Elena Nikolaevna Gogoleva

Born Mar. 25 (Apr. 7), 1900, in Moscow. Soviet Russian actress. People’s Artist of the USSR (1949). Member of the CPSU since 1948.

In 1918, Gogoleva was accepted into the troupe of the Malyi Theater from the second course of the dramatic division of the Music-Drama School of the Moscow Philharmonic Society. Gogoleva is an actress of heroic stature who creates images of strong, willful, energetic women. She is particularly attuned to the portrayal of dramatic and tragic characters. Her roles include Sofia (in Griboedov’s Woe From Wit), Princess Eboli and Lady Milford (in Schiller’s Don Carlos and Cabal and Love), Judith (in Gutzkow’s Uriel Acosta), Nadezhda Monakhova (in Gorky’s Barbarians) and Lady Macbeth (in Shakespeare’s Macbeth). Gogoleva’s portrayals of Panova (in Trenev’s Liubov Iarovaia), the Countess Marlborough (in Scribe’s The Glass of Water), and Mrs. Crawley (in Vanity Fair, after Thackeray’s novel) were marked by satirical exposé. Soviet dramaturgy occupies a great place in the actress’ work; her principal roles were Gorelova (in To Those at Sea! by Lavrenev), Polozova (in A Moscow Character by Sofronov), and the Abbess Melan’ia (in Dostigaev and Others by Gorky). She has acted in films (Gobsek and You Can’t Forget About That). Gogoleva received the State Prize of the USSR (1947, 1948, 1949), the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.