Ivan Vsevolozhsky

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Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky (Russian: Иван Александрович Всеволожский; 1835–1909) was the Director of the Imperial Theatres in Russia from 1881 to 1898 and director of the Hermitage from 1899 to his death in 1909.

Vsevolozhsky ran the Imperial Theatres with a determination for excellence. In 1886, Vsevolozhsky initiated two major reforms for the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, namely the relocation of the Imperial Ballet and Opera from the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre (deemed unsafe by 1886) to the Mariinsky Theatre, and the abolition of the post of First Imperial Ballet Composer, a post previously held by such composers as Léon Minkus and Cesare Pugni. Alexandre Benois and Roland John Wiley credit him with the revival of ballet as a serious art form in Russia.^[1]