The famous Russian film and stage actor Oleg Tabakov is celebrating his 80th birthday today.

      To celebrate the jubilee of their outstanding leader, members of the Chekhov Moscow  Art Theatre decided to get together before the official opening of the new theatrical season.

      Students, friends, colleagues, and relatives of Oleg Tabakov will greet him at the Malaya Stage. Several statesmen and well-known art figures are also expected to take part in the event.

      A multimedia retrospective exhibition arranged in the theatre lobby will tell the visitors about his fruitful creative life. Besides, all comers will get an opportunity to purchase a new biographic book, which unfolds the role Oleg Tabakov has played in the history of Russian cinema and theatre. The book was written by 50 students, friends and colleagues of the great actor.

      A representative of the MFA of Russia emphasized that the character of Oleg Tabakov is the essence of what is generally implied about the Russian soul: generous, open, sincere and charismatic.

      "Everybody loves him! Oleg  Tabakov is literally possessed with the mania of creating. He is the person creating life itself", - the film and stage director Kirill Serebrennikov said.