He rose to fame with the title role in the classic film Chapaev (1934) and later, in the 1950s, he played a sharp anti-communist character on stage in Moscow, for which he was censored by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

His mother, a school teacher, was fond of Russian classical literature, and young Babochkin was brought up in an intellectually stimulating environment.

At age 14 Boris joined the Red Army and served for one year in the same front on Volga and the Urals with the legendary commander Chapayev, whom he would later portray, although they never met.

In 1920 Babochkin entered a local drama school in Saratov, but he soon dropped out and moved to Moscow to pursue an acting career.

In 1921, he left Chekhov's school to join "Molodye Mastera" studio, under Illarion Pevtsov [ru], a well-connected figure in Soviet film and theatre.

In the following six years he played seasonal gigs on stage with various troupes in Moscow and Saratov, then in Samarkand and Bishkek in Central Asia, and then in Voronezh, Mogilev in Belarus, and Berdichev in Ukraine.

In Shadows Babochkin played one of his best roles ever — Klaverov, a corrupt career politician, resembling a typical Soviet bureaucrat.

[3] Furtseva personally ordered that all film studios and drama companies of the USSR should refuse him any jobs, keeping him practically unemployed for three years until he was finally forced to apologize to the Communist Party.

[3] Official Soviet censorship, which was under the control of Furtseva, spared no effort in taming the famous actor and manipulating his star power.

Boris Babochkin died of a heart attack while driving his Volga on 17 July 1975, in Moscow, and was interred in Novodevichy Cemetery.