September 2026, Baku) was an Azerbaijani theatre director and actor, People's Artist of Azerbaijan. From March 1993 until February 2026 he served as chief director of the Azerbaijan State Academic Russian Drama Theatre named after Samad Vurgun.
In half a century at the theatre he created more than fifty roles on stage, appeared in four films and staged 54 productions — from Molière and Shakespeare to contemporary Azerbaijani playwrights. Elchin and Rustam Ibragimbekov, Grigori Gorin and Somerset Maugham lived side by side on his playbill.
He was not only a director. Alexander Sharovsky headed the Baku religious community of European Jews, sat on the board of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and on the Board of Trustees of the Baku International Centre of Multiculturalism.
He was a man of one theatre: he joined it as an actor in 1976 and never left it for exactly fifty years. The theatre on Khagani Street became his home, his office, his biography and his address.
He died on 9 September 2026, in his seventy-ninth year. First Vice-President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva offered her condolences to the family; the country's Ministry of Culture published an obituary that opened with the words: “Azerbaijani culture has suffered a heavy loss.”
In brief
A life in four numbers
Timeline
From a Baku courtyard to the main stage
Nine points that show the whole biography: a football pitch, the Youth Theatre, the Russian Drama — and thirty-three years at the head of the company.
Baku, 1948Life
Football, the Youth Theatre and an accident that became a destiny
He could have become a footballer: the Azerbaijani national squad, Dinamo, Lokomotiv. Injury and illness closed that door — and opened another. In 1967 the eighteen-year-old Sharovsky found himself at the Theatre for Young Spectators.
A few years later all of Baku knew his D'Artagnan; decades later, his productions. “It all began with love,” he said about coming to the theatre.
1993 — 2026Theatre
Thirty-three years at the head of the Russian Drama
In March 1993 he took over the theatre at the hardest moment of its history: an emptying auditorium, an audience leaving the country, broken ties. He did not change the nature of the theatre — he brought the public back to it.
54 productions, half a century in one building at 7 Khagani Street — and a repertoire where the classics and contemporary Azerbaijani drama stand side by side.
Jewish BakuCommunity
Head of the Baku religious community of European Jews
For many years Alexander Sharovsky headed the Baku religious community of European (Ashkenazi) Jews, sat on the board of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and on the Board of Trustees of the Baku International Centre of Multiculturalism.
His biography is an almost literal illustration of what Azerbaijan takes pride in: a Jew at the head of a Russian theatre in a Muslim country — and no one found it surprising.
“I came to the theatre in search of happiness, and I am happy.”
Alexander Sharovsky
1987 — 2026Recognition
People's Artist, two orders and the Pushkin Medal
Honoured Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR, People's Artist of Azerbaijan (1998), holder of the orders Shohrat (2008) and Sharaf (2018), and of the Honorary Diploma of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (2023).
Russia honoured him with the Pushkin Medal (2013) and the Order of Friendship (2021) — for preserving the traditions of Russian theatre in Azerbaijan.
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