Yanshin was born in the city of
Yukhnov, located in the present-day
Kaluga Oblast. As a young man he worked as a carpenter. In 1919 he volunteered for the
Red Army. Following the
Russian Civil War, he enrolled at the school of the
Moscow Art Theatre, where his classmates included
Mikhail Kedrov and
Boris Livanov. He joined the theatre's company in 1924 and remained a member of the institution until his death. Yanshin's first notable roles at the Art Theatre were as Dobchinsky in
Gogol's
The Government Inspector and as the footman Petrushka in
Griboyedov's
Woe from Wit. He came to greater attention in the role of Lariosik in
Bulgakov's
Days of the Turbins, and thereafter began to receive work in other theaters. From 1934 to 1939 he was artistic director of the Moscow Theatre of the Forest Industry; from 1937 to 1941 he directed the
Romen Theatre; and from 1950 to 1963 he was chief director of the
Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre. In 1963 Yanshin was criticized by the Soviet ministry of culture, which disapproved of his staging contemporary, non-traditional plays; he resigned and returned to the Moscow Art Theatre, where he was instrumental in the hiring of the director
Oleg Yefremov. In addition to his theatrical work, Yanshin appeared in many films. He was a frequent
voice actor for
Soyuzmultfilm cartoons, and often collaborated with the animators
Zinaida and
Valentina Brumberg. In addition to working as a voice actor, he also wrote the script of the Brumbergs' 1951 film
The Night Before Christmas. Yanshin was married three times. His first wife was Veronika Polonskaya, a fellow artist at the Moscow Art Theatre, whom he married in 1926. She is notable for having pursued an extra-marital affair with the poet
Vladimir Mayakovsky, and both she and Yanshin were present when Mayakovsky committed suicide in 1930. They divorced in 1934, and that same year Yanshin married Nadezhda Kiselyova (stage name Lyalya Chyornaya), a dancer at the Rumen Theatre. They divorced in 1942, and Kiselyova later married Yanshin's old classmate
Nikolai Khmelyov. From 1955 until his death Yanshin was married to Nonna Meyer, a performer at the Stanislavski Theatre. He died in 1976 in Moscow and was buried at
Novodevichy Cemetery. ==Theatrical roles==