The son of Avram Anikst and Olga Anikst from Bessarabia. Doctor of Arts (1963), Honorary Doctor of Literature from the University of Birmingham (1974). Graduated from the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute (1933). At the beginning of the war, he joined the Moscow militia and was on the fronts for 4 years. He took up literary studies, wrote "History of English Literature" (Moscow, 1956), which for a long time served as the main textbook on this discipline for students throughout the coun- try. Shakespeare's theme took center stage in his research. Having become the most prominent Russian Shakespeare scholar after the pub- lication of his works in the 1960s and the authoritative commented edition of the complete works of W. Shakespeare in 8 volumes, Anikst realized the need to unite the efforts of Shakespeare scholars in our country. In 1975, he initiated the creation and chairman of the Shakespeare Commission at the Scientific Council "History of World Literature" ofthe Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He began to conduct Shakespeare Readings, in which large domestic Shakespearean scholars and scientific youth took part, based on the results of the readings, he began to publish collections of scientific articles"Shakespeare Readings", acting as the editor-in-chief of this publication. The Shakespeare Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences continues to honor Anikst as its founder.