Vera Michurina-Samoilova

Vera Arkadevna Michurina-Samoilova (Russian: Вера Аркадьевна Мичурина-Самойлова; 1866–1948) was a Russian and Soviet actress of Saint Petersburg / Leningrad. She was a People's Artist of the USSR.

Michurina-Samoilova was born 16 May [O.S. 5 May] 1866 in Saint Petersburg, into the Samoilov theatre family.[1]

Michurina-Samoilova debuted on stage in 1886. She often appeared at the Alexandrinsky Theatre. Among her notable roles were Reneve in Light Without Heat (by Alexander Ostrovsky and Nikolai Solovyov), Natalia Petrovna in Turgenev's A Month in the Country, Ranevskaia in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, and Lady Milford in Schiller's Intrigue and Love.[1]

The 1917 October Revolution and the establishment of the Soviet state occurred when Michurina-Samoilova was just over 50. Her notable roles in Soviet Russia included Zvezdintseva in Tolstoy's The Fruits of Enlightenment, Khlestova in Griboyedov's Woe From Wit, Polina Bardina in Gorky's Enemies, and Gurmyzhskaia in Ostrovsky's The Forest.[1]

During the Siege of Leningrad, Michurina-Samoilova remained in the city; she was 75 by then and her health did not permit her to be evacuated. During the siege she participated in the cultural resistance, performing in the readings and plays of the Microphone Theatre. She published a memoir, Sixty Years in the Arts in 1949, including her description of the siege.[1][2]

Michurina-Samoilova died in Leningrad on 2 November 1948.[1]

Awards

Michurina-Samoilova was made a People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1939, was awarded the USSR State Prize in 1943, and was awarded the Order of Lenin.[1]

She is memorialized by a plaque at 2 Rossi Street, where she lived and worked, and where she died.

References
  1. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979), cited at "Vera Arkadevna Michurina-Samoilova". The Free Dictionary. Retrieved April 19, 2017.
  2. Simmons, Cynthia; Perlina, Nina (2002). Writing the Siege of Leningrad: Womens Diaries, Memoirs, and Documentary Prose. Pitt Series in Russian and East European Studies. University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 274. ISBN 978-0822958697. Retrieved April 19, 2017.
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