MOSCOW — The Ministry of Culture abruptly removed the general director of the Bolshoi Theater on Tuesday in an apparent effort to put an end to the string of scandals there that began in January, when a masked man sneaked up to the ballet’s artistic director and threw acid in his face.

The ousted official, Anatoly Iksanov, who led the Bolshoi, Russia’s most revered theater, for 13 years, looked grim as he sat at a podium during a hastily arranged news conference. The culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky, explained the dismissal by saying of Mr. Iksanov, “Human strength and ability, even of the most superlative professionals, has its limits.”

After the acid attack in January, Mr. Iksanov was drawn into a poisonous standoff between factions at the ballet, and many observers expected him to be replaced before his contract ended in 2014. But Tuesday’s announcement was jarring for its timing — in midseason and three days before the much anticipated premiere of the ballet “Eugene Onegin,” which is based on the verse novel by Pushkin and choreographed by John Cranko to the music of Tchaikovsky.

“He feels his mission is completed, and maybe on top of this, the recent half-year was very tough for him,” Katerina Novikova, the Bolshoi’s spokeswoman, said of Mr. Iksanov. “I am sad that it is happening this way, and at this time. He did an amazing job; he should have been leaving this theater differently, not like he is leaving today. He should be leaving like a hero.”