Vasilii Sergeevich Iaremenko

Born Oct. 20 (Nov. 1), 1895, in the village of Rogintsy, in what is now Romny Raion, Sumy Oblast. Soviet Ukrainian actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1954). Member of the CPSU since 1940.

Iaremenko graduated from the theater studio in Romny in 1921. In 1922 he began performing at the Zan’kovetskaia Ukrainian Drama Theater (now in L’vov); he was one of the theater’s founders. Among his best roles have been Nazar in Shevchenko’s Nazar Stodolia, Shel’menko in Kvitka-Osnov’ianenko’s Shel’menko, the Orderly, Ivan in Karpenko-Karyi’s The Ill-Fated One, the Mayor and Taras in Gogol’s The Inspector-General and Taras Bulba, respectively, and lago in Shakespeare’s Othello.

Iaremenko received the State Prize of the USSR in 1950 and has been awarded the Order of the October Revolution, three other orders, and various medals.