 Samoilov worked with Meyerhold for four years.He got his most substantial roles in Meyerhold's theatre playing Hernani in Hugo's drama and Chatsky in "Woe from Wit".When Meyerhold was arrested and purged in 1938, Samoilov was in the middle of rehearsing for Pushkin's "Boris Godunov" (the role of Grigory Otrepyev) and Ostrovsky's "How the Steel Was Tempered" (the role of Pavka Korchagin).