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He was born in Kursk on May 7, 1811, and worked in the Kursk Theatre from 1826 to 1832.
He started his career as an extra, an actor with a non-speaking part, in the troupe headed by Ivan Stein. On February 5, 1826, he made his professional debut playing the role of Roman in Fedorov's vaudeville «Peculiar Encounters, or Bustle on Masquerade».
The troupe toured different cities. Once, playing in Kharkov, Rybakov was noticed by the great tragic actor Pavel Mochalov, who came there on a tour and appreciated the young actor's talent. After working in Kharkov for more than 10 years, Rybakov began the life of a traveling actor.
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He repeatedly visited Kazan, Saratov, Orel, Voronezh, Tula, Odessa, Taganrog, Nikolaev, Zhytomyr, Kishinev and other cities and enjoyed great success with the public everywhere.
In 1852, Rybakov made his debut on the stage of the Imperial Maly Theatre in Moscow, and in 1854 he played Hamlet at the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. Basically, the actor played in provincial theatres and was an outstanding tragic actor.
In 1862, at the age of 50, he played Hamlet again in the Saratov theatre. According to the memoirs of the actor Leo Samsonov, «Everyone in the theatre was cryed».
In May 1876, Nikolay Rybakov celebrated his 65 birthday and 50 years of his service to the Russian stage. During the celebration a close friend of his and the famous playwright Alexander Ostrovki said:
Glorious and worthy of honors is not the one who achieved them, but the one who deserves them... Your half-century of selfless service to the Russian theatre will be preserved in the grateful memory of your descendants forever.
Nikolai Rybakov died on November 15, 1876, in Tambov. He was buried there at the Assumption Cemetery there.
The Theatre Square mini park, located near the place where the Winter Theatre used to be in Tambov, has a foundation stone with the name of Nikolai Rybakov.
Since 2007, the city of Tambov has hosted the Russian National Theatre Festival named after Nikolai Rybakov.
«Nikolay Rybakov symbolizes the whole era of the Russian Theatre covering the middle of the last century (speaking about the 19th century). He is a man of great talent and abilities who knew nothing about the theatrical school but created it»
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