Liubov Mlotkovskaia

(maiden name, Kolosova; first married name, Ostriakova). Born in 1804 or 1805 in Kursk; died Oct. 19 (31), 1866, in Kiev. Russian and Ukrainian actress.

After making her debut about 1823, Mlotkovskaia performed in theaters belonging to the wellknown Russian impresarios P. A. Sokolov (Voronezh), I. F. Shtein (Kursk), and L. Iu. Mlotkovskii (Kiev, Kharkov), her second husband. Mlotkovskaia’s talent developed under the influence of her many years of work with the actors N. Kh. Rybakov and K. T. Solenik and her participation in the touring productions of P. S. Mochalov and M. S. Shchepkin. Her best tragic roles were Louisa in Schiller’s Kabale und Liebe and Cordelia and Ophelia in Shakespeare’s King Lear and Hamlet, in which her acting was intensely emotional yet natural. She brought humor, warmth, and vitality to her portrayals of young peasant girls in Ukrainian comedies, including the roles of Natalka in Kotliarevskii’s Natalka Poltavka and Nastia and Ul’iana in Kvitka-Osnov’ianen-ko’s The Virago Wife and Matchmaking in Goncharovka (she was the first to perform both roles). From 1850 to 1866 she worked in Odessa and Kiev. Together with Rybakov and Solenik, Mlotkovskaia established the Shchepkin and Mochalov styles of acting on the provincial stage.