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Nikolai Petrovich Batalov was born on December 6, 1899, in Moscow, Russia, into the family of a clerk. From 1910-1915 he studied at the Moscow Mercantile School named after the Czar Aleksander III. His interest in theatre and literature was supported by his grandmother, who encouraged his voracious reading. In 1916, he started his acting career at the Moscow Art Theatre under Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. At the same time he worked at the MKhAT-2, where his partner and artistic director was Michael Chekhov. Nikolai Batalov's first stage work was the role of 'Petia-the bookbinder' in the play 'Zelenoe Koltso' (The Green Ring 1916) by Zinaida Gippius. His best remembered stage work was the title role in the Moscow Art Theatre's classic production 'Zhenitba Figaro', where Susanna was brilliantly played by his wife Olga Androvskaya.

He made his film debut in silent film as Gusev in Aelita, the Queen of Mars (1924) directed by Yakov Protazanov, then as Pavel Vlasov in Mother (1926) directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin, an adaptation of the eponymous book by Maxim Gorky. His leading role in the notable silent film-comedy 'Tretya meshchanskaya' (1927) by writer-director Abram Room had a significant critical and public success. At that time Batalov suffered from the onset of progressive form of tuberculosis, which interrupted his stage career, but he still worked in film. His best known film role was Nikolai Sergeiev in Road to Life (1931) directed by the Latvian writer/director Nikolai Ekk, who won the Most Convincing Director Award at the Venice Film Festival (1932). The film was produced under the leadership of Osip Brik, who introduced Nikolay Batalov to the prototype of his film character, the head of the real Russian juvenile correction colony Pogrebinsky. After this role Nikolay Batalov was awarded and received the title of the Honorable Actor of Russia in 1933.

Nikolai Batlov was suffering from the progressive form of tuberculosis. The disease limited his mobility and affected his acting career in the mid 1930s. He was undergoing the best treatment available then; he was sent to convalesce at the Russian Black Sea resort for patients with tuberculosis, but doctors still recommended that he should be treated in Europe, where tuberculosis was treated with better results. The rigid Soviet system did not allow Batalov to go abroad for the foreign medical help. He died on November 19, 1937, in Moscow.

Batalov was married to actress Olga Androvskaya (nee Schulz). She was the leading actress of the Moscow Art Theatre and also a stage partner of Batalov, and a distinguished film actress. They had a daughter, Svetlana Nikolaevna Batalova, who also became an actress of the Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT).