Kusenko, Olga Iakovlevna

Born Nov. 11, 1919, in Kanev, Cherkassy Oblast. Soviet Ukrainian actress; People’s Artist of the USSR (1967). Member of the CPSU since 1953.

Kusenko graduated from the Kiev Institute of Theater Arts in 1941. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 she acted at the front in theatrical brigades. She joined the I. Ia. Franko Ukrainian Theater in 1944. Her roles include Katria (No Luck by Staritskii), Olena (The Predator, or The Spider by Kropivnit-skii), Anna (Stolen Happiness by Franko), Andromache (Cassandra by Lesia Ukrainka), Ol’ga and Vasilina (Makar Dubrava and Snowball-Tree Grove by Korneichuk), Melanka and Ingigerda (Svichka’s Wedding and Iaroslav the Wise by Kocherga), Varia (Cherry Orchard by Chekhov), Euridyce (Antigone by Sophocles), and Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare).

Kusenko was a deputy to the sixth, seventh, and eighth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. She received the State Prize of the USSR in 1951 and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and various medals.