Natalia Mikhailovna Uzhvii

Born Aug. 27 (Sept. 8), 1898, in Liuboml’. Ukrainian Soviet actress. People’s Artist of the USSR (1944). Hero of Socialist Labor (1973). Member of the CPSU since 1945.

Uzhvii first appeared in amateur performances in 1918. In 1922 she began performing with the T. G. Shevchenko First State Dramatic Theater of the Ukrainian SSR in Kiev. She performed in the Derzhdrama Theater (now the October Revolution Odessa Theater) in 1925, and in 1926 she joined the Berezil’ Theater in Kharkov. In 1936 she joined the I. Ia. Franko Ukrainian Dramatic Theater in Kiev.

With great insight and realism, Uzhvii conveyed the innermost feelings of her heroines. Her stage characterizations were marked by an inspired poetic quality and were permeated with profound emotions and thoughts. Among her best roles were Anna in Franko’s Stolen Happiness, Kruchinina and Tugina in Ostrovskii’s Guilty Though Guiltless and The Ultimate Sacrifice, Ranevskaia in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, Beatrice in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, the title role in Trenev’s Liubov’ Iarovaia, Oksana and Natal’ia Kovshik in Korneichuk’s The Destruction of the Squadron and The Snowball Grove and Tankabik in Karim’s On the Night of the Lunar Eclipse. She began appearing in films in 1926; her film roles included Evdokiia in The Vyborg Side (1939) and Olena Kostiuk in The Rainbow (1944).

Uzhvii became chairman of the Ukrainian Theatrical Society in 1954. She received the State Prize of the USSR in 1946,1949, and 1951. She has been awarded four Orders of Lenin, four other orders, and various medals.