Lidiia Ilinichna Stepanova

Born Jan. 10 (22), 1899, in Moscow; died there Nov. 13, 1962. Soviet director of documentary films.

Stepanova began her film-making career in 1925. Her numerous films, which depict some of the most important events in Soviet history, include The Word of a Bolshevik (1932), And NowWe Have a Good Subway (1932), The Soviet Woman (1937), Youth Defends the Homeland (1942), The Battle of Orel (1944), Moscow, Capital of the USSR (1948), and Soviet Kazakhstan (1951). In 1953, Stepanova became a film director for the Mosnauchfil’m Studio (now the Tsentrnauchfil’m Studio). A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR in 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, and 1952, she was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor and various medals.