Tomberg, Elizaveta Stepanovna

Born Jan. 15, (28), 1909, in the village of Voiskorovo, in what is now Tosno Raion, Leningrad Oblast. Soviet Karelian actress. People’s Artist of the USSR (1959).

Tomberg made her stage debut in 1932 at the Finnish Dramatic Theater in Leningrad. In 1940 she joined the Finnish Dramatic Theater company in Petrozavodsk. Her best-known roles include Gurmyzhskaia in Ostrovskii’s The Forest; Ranevskaia in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard; Vassa Zheleznova, Melan’ia, and Varvara in Gorky’s Vassa Zheleznova and Egor Bulychov and the Others; El’sa in an adaptation of Grin’s Wind From the South; Malanja in Timonen’s Will You Take Me, Karelian Land?; Maija in Pakkala’s On the Logging River; and Fru Bon in Andersen Nex0’s The People From Dangor. Tomberg is noted for her commanding stage presence and wide range of roles.

Tomberg served as a deputy to the sixth convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. She received the State Prize of the USSR in 1950 and the K. S. Stanislavsky State Prize of the RSFSR in 1972. Tomberg has been awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor and various medals.